KEY POINTS:
Tony Blair fell back to earth last week. His payment for giving the annual speech at the South Shields Customs House was fish and chips and a generous helping of mushy peas.
The reward was a far cry from the lucrative returns the former Prime Minister is beginning
to garner.
The reported 237,000 pounds ($642,000) for a 20-minute speech before an audience of Chinese entrepreneurs in Guangdong province a week before was only the latest in a series of fruitful additions to the Blair bank balance.
Five months after leaving office, he is providing for a lavish new life for himself and his family. And, while his salary as Prime Minister was 186,429 pounds a year, it now takes him just two high-profile speeches to earn the same amount.
Experts predict that Blair could easily rake in 3 million pounds by devoting barely 50 nights a year to dispensing his wisdom to wealthy audiences of businesspeople around the world.
This before he gets around to his long-awaited memoirs, for which he is being paid at least 4.5 million pounds.
It is barely two months since the outgoing leader signed up with the Washington Speakers Bureau, but he has already criss-crossed North America for a series of speaking engagements.
Blair is aware of the need to capitalise on his marketability before he becomes an old story.
While WSB can claim exclusive rights to a host of global figures, including former US secretaries of state Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright, and ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, Blair's is the first face to appear on the bureau's website.
Potential customers wondering about the price on his head are advised "Fee Code: Contact WSB", but industry insiders expect him to command at least 75,000 pounds a time.
Blair is the most attractive speaker to hit the circuit since former US president Bill Clinton.
His passage to China was littered with high-profile engagements, starting with charity appearances in aid of the Clinton Global Initiative conference and a Catholic fundraiser, both in New York.
The money began to roll in with speeches in California and Calgary, where tickets for his speech on "building global relations" started at 180 pounds.
Three days earlier, Blair spoke to an audience of 14,000 at the Women's Conference on Leadership in Long Beach, an event organised by Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver.
The sports foundation is an early element of the masterplan, with the faith foundation to come.
Former aide Ruth Turner has been recruited as a fundraiser, and Blair is believed to harbour hopes of increasing his staff beyond 20.
Blair's work as Middle East envoy is costing British taxpayers £400,000 a year. The full cost of his Middle East operation, shared between the United Nations, the EU, the United States and Russia, is some 2 million pounds.
His current incomings - a 64,000-pound prime ministerial pension and 90,500 pounds to run his office - could not support a bloated workforce in his private affairs.
The envoy role, along with the job chairing the World Economic Forum at Davos, are unpaid.
Moreover, Blair now has at least five homes to support: adjoining properties in Connaught Square, London; two flats in Bristol; and the former constituency home in Trimdon.
- Independent