where is blair's lair?

No wonder fairhaired boy doesn't listen to the public, he has another 
constituency with deeper pockets, people like
www.red-star-research.org.uk/levy.html

Lord Michael Levy

Lord Levy is one of the most important fundraisers for the Labour Party and 
Tony Blair's unofficial envoy to the Middle East. He met Blair at a dinner 
party in 1994 held by Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli diplomat, and became 
his tennis partner. Levy was in charge of donations to the 'private trust' 
which funded Tony Blair's office before the 1997 election (which reached L7 
million), and is now the chief fundraiser for the 'high value' donors 
account at the Labour Party, along with his deputy Amanda Delew (who worked 
with him at Jewish Care). He is reported to have raised L12 million for the 
'high value' fund before the 1997 election, becoming known as 'Mr 
Cashpoint'. Straight after the election he was given a peerage. He used to 
work with Dr Henry Drucker, whose company Oxford Philanthropic was brought 
in by the Labour Party to advise on gaining large corporate donations, but 
they fell out over Drucker's description of Labour's 'blind trust' funds as 
'evil' (the trusts have since all been closed down). At one meeting with 
Levy in his Totteridge mansion, Levy apologised to Drucker for not offering 
him a cup of coffee, but explained 'You'll have to do without as none of 
the servants are about and I don't know how to work the machine myself.'

He set up Magnet Records in 1972 with help from Maurice Oberstein, Head of 
CBS Records, and made millions from artists like Alvin Stardust, Chris Rea, 
Dollar, Darts and Bad Manners, at one point was selling 8% of all records 
in the UK. Some former employees of Magnet have complained that he was a 
tyrant who shouted at staff and threw ashtrays around. He sold Magnet to 
Warner Brothers in 1988 for L10 million and later set up another record 
company called M&G (named after himself and his wife Gilda), where he paid 
himself a salary of L308,657. He sold M&G in 1997.

Although a multi-millionaire, he only paid L5,000 in tax in 1998-9 and less 
than L10,000 in 1997-8 as he said he wasn't working. He runs a private 
company called Wireart, an investment company which was based in an oversea 
tax haven until 1997. Wireart paid him L160,000 (plus L50,000 expenses) for 
work as a management consultant in 1998-9 at the time he wasn't working. 
Since 1992 he has been Chairman of Jewish Care, one of the UK's biggest 
charities (he was asked to join by the Tory minister Lord Young), raising 
as much as L60 million.


Lord Levy's multi-million pound home, Chase House in Totteridge

Levy's second home in Tel Aviv, Israel

Chase House, Levy's home in Totteridge (north London), has 5 large 
bedrooms, 3 sitting rooms, tennis court, swimming pool, a games room, palm 
trees, a large garage for his chauffeur-driven Jaguar and Bentley and a 
seperate annexe for his servants. He spent L1.3 million refurbishing the 
house after he bought it in 1997 for L1.3 (his previous house was sold for 
L3.4 million). The rooms are lined with marble, granite and limestone.

He also owns a villa in Herzliya Pituah, an exclusive suburb of Tel Aviv in 
Israel, which he bought after selling another villa nearby for L4 million. 
He has acted as a fundraiser for Ehud Barak, the Israeli Prime Minister, 
and maintains a close relationship with him. His son Daniel worked for the 
Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, to whom Levy contributed campaign 
funds. Both his children live in Israel.

His role as unofficial envoy for the Middle East took him to 8 different 
countries in 1999, staying in British Embassies, including Syria, Jordan, 
Oman, Qatar, Israel, Egypt and Lebanon (where he was accused by the 
Lebanese Government of bringing them the Israeli position and the British 
Ambassador had to issue a statement to try and calm the situation down). He 
was also provided with cars, drivers and staff support. The Embassy in 
Amman, Jordan, arranged a lunch for him to meet Jordanian politicians.


Levy with Cherie Blair and Chris Smith