KEITH NEWBERY Teflon Tony finds his way around the tax system

It wasn’t the most profound advice I’d ever received, but it had a certain rough-hewn logic and a pleasing symmetry of thought.

I think about it every time I read about the latest high-profile ‘socialist’ to be found with their snouts deep in the trough.

John Prescott is a classic example, of course. He has been hell-bent on acquiring the fripperies of office and enjoying the finest things in life (at public expense wherever possible) since he stopped working as a ship’s steward and decided to barge his way out of Labour’s foothills and up to the summit.

There’s nothing wrong with ambition, if only he would admit to his life-long yearnings and remove the chips from both shoulders in an attempt to get his inverted snobbery under control.

But even the Baron of Hull’s greed and lust for the good life has been eclipsed by his former leader. Driven on by his wife (another mink-lined, diamond-studded, gold-leafed socialist hypocrite) Tony Blair has been filling his boots in spectacular style since moving out of Number Ten four years ago.

He’s been dashing all over the world making a fortune from public speaking and assuming the role of elder statesman to any country gullible enough to have him.

According to the latest accounts lodged at Companies House, one of Blair’s 12 firms increased its turnover to £12m (an increase of almost 50 per cent) but only £315,000 found its way to the taxman. More than £7m worth of ‘administrative expenses’ are said to have raised an informed eyebrow or two.

This was the man who said during his campaign for the Labour leadership in 1994: “We must tackle abuse of the tax system.” Apparently Teflon Tony has done nothing illegal – but are his activities morally reprehensible and egregiously hypocritical?

You bet they are.