From the Lodon Observer
(Sunday supplement of the Guardian
Unlimited)
Dated Sunday August 15
Blair`s Italian fiasco
The Prime Minister's friendship with Berlusconi shows how invulnerable he thinks he is
By Nick Cohen
Like its owner, the Villa Certosa on Sardinia's Emerald Coast is extravagant, phoney and probably illegal. If they have the eyes to see it, the Blairs will catch the wretched state of Italy in microcosm when they begin their free holiday at Silvio Berlusconi's retreat tomorrow. If they are truly prescient, they will also glimpse their own political mortality hovering in the heat haze.
Berlusconi has laid on everything the dedicated freebie-taker could desire. Should the Blairs want a swim, there is an embarrassment of pools to choose from: six in all, and an artificial lake. Gardeners have been busily planting citrus and olive groves and a collection of 2,000 species of cacti for guests to enjoy. Workmen have just finished a fake ancient Greek theatre from whose marble seats the Blairs will hear Pavarotti sing. After the swims and the walks and the appreciation of the trills of the tenor, they can prepare for bed in the villa's bathrooms. According to the local newspaper, the windows are large so the visitor can enjoy the magnificent views, but 'with a simple release of a switch' the glass is tinted 'in order to guarantee the privacy principle'.
Just so. Privacy is indeed essential for a man who is worth about four billion euros. I say 'about', but no one can be sure, not least the Italian tax authorities.
Berlusconi has made honest Italians despair of their country. After the great effort of the early 1990s to sweep the Mafia and the corruption out of Italy, a battle which cost brave magistrates their lives, he has proved with two election victories that the Italians aren't as keen on clean politics as they claimed.
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