Euan Blair

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Euan Anthony Blair (born January 19, 1984, London), is the eldest son of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

1 Education
2 Controversial scholarship
3 Media coverage
4 References
5 External link

[edit] Education

He was educated at The London Oratory School, a prestigious Roman Catholic comprehensive school in Fulham with a very wide catchment area.

He graduated with a B.A. in Ancient History from the University of Bristol in 2005, having attained a 2:1 (upper second class) honours degree.

Blair spent three months as an unpaid intern with Republican David Dreier and Republican Party staff of the Rules Committee of the United States House of Representatives ^[1]. He then crossed the aisle to spend time working in the office of Democrat Jane Harman (a "Blue Dog" Democrat). Blair cut short his internship with Harman in May 2006, after just a fortnight. A statement from Harman's office cited Blair's graduate school plans.

Euan Blair has also reportedly found work experience with the London PR company Finsbury [2].

[edit] Controversial scholarship

The Mail on Sunday has announced that Blair will study a two year masters degree in International Relations at Yale University. Controversially, he will be studying on a full scholarship (worth $92000 over two years) despite his relatively modest academic record. Nepotism and a quid pro quo have been suggested. Respect MP George Galloway said "This is part of the supposed special relationship between Great Britain and the United States. We send our troops in support of [American] troops into Iraq to be killed, and Euan Blair gets special entry into Yale."

[edit] Media coverage

Because of his father's position, Euan Blair has been subject to the attention of the British media. This is partly due to coverage of stories which have broken, but it is also due to his appearance with his parents in photo shoots (together with siblings Nicky, Kathryn, and Leo), especially during general election campaigns.

The incident for which Euan Blair was first attracted significant attention in his own right was in 2000, when, aged 16, he was found by Police, collapsed and incapable in Leicester Square, having spent the night celebrating his completion of his GCSEs with friends. After being taken to a police station, he gave the police a false name, an old address, and a false date of birth that would have made him 18 (the legal age to purchase alcohol). The leaking of this to the press caused considerable embarrassment to Tony Blair, who had recently introduced measures to deal with young offenders. Regarding a potential prosecution, he told the BBC's Question Time that his son should not receive special preferences. In the end, Euan apologised for the incident, and was neither prosecuted, nor formally cautioned. Subsequently, the term "Euan Blair" has been satirically suggested by some as rhyming slang for "Leicester Square".

In 2001, The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph both revealed that Euan was applying to Trinity College, Oxford. His parents made a formal complaint to the Press Complaints Commission that these reports represented an intrusion into his schooling, and their complaint was upheld. (Blair failed to meet the specified A-level grades that were part of the conditional offer, so he took the place at Bristol instead, where he graduated with an upper second degree in Ancient History.)

Also in 2001, the BBC reported that Euan and another teenage friend fought off a gang of eight to ten youths who were demanding property from them. The muggers left empty-handed.

In 2002, a scandal (sometimes dubbed Cheriegate) erupted over Euan's mother, Cherie Booth's use of a known fraudster to negotiate the acquisition of two flats for him and his guards to live in Bristol. In 2003, The Telegraph reported that he had driven into a taxi. Nobody was hurt, but he was reportedly walking around in shock, saying "My mum's going to kill me".

In 2005, Blair was involved in a car crash with a cyclist. The cyclist was brought to a hospital but had only minor injuries.

In 2006, it was reported in The Sunday Times that Euan Blair had worked as a runner for the film V for Vendetta when it was filmed around the Palace of Westminster in the Summer of 2005^[3]. Both Conservative MP David Davies and Private Eye suggested that Blair's involvement had had an effect of the filming access being allowed^[4]. However, the location manager for the film, Nick Daubeny, denied that Blair's involvement had helped in any way, saying that Blair had been offered the job after they had worked together as part of the filming of Band of Brothers in 2001.

On 25 August 2006, global media including the BBC and Barbados' Daily Nation reported that Euan Blair was admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, near Bridgetown, Barbados, and had undergone treatment for a stomach complaint. Unsourced press speculation surrounding the event suggested an alcohol link.