Aeolus

IT IS the kind of restaurant bill that would give all but the most wealthy of diners galloping indigestion. But it appears that if you want to have dinner with the likes of Mrs Tony Blair these days, £16,000 is the price tag.

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That is the annual sum being charged by a remarkable new venture about to be launched in Scotland, which promises a unique chance for the elite of the business world to mix it with Britain’s most powerful political names. Meet the stiff entry requirements, stump up the cash and you gain entry to regular lunches and dinners with a veritable A-list of stars, including Cherie Blair, Gordon Brown, Alastair Campbell, Michael Howard, Lord Robertson and Douglas Alexander.

Those behind the new club believe it will be the perfect opportunity for elite business-types in Edinburgh and Glasgow to glad-hand with the influential. But last night, a row over the scheme was already brewing, as politicians claimed it represented a blatant case of access being granted for cash. ^[1]

'little more than a gush of hot air'?

The first to deny any link with Aeolus was Cherie Blair, who wrote to this newspaper to say that she had no involvement with the organisation. In her letter, she said: "I have no involvement with this organisation, am not planning any involvement, nor have I ever contemplated any involvement. Indeed, I had never heard of the organisation until your story was drawn to my attention."

In addition, Chancellor Gordon Brown had no knowledge at all of the arrangement and aides categorically denied he had agreed to appear at the ultra-exclusive club. A Treasury spokesman said: "The Chancellor is not speaking at such an event. There have been no discussions about him speaking at any such event."

Other prominent figures that were listed as confirmed speakers by the events company spoke of an unsolicited letter being the only communication they had had with the firm. Last night Lord Cullen, the Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, said he was surprised to receive a message from the firm which claimed he had agreed to speak at their events. "I received a letter from Aeolus which stated that someone in my office had agreed that I would be interested in speaking and we could find no trace of any such communication. I have never been personally approached as far as I can recollect. "I made enquiries because I couldn’t understand it and my office was not able to confirm that there had been any such approach."

A spokesman for Paisley South MP Douglas Alexander vigorously denied that he had agreed to speak at the event. "Mr Alexander will not be speaking at this event and he has never agreed to speak at any such event," he said. The junior minister, a leading supporter of Gordon Brown, is understood to have written to the firm asking for his name to be withdrawn from their promotional material. ^[2]

People

• Baroness Goudie

External resources

1. ^ MURDO MACLEOD AND YAKUB QURESHI Speakers off peer's dining club menu, Scotland on Sunday, 11 July 2004.
2. ^ GUY DIXON, EDDIE BARNES and MURDO MACLEOD Dinner with Cherie? It's yours for just £16,000 Scotland on Sunday, 18 July 2004.