William Blair (judge) William Blair (judge) Sir William James Lynton Blair (born 31 March 1950) is a retired British judge. He was previously a Queen's Counsel, specialising in domestic and international banking and finance law. He is the elder brother of former British prime minister Tony Blair. Blair was born in Scotland to Leo Charles Lynton Blair, a barrister and later a lecturer in law, and Hazel Corscadden. Like his brother Tony, the future Prime Minister, he was educated at the independent Choristers School in Durham and Fettes College in Edinburgh, before studying Jurisprudence (Law) at Balliol College, Oxford, graduating in 1971 with
Bush–Blair 2003 Iraq memo Bush–Blair 2003 Iraq memo The Bush–Blair 2003 Iraq memo or Manning memo is a secret memo of a two-hour meeting between American President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that took place on 31 January 2003 at the White House. It purportedly shows that at that point the Bush administration had already decided on the US invasion of Iraq. The memo was written by Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time David Manning, who participated in the meeting. It has become controversial for its content, which includes discussing ways to provoke Saddam Hussein into a confrontation,