Drawing a Veil

In getting himself made a United nations envoy our former unelected Prime Minister has  obtained an enviable  level  of immunity from just about everything: self, wife, laissez- passer, papers,  records, communications, use of codes,  possessions of all and every kind, tax privileges,  you think of it - he's obtained it.  Now and for ever after; none of this falls away when ceasing to act, for whatever reason, for the UN.

Of course it's supposed to apply to whatever 'international work' (his term for traipsing about from freebie to freebie in holiday locations with others of his ilk) he's managed to finagle this for - education, the BBC says, always one for photos down with the school kids, our Gordon - but in truth it applies all the time.  Handy, that, when the financial shenanigans and regulatory fiascoes from 1997-2010 currently  under investigation and practised on his watch as Chancellor and Prime Minister are unfolding.

Of course Dominique Strauss-Kahn failed in his attempt to assert his immunities but only because the appropriate body refused to assert itself on his behalf.  As long as the UN Secretary General doesn't  actively lift immunity, for Gordon it's there for good.