SINCE leaving Downing Street in June 2007 Tony Blair has accumulated untold wealth. Literally untold, since establishing its exact scale among a web of business enterprises centred on Mr Blair virtually defies analysis – at least outside HM Revenue and Customs, which one hopes (not with great confidence) is on top of the job.

Mr Blair’s property portfolio alone is said to be worth around £14m. A year ago it was reported that he had taken to hiring a £30m private jet for international trips, at a cost of £7,000 an hour.

A small window on how some of his money rolls in has been opened by the disclosure of a letter written by him to the president of Kazakhstan, to whom Mr Blair is a paid consultant, said to be at a cost of millions.

In 2011 Kazakhstan’s security forces opened fire on striking oil workers, killing 14 and injuring 64. There are claims that others were tortured. The following year the president, Mr Nursultan Nazarbayev, was due to give a speech at Cambridge University.

Mr Blair wrote to him advising on “the best way” to present the oil-strike bloodshed to “the western media”. He remarked: “It will also serve as a quote that can be used in the future, setting out the basic case for Kazakhstan.”

Apparently with the president’s intended speech to hand, Mr Blair suggested additions including: “I love my country. I have worked hard to help it overcome the bitter legacy of its recent history. I have been at the helm as it has dramatically made these strides in living standards, wealth and prosperity for the people…”

Largely adopted by the president, Mr Blair’s script also included: “There are issues of democracy and human rights which it is essential to address. I understand and hear what our critics say. However, I would simply say this to them: by all means make your points and I assure you we’re listening.

But give us credit for the huge change of a positive nature we have brought about...”

As a text-book example of pressing all the right buttons – more than once – this couldn’t be bettered. But if Mr Nazarbayev truly was listening to his critics he hadn’t thought it worthwhile to say so even once, let alone twice. We must trust that similar assurances sometimes given to the British people by Mr Blair as prime minister were sincere rather than a product of his unerring instinct for the best thing to say.

Seemingly, Kazakhstan’s Mr Nazarbayev is highly popular with his fellow citizens.

President since the country broke free of the Soviet Union in 1991, he gained 96 per cent of the vote at the last election. But the organisation Human Rights Watch recently reported: “Kazakhstan’s human rights record continued to deteriorate in 2013, with authorities cracking down on free speech and dissent”.

You’ve got to wonder that Mr Blair, a global standard bearer for democracy, appears content to be closely associated with the leader of such a country, especially for money.

LITTER – a worsening problem. So a black mark – a very big black mark – to car-maker Seat, whose latest advert shows a child throwing out a favourite toy on to a grass verge.