IT’S official – the economy has started to turn the corner out of recession. A tiny step back towards normal, but some have been doing very well out of the collapsing banks and credit crunch and still are.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair – above – is being paid a reputed £200,000 for a series of four speeches about “geopolitics” to the staff of Lansdowne Partners, Europe’s fourth largest hedge fund.

Lansdowne is said to have made hundreds of millions in 2008 dealing in financial industry shares and gambling on its demise.

Mr Blair is also said to have £2m a year as an advisor to the JP Morgan Chase bank and a £500,000 consultancy fee with Zurich Financial Services. His own company, Tony Blair Associates, advises foreign countries such as Kuwait and his memoirs are expected to be worth £5m. It doesn’t seem quite right.

For many, there will still be bankruptcies, job and home losses and hard times. For most, things get worse little by little over several years. Basic costs increase as our money buys less. We can’t do anything about it, unless my wife, Sylvia, and I go out to work again – not practical at 81.

Many others will still be suffering badly. We owe it to them to make big changes from top to bottom.

George Appleby, Clifton, York