Saudis say jump...Blair says how high !!!

[matt66]

If you have been reading the papers you will know all about this sorry episode. Well done Saudis. You have shown how hollow and shallow this government is.

[whiffey]

(Blair-bash warning. All on board, ding ding)

[matt66]

whiffey...when Blair farts do you bottle the scent ???

[Theland]

A sorry business no doubt, but 50,000 jobs at stake meant that the Saudis had us by the .... well, they are certainly in a position to call the shots.
Blair didn't have the luxury of being a purist, just had to protect our jobs. Yes?

[Gromit]

Do you remember Labour's 'Ethical Foreign Policy'? They would be different from the Tories. They would put honesty before profit.

Alas, this is just the lastest illustration that it was all bullsh!t.

While we are on the Saudis, aren't they the ones payrolling the sunni insurgent/terrorists in the bloodbath that is Iraq. Many British dead with 'Made in the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia' on their roadside bombs.

[Theland]

Gromit - Yes, the Saudis are behind much of the misery in the world, bankrolling terrorists. But, I have to ask, to what extent is the Saudi establishment coerced into various actions, for fear that extreme radicals will topple their royal family?

[Gromit]

Theland, I wouldn't say much of the world, just the middle east. And I totally agree, they export their terrorists to maintain their undemocratic, corrupt, barbaric regime at home. The theory being that Al-qaeda won't bite the hand that feeds it.

[Theland]

Gromit - I would say much of the world - Al-Qaeda and their sympathisers in their global jihad are, well, global.

[Gromit]

Theland, Point taken, their reach is global. I vaguely remember Dubya saying something about bringing democracy to the region, maybe that is what he was whispering to Prince Bandar when the two were last seen holding hands on the Whitehouse lawn.

[suffragette]

It's a sad day when a democratially elected government colludes with corruption and bad business practice. It doesn't inspire confidence in our people, lessens our moral standing even further in the eyes of the world and does nothing to lift the oppression of the ordinary Saudi citizen. Robin Cooke will be turning in his grave.

[Dom Tuk]

This is indeed a sad day for the rule of law in this country. We have by blinking first and cowing under saudi bullying lost whatever moral authority we may have had left in the international arena. The saudis were no doubt using their own money in a corrupt fashion. A part of their royal family was using the peoples money to open a slush fund, with the aid of the British, to fund their lavish lifestyle around the world. Upto �900,000 was used in a single day. So the money that was accounted for fighter planes was in fact in a slush fund opened by the british to finance the royal family as they went mad around London. Money was siphoned into Swiss banks. It is so unbelievable that it seems like a fictional story.

We have no credibility left. Next the chinese will tell us....do this or else......then the indians.....

So the next time Blair and his cronies talk about morality, rule of law and upholding the finest tradions of democracy around the world.........go ahead and vote for him you gullible fools.

[Bazile]

Dom tuk

You should have been working for the SFO , then they would not have spent over 2 1/2 years investigating this case without any sucess ...... pity it is too late now to pass on your evidence .

The fact of the matter is that it all boils down to safe guarding the jobs assocaited with the contract - it does not matter one jot , what the colour of the government is - whoever else was in power , would have done the same thing .

Incidentally Blair is not going to be around for the
' gullible ' fools to vote for , so the 'gullible' fools , ( as you put it ) will I suppose , be taken in by Cameron

[matt66]

what Dom Tuk has written about the slush funds is in the public domain. people just cannot be bothered to read and assimilate it. they also tend to forget what is written. dom Tuk is only informing you...he has not made it up....dont blame him for your ignorance.

Daresay when Cameron comes to power, DT will be there to tell us what he has been doing wrong.

[Bazile]

Where in my post do I accuse anyone of making anything up ?
I do not require to be informed , thank you - I am perfectly aware of what the allegations are .
If you read my post again , ( paying attention this time ) you will note I mention the word ' evidence '

We all have our opinions/ suspicions of what took place . However without hard evidence ( which the SFO apparently could not come up with after 2 1/2 years ) , what good is that ?

[Dassie]

At the end of the day, if you want to do business, you have to play it the way the rest of the world does. If you dont and decide to adopt the moral high ground, someone else will get the contract and the UK will be worse off financially and economically and probably wont be asked to tender in future.

Try living and working in the real world and not some fantasy land.

[brachiopod]

Well said, Dassie.

Great excuse for the Blair-bashers, but put it in some kind of context.

It would never have happened under the last Tory government, of course..... since most of them, if they were not non-excutive Directors of major arms suppliers themselves, then they certainly had old school 'chums' who were. It would not even have got past the 'initial investigation' stage- and hence no embarrassing climb-down.

[Bazile]

Very true , brachiopod

[Hugh Spencer]

There is something in what Dassie says. In other aspects of dealing with and being in another country, are we asked to conform with the locals in our social activities? Can we do the same things in other countries as we do here? Similarly, unless there is something immoral or perverse in what we are asked to do, and I don't think pursuing trade contracts comes into these categories, each country has its own way of dealing with matters.