Red_Dave

Tories join Brown in bid to block fraud investigations | World news | The Guardian

If this had happend in Latin America we would be called a banana republic

PeteEU

Give me a break. Bribing officals in Saudi Arabia and the middle east in general, is a common practice for peak sake. You cant do business there without doing it and I speak from experience! So having an investigation into a practice that is common and frankly required to do business, is just a waste of taxpayers money and the polices time and ressources.

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PeteEU

Red_Dave

Well then forgive me for thinking the rich and powerful should follow the same rules as everyone else

Scucca

The amusing aspect of our fraud is that it looks like a relatively rare phenomenon. We're astoundingly super at sweeping our business practices under the carpet.

I'd start by eliminating our arms industry. It is economically destructive after all

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PeteEU

They are! If a random non rich non powerfull company wants to do business in the middle east, chances are he needs to bribe someone. Its just a fact of life.

Red_Dave

Well if your so sure BAE and its ilk was and is following the same laws as everyone else then why do they need exemption from them?

PeteEU

What exemption? And I am sure BAE and others use bribes to further thier business interests world wide and especially in the middle east. Bribes come in many forms and ways. Hell its even accepted by many tax systems, that these bribes can often be deducted as legit advertising or promotional expenses.. I know it is in Denmark for example. As long as they dont call them bribes of course

No this case, was used politically to try to hurt Blair nothing else.

mikhail

Saudi arabia pretty much has us by the balls currently.

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Scucca

This should be about transparency and, for them Europhiling so and sos, consistency of practice across Europe. We've used unchecked bribery to get ahead in our arms trade. The French, in comparison, have brought a number of prosecutions (It was 11 in 18 months using 2006 figures)

It gets worse when we realise that the bribers are harming our people. The British arms industry, for numerous reasons, is a drain on our economy

PeteEU

You live in a fantasy world often. Transparancy? Yes the world would be much better off with no corruption or bribery, but that aint gonna happen. And there is some sort of transparancy, because everyone with just a slight knowledge of the 3rd world or other countries, knows that bribes, either direct, or inddirect are needed to do business there. That we dont offically "talk" about it or hide the fact, does not mean it dont happen.

The French have prosecuted people, sure.. but I would bet that the cases were politicaly motivated or media fanned witchhunts.

Like it or not its the price of doing buisness.. and yes its economically harmfull on paper and all those theories you like to spout out.. but its a fact of life, and it aint gonna change. The Americans use bribes (direct or inddirect), so do the Russians, Chineses, Japanese and all others when doing business internationally, and internally a similar system of "favors" exist in all countries even in the UK, even among right wingers and left wingers.