theguardianweekly
22 The Guardian Weekly 09.10.09
LasttimeBAESystemswasthreatenedbyjus-
tice in 2006, it wriggled free with the aid of a
personalminutefromTonyBlair.Hisquestion-
ableclaimwasthatthrowingthebookatthese
merchantsofwarwouldthreatenlivesonBrit-
ish streets. The pressure on the Serious Fraud
Office to drop its probe into the group's Saudi
dealingsamountedto�inthewordsofthehigh
court judge who reviewed the case � "a gun
held to the director's head". After the SFO an-
nouncedlastweekthatitwillseektheattorney
general'sconsenttoprosecuteBAEforfurther
alleged corruption in eastern Europe and Af-
rica,thebigquestioniswhythingsshouldturn
out any different this time around.
One reason to hope that they might is the
SFO'sdecisiveannouncement,whichexposes
the whole issue to daylight, making it trickier
for the arms dealer and its Whitehall patrons
to exert influence without being noticed, as
theysooftenhaveinthepast.Award-winning
Guardian journalism has helped to establish a
powerful case for the biggest corporate fine in
history,butitisstillfartooearlytobesurethat
thiswillcarrytheday�oreventobankonthere
being any sort of prosecution at all.
The current law on overseas bribery dates
back to 2001. So far, however, only one com-
pany has been successfully prosecuted, and
the inadequate nature and implementation
of the UK laws regularly earns Britain oppro-
brium at the OECD working group, where the
world is supposed to stamp corruption out.
Even in the one case where a charge was
made to stick, that of the bridge builders
Mabey&Johnson,apleabargainwasarranged.
Despite the fact that such arrangements are
supposed to be used only where a company
willingly comes forward to confess its own
failings, there is every chance that BAE will
pullthesametrick,puttingacaponitsfineand
perhapsevenavoidingtheworstofthecharges
in return for taking others on the chin.
The concerns are heightened because of
Gordon Brown's failure to overhaul the role
of attorney general. The man who licensed
the Iraq war was also the conduit through
which prime ministerial pressure was able to
flow. That happened thanks to the attorney's
warpedjobdescription,whichmixessuperin-
tendence of prosecutions with party politics.
As Britain's largest manufacturer, and a
group with tentacles that reach across White-
hall, BAE enjoys unique lobbying power. Af-
tertheSFO'sboldmove,ministersmayshrink
fromscupperingtheprosecutionoutright.But
it would take great faith in the state to assume
thattherewillbenobackroomrequestsforthe
fine to be kept to a moderate level. Any such
demands must be withstood. As the justice
secretary,JackStraw,recentlyargued,corrup-
tion is a plague that threatens democracy, fos-
ters crime and entrenches desperate poverty.
This is the crime of which BAE stands
accused. Should it be found guilty, it surely
deserves to feel the full force of the law.
The responsibility for a war between Georgia
and Russia in August last year in which 850
people were killed and more than 100,000
fledtheirhomesturnsononekeypoint.Wasa
Russianinvasionofthebreakawayprovinceof
SouthOssetiaalreadyunderwayonthenightof
7 August when Georgia opened fire?
In more than 1,000 pages of analysis, docu-
mentationandwitnessstatements,anexhaus-
tive investigation by the European Union last
week foundinRussia'sfavour.Itlaceditsjudg-
mentwithcaveats.Butonthecentralissuethe
report found there was insufficient evidence
for a large-scale Russian incursion before the
morning of 8 August. Nor could it be verified
whether Russia was on the verge of a major
attack,andnorcouldGeorgia'sactionsbejusti-
fied under international law.
The fact-finding mission, headed by the
Swiss diplomat and old Caucasus hand Heidi
Tagliavini, was not one-sided. It condemned
Russia for its disproportionate response to
the Georgian assault, for allowing the eth-
nic cleansing of Georgian villages, and for
attackinganotherdisputedterritorywellaway
from the conflict, the upper Kodori valley in
Abkhazia. These findings are important be-
cause they chronicle an event that does not
have a single cause, and therefore not a single
solution. At the time, Russian military action
wastakenasexhibitAintheorthodoxythatan
oil-rich Moscow could not accept retreat from
empire and was destined to impose its will on
its weaker neighbours by recreating a mini-
USSR. Former victims of Soviet power such as
Poland and the Baltic states argued then that
Nato should stand up to a reassertive Russia,
by accepting Georgia and Ukraine into the
western military alliance. They still do.
The Caucasus is more complicated than
that.TheabilitytojumpinfrontofaCNNcam-
eradoesnotconferontheGeorgianpresident,
Mikheil Saakashvili, the gifts of a democrat.
Nor is Russia the sole aggressor in a region of
ancient disputes. This report should induce
caution among those who come to premature
judgmentsaboutRussia'srelationshipwithits
near-abroad.
War in South Ossetia
Georgia started it
BAE Systems
British Arms Expos� A time limit
for shopping
9 October 1930
Hereford City Council has decided
that twenty minutes is long enough
for a woman to spend inside any one
shop � long enough, at least, to leave
her motor-car outside.
The decision was reached only
by the casting vote of the Mayor,
but the Mayor this year is a woman,
herself a great shopper, who should
know if anyone does how long it
really takes to buy a new hat. It
will, one imagines, be welcomed by
everybody but the guilty few.
When the distinction between
"buying" and "shopping" was first
made by "Punch" many years ago,
the "shoppers" in the strict sense
of the word were a nuisance only to
others who came into the shop with
intent to buy. But now, when they
park their cars in the streets as well
as their persons at the counter, they
are the plague of everyone who ven-
tures into the neighbourhood.
Even the shopkeeper should ac-
claim the twenty-minutes rule, for
the woman who takes an hour to buy
a hat is wasting forty minutes of his
assistant's time. The Mayor of Her-
eford has lit a torch that should set
beacons burning all over England.
A Bridge-Breaker
[Hugh Walpole had attacked the
game of bridge as not only a spoiler of
tempers and of decent conversation
but of married happiness. "Probably
it causes more dissension than any
other thing," he declared.]
The bridge-players might reply
that there are contentious con-
versationalists even as there are
cross card-players. But it is easy to
envisage the atmosphere to which
Mr. Walpole has been exposed and
against which he revolts.
There are those who regard the
person who cannot "make up a
four at bridge" as a failure in the
scheme of things. In some sections
of English society very much the
same view would be taken of one
who had no taste for shooting or
fishing or hunting. The difference
is that it is easy to keep out of the
company of shooters and fishers and
hunters, but almost impossible to
mix socially with your fellow-men
and yet never find yourself among
card-players.
However, he is not alone; there
are many with no heads for bridge
and a private conviction that conver-
sation indicates the higher type of
intelligence. All these will note with
approval the counterattack launched
by Mr. Walpole at Keswick yesterday.
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