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If companies trading in certain parts of the world do not conform to local 'business practices' then they can forget winning the business. Other companies, possibly from other countries, will 'conform' and they are in with a chance of the business.

The winning countries / companies will benefit from the jobs and profits generated.

How many people does BAE employ, how much tax do they and BAE pay?

Gee, another British Company (owned by British Pensioners, employing thousands of British Staff) is being knocked in the Media.

How many people need to lose their jobs before the journalists lose theirs ?

Hmm, so far house prices are down only 0.93%

Just a little correction so far.

Pension Funds have seen some of their assets values (on which Annuities and our Pensions are based) fall by over half.

So who is going to invest their money in a Pension Scheme ? (When the media does its best to knock the very companies our Pensions are invested in)

Best to Invest your money in Bricks and mortar, collect the Rent and in twenty years decide whether or not to keep the House (and Rent) or buy an Annuity (or just Gilt Edged stock).

Not a hard choice.

Bearing in mind the amount of damage done to our Pension Funds by scare stories and spreadbetting cartels, I think there should be a criminal investigation, to find out if any deliberate collusion existed between journalists and spreadbetting cartels.

If you agree write to your MP !

It's your Pensions they are plundering

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Everyone with a moral conscience knows it's wrong to sell arms to countries with a dubious Human Rights record. Many people, such as myself, would include Saudi Arabia as one of those countries so can we drop all this guff about 'local business practices' please! What we have here is a classic whitewash from this enquiry which is nothing less that i'd expect. I hope we don't regret some of these arms deals in the future!

this boils down to a classic left v right bun fight. Lord Woolf has come down on the left side saying that (Peston's phrase) "business won in a fog of dubious practices is business that's not worth having", though, as the last two paragraphs of Robert's post and comment #4 point out, he probably could have gone even further.
I couldn't agree more that we don't need dirty money. Those saying that UK will suffer through jobs, taxes, pension funds etc are just greedy. I'd rather live in a poor country with high moral values and ethics than a corrupt rich one.

Oh, here we go again. Mistakes made, but all in the past, lessons learned, won't happen again, Scout's honour. Now, go bother someone less profitable.

Still, at least whitewashing the last few remaining British industries helps to keep the Old Boys in port and truffles. How's that MG Rover investigation going?

> Lord Woolf has said that business won in a
> fog of dubious practices is business that's
> not worth having.

Especially if it is repugnant business, like the
arms trade. We have a large shortage of
skilled workers in Britain - there is no need to
debase ourselves with that sort of work.

Its a bit moot isn't it? We can reconcile ourselves to producing and selling weapons but can't stomach a bit of palm greasing to get the deals done. Not only do we have to compete in a expanding global market but we then place restrictions on ourselves to make to harder to do business. For what? An increased moral authority, not worth the price especially as we squandered any moral high ground we had with our ill advised middle east outing (read: total debacle). Let’s face it morally; we are only marginally better than most tin pot dictators, leave the moralising to academics and get our hands on the filthy lucre.

I worked in a junior position in Defence Sales in the nineties and bribes were an issue for certain countries though we handled them via an agent.
I was told the nearer the contract was to a signiture, the more likely I was to be contacted by someone saying they could fix the order. Fortunately it didn't happen.

More recently, the US has obtained an immense commercial advantage by default.
The Echelon system can monitor global electronic traffic looking for key words and it is believed Thatcher used this during the Westlands affair.
Any attempts at bribery can be exposed and quite right too. The catch? The operators are explicitely banned from monitoring US citizens!

Dear Robert.

Slush funds have been around for years,
Remember the Sandline affair, and the ducking and diving of politicians, this spans both parties, Guns for Saddam, Yellow cake,
mercenaries, even Mark Thatcher got caught up in the Regime change. This is politics that they do not want you to hear about, and there is no doubt that Blair Knews this and one reason why he left office.

When the defence industry goes out hawking its wares don't principle and pragmatism conjoin wherever and whenever a sale can be made?

Robert Peston doing what he does best, creating the most negative story full of doom and gloom aimed directly at the heart of British Industry and the British economy. No doubt if BAE lose the Saudi contract and lay off thousands of skilled workers this will open a whole new vista of opportunities to blame Gorden Brown or the Credit Crunch and perpertuate the spiral of misery and negative reporting. Are you sure your not an industrial spy planted in the Ö÷²¥´óÐã to wreck the British Economy Mr Peston?

There is no piont in being mealy-mouthed about this.

There are colossal sums of money and significant numbers of jobs involved in these defense contracts.

If the end client wants a few 'extras', which may include monies deposited in offshore accounts, lots of booze, Rollers and Bentleys, leggy blonde prostitutes and so on - then you can be sure they will be supplied.

I worked for BAE in the early 1970's and it was going on then and simply defies belief that it has'nt continued since those far off days.

When you deal with the devil, you are going to become contaminated yourself.

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I also want to point out that it is difficult to claim that you are dealing with the 'devil' when the practices of companies in your own country are dubious to say the least!

Clean up our own act and get good working practices in our companies before calling others 'devil'!

As an aerospace worker of many years I can state categorically that, when dealing with some potential aircraft buyers, a "special commission" had to be incorporated into the selling price. I believe that this investigation into BAe was instigated by some parties who wanted to hamper its US activities yet the US firm Lockheed was involved in the Netherlands scandal involving its F104 sales and, allegedly, Prince Bernhart.

This practice is essential to succeed in business in certain countries (I dare not name them) and is not illegal there. When in Rome one must conform. UK does not then apply so why try to shoot oneself in the foot?