Al Yamamah: Labour hypocrisy

Back in the 1980s, Allan Roberts was MP for Bootle and a Labour defence spokesperson. When the Al Yamamah defence sales deal was arranged by the Conservative government with Saudi Arabia and there were allegations of corruption in the air, this was his – and his party’s view:

a. He was “quite confident” that commissions (ie bribes) had been paid, and
b. He demanded an official investigation.

(Hat tip: CAAT)

How times change … and I wonder if the fact that most electronic databases of news stories don’t stretch back to the mid-1980s has anything to do with the lack of stories in the mainstream media quoting back comments like that at Blair?

Read more by or more about , or .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • John McHugo
    Anne-Marie - thank you for focussing our minds on this. Our parliamentarians must not allow this issue to slip out of the "urgent" category. Two points. Fir...
  • Mick Taylor
    The last thing we need at the moment is a leadership election. They're usually divisive and what we need is a united approach to holding this government to acco...
  • Mick Taylor
    Thanks for the mainly positive comments. @DavidLeGrice. I think you missed the point. The whole thurst of my argument is that it's not solely down to the leade...
  • Meral Hussein-Ece
    An excellent and timely article, reminding us what is at stake. If the Liberal Democrats truly support a two state solution (over 70% do) and lasting peace, we ...
  • Jana
    Fully agree. I now await an article from Liberal Friends of Israel suggesting that opposition to building this settlement, or against seizing Palestinian lan...