British firms face bribery blacklist, warns corruption watchdog

[Jan Klimkowski]

Cue Little Englander outrage from government and business lobby groups: how dare Johnny Foreigner accuse British companies of being unethical. We need less regulation, not more......

Indeed, I believe the Little Teuton, Prince Andrew, has got his retaliation in first as Britain's "Roving Ambassador for Business":

Prince Andrew launched a scathing attack on British anticorruption investigators, journalists and the French during an "astonishingly candid" performance at an official engagement that shocked a US diplomat.

Tatiana Gfoeller, Washington's ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, recorded in a secret cable that Andrew spoke "cockily" at the brunch with British and Canadian business people, leading a discussion that "verged on the rude".

During the two-hour engagement in 2008 at a hotel in the capital, Bishkek, Andrew, who travels the globe as a special UK trade representative, attacked Britain's corruption investigators in the Serious Fraud Office for what he called "idiocy".

He went on to denounce Guardian reporters investigating bribery as "those (expletive) journalists … who poke their noses everywhere".

In the cable from the US embassy to Washington in October 2008, Gfoeller wrote: "Rude language à la British … [Andrew] turned to the general issue of promoting British economic interests abroad. He railed at British anticorruption investigators, who had had the 'idiocy' of almost scuttling the al-Yamama deal with Saudi Arabia."

The prince, she explained, "was referencing an investigation, subsequently closed, into alleged kickbacks a senior Saudi royal had received in exchange for the multi-year, lucrative BAE Systems contract to provide equipment and training to Saudi security forces".

The dispatch continued: "His mother's subjects seated around the table roared their approval. He then went on to 'these (expletive) journalists, especially from the National [sic] Guardian, who poke their noses everywhere' and (presumably) make it harder for British businessmen to do business. The crowd practically clapped."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/nov/29...nce-andrew