An Unlikely Alliance

Clare Short and the Tories have joined forces to take the government to task over its involvement in the corrupt BAE deal with Tanzania to sell the country an over priced military radar system in 2001. The debate will take place in the House of Commons this evening.

This deal was personally backed by Tony Blair who over-ruled the objections of Gordon Brown, Clare Short and the World Bank. BAE is said to have bribed a middleman with a secret payment of $12 million put into a Swiss bank account. In the capital Dar es Salaam there are protests with demonstrators demanding the arrests of those involved with the deal. The SFO, still mightily miffed from having their investigation into the Al Yamamah corruption unceremoniously squashed, are in Tanzania investigating.

I guess we can take it for granted that Tony won't be at the debate but it might be worth following, if only to see the spectacle of the Tories (now firmly against corruption) working with Clare Short.