With respect Jinda, its not my ethics being questioned here, its theirs, if they have any.
I've not been in the industry as long as PN, but certainly from recent observations, out of uniform, over the last 10 years, it seems to me that there is no such thing as an ethical defence contractor.
I dont need to know what BAe have been upto and what they are being accused of. The SFO and the AG do.
Although, has been mentioned on other sites... what with one of the countries concerned being the Czechs, who have yet to ratify the EU constitution and with Lord Mandy being the Trade minister... the timing is very interesting. Blair due to be crowned President Of Europe soon after the constitution is ratified - only Ireland and the Czech's left - The Czech's were saying last week that it would take them until next year to complete ratification - suddenly within 7 days, this blows up and lo and behold, the Czechs are involved in it.
Hows this for a conspiracy theory....
What price Mandy leaning on his Czech opposite number re ratification, in return for this not having political fall out in the Czech Republic, the BAe board suddenly decide they want to settle up out of court, they walk away "unconvicted" and still able to trade in the US, Blair gets the top job in Europe, Gordon exits stage right to the G20, his work is done... replacement comes in, calls the election and Cam has to pick up the pieces with by that point the constitution fully ratified. Theres no point in Cam's referendum because the treaty will have been fully ratified and we'll basically be stuffed.
Anyway, I digress. BAe... they could always argue it was a technical breach of the law. It worked for the AG, didnt it?
Seriously... I know it may invite howls of protest from those very closely aligned to the industry, but as I said, my feelings are that BAe will get their just desserts. Another contributor has pointed out that 4/5ths of their workers are overseas anyway. The board will have known exactly what they were getting into and if it results in prosecutions, tough. We rightly cannot go around telling other nations to clean up their act when corruption runs through the veins of both politics and industry, absolutely rampant. BAe has pulled the nation's plonker for too many years. The whole industry and the way the British military procure equipement is in need of a serious clear out and reform. If this is to be the watershed, so be it.
Sorry.
