Like a cab for hire

THE familiar bespectacled figure sitting in the meeting room looked every inch the management consultant. He had just returned from a business trip to Dubai and was now looking across the table at a new commercial opportunity.

Residents of North Tyneside might well have recognised him, because it was Stephen Byers, their MP. He is more widely remembered as a former transport minister who was close to Tony Blair.

The woman on the opposite side of the table was an executive from a communications company, seeking to hire Byers because of his connections in government. The Times

Note: now we can to understanding very well why british didn't investigate properly the Freeport Case...

Freeport: british business as usual *

"Some calculated that BAE system that Tanzania bought cost four times more than the system that Tanzania needed.

Nevertheless Tony Blair pushed the deal.

... the South African £5.5 billion arms deal ... Mr. Blair also supported that deal. BAE was not on the original shortlist but was put on it at late stage by Joe Modise, then South African Defense Minister. Its bid included sophisticated fighter jets that South African Air Force had never asked for. Some of them have never left their hangars - there are no pilots to fly them.

... more than £100 million paid in bribes to secure the deal." - Richard Dowden - The Times

* british just did with Portugal what they are very used to do with african countries: bribe its corrupt politicians.

Note: now we can to understanding why british SFO (Serious Fraud Office) archived Freeport's files. 4 million euros in bribes is just rubbish when compared with the amounts that british are used to pay in Africa (so, why waste time investigating a mere 4 million euro bribe?!).