I feel the point is being lost here. Surely, the point here is that the so called the pillars of democracy, the institutions of the country are failing the people by acting unlawfully and yet they are allowed to carry on regardless so as to continue to allow unfair advantages to the rich, powerful and the politicians who alarmingly seem to be untouchable and even highly respectable as opposed to clumsy dictators in the third word countries that provoke such an outcry. The SFO, the FSA, the Law Society, …… and I believe particularly the Police who may conveniently ignore such crimes of grave consequences for a large number of people in the name of “not in the public interest”. Unless these institutions are made to work properly, I do not believe one can speak of democracy, justice or right and wrong. To me, court judgments are clear indications that these institutions are not working properly.

sinan, London,

Del,

You have missed the point, the comments are not from pompous individuals and small groups of people who don't know anything about the real world. The comments are being made because, British and International law was broken and the High Court made this very clear in their judgment. Why enact laws if the very people who introduced the laws, the politicians, can then break them when they so choose. We have in place a legal system which separates, the judiciary from the Government. Ultimately who do you trust, the law or the politicians?

Peter, London, UK

To those people who think that bribery saves jobs;

I've seen corruption in action in Malaysia, and it harms both sides.

Eventually the only thing that the selling company becomes good at is either paying bribes and/or being well-connected, and that requires only a handful of "senior" posts, mainly ex-politicians or other well-connected people, NOT thousands of technicians. Any other capabilities that the company may have had get lost in the arrogance that they don't need to do a good job to succeed. Their "core competence" becomes corruption.

For the "buying" party, they get a shoddy product, with even shoddier service, but can do nothing about it. To whom can they complain?

Ultimately both parties fail.

Bill Peter, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

When the individual or companies involved are more powerful than those looking into their misdominas than corrouption is not corruption.

Suresh Kumar, London, uk

Ian, 20 years ago is not very long ago when you consider war criminals are still being hounded from over 60 years ago. This a fundamental cornerstone of our democracy and worth every penny. It is BAE and the government fighting this that is costing the money. Blame them.

This action has finally put the wind up the SFO which is just as important. They are supposed to uphold the law which they failed to do. It's called accountability and that is priceless.

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke

Ben, London, UK

The S F O are now trying to use the Law to find a loophole to avoid having to do what they know is right. This is disgraceful.
Surely this is interfering with the course of justice.
Has this Government, or its lackeys, no shame whatsoever. It is going to spend taxpayer's money to delay doing what it is knows is right.
Its easy to understand - If there's been a fraud then -Somebody should to go to prison for it.

Richard, Kiev, Ukraine

I would be interested in an answer as to why it's even possible that a crime has been committed, when any monies involved were likely the personal assets of the Saudi Royal Family.
This is then not public money ,and who gets what is surely up to them.
So my supposition is that if they wanted an invoice for the planes at say £1 each, and then asked for a return of any 'overpayment given' on monies from Saudi Arabia against those invoices?? it's all still their money..isn't it.??

Keith, Dartmouth, UK

It is patently obvious that the comments of the subscribers to this article have little or no knowledge of the real world or how business or governments have to act in certain circumstances. there is a passage in the book," 2 years before the mast," which describes the situation better than I have ever heard by any of you pompous modern thinking people. Dave of cardiff is quite right in what he says,but it is obvious that he is politically motivated.attacks on the government by certain groups , have always been carried out by small numbers of people.
Now that these attacks are growing in number and venom, the situation will soon arrise when ther will be no effective government, and the next hitler to rise-up will have no trouble enslaving the people of this country. You need to take notice of history and pay some allegiance to THIS country, if you had your way the loss of the Al Yamamah would be abitter blow to thousands of workers in this country. increased taxation.

del, hemel hempstead, hertfordshire. G.B.

There is nothing pointless or ridiculous about the rule of law. If British and International law can be ignored, it leaves justice impotent.

This was a High Court judgment by two experienced and respected law lords, who followed the law and the constitutional principal of the separation of powers. It is an essential role of the courts to protect the rule of law.

The Al Yamamah contract was not 20 years ago, it started in the mid 1980's and continues through to today. It is also worth considering the point that bribery and corruption do not harm the rich and powerful.

Peter, London, UK

We must protect "thousands of high tech manufacturing jobs" at all costs. Even if that means paying out billion-dollar bungs to medieval middle eastern monarchies in order to buy those jobs in the first place. Even if it means not getting counter-terrorism intelligence from the country that brought us 15 of the 19 9/11 bombers.

We'll sell anything to protect these "thousands of high tech manufacturing jobs". We'll sell our legal system, our international reputation, whatever. Just as long as the price is right.

Christopher, Yorkshire,