It is most likely coincidental that the same day that British police interviewed the country's Prime Minister, Tony Blair, over the alleged cash-for-titles scandal, the U.K. government halted a bribery probe against British defence contractor, BAE Systems.

The issues, taken separately, and together, are worthy of serious consideration in the context of recent events in Jamaica, and our need to fight the problem of corruption here. The U.K. case, too, may help point us to potential pitfalls and traps to be avoided, if we are to confront the problem rather than using the behaviour of other countries as an excuse for our own bad actions.

The matter about which detectives spoke to Mr. Blair - for now as a witness rather than as a suspect - has a whiff of the recent Trafigura affair in Jamaica, in which a Dutch company that trades oil on Jamaica's behalf ostensibly made a big donation to the ruling party by channelling the cash through an account controlled by a then Cabinet minister.

In the U.K. case, at least four wealthy individuals who made ostensible commercial loans to the Labour Party in the lead-up to the general elections were subsequently sent to the House of Lords by the Blair government. At issue is whether the Blair government sold favours; honours and whatever else. The fact that these, ostensibly, were commercial loans rather than gifts meant the party did not have to report them.

There is, it seems, a nexus between the peerage/loan and BAE issues, for they suggest a flexibility of principles, which, unfortunately, could weaken Britain's capacity to lecture others about appropriate conduct and behaviour.

In the latter matter, BAE Systems, over the past two decades, has earned an estimated £40 billion from selling Tornado jet fighters and other military equipment to Saudi Arabia under the so-called Al Yamamah agreement. No problem here, except that BAE Systems was accused, which it has denied, of using a slush fund to pay members of the Saudi royal family to receive the contract. Such an action would not only be illegal in the U.K. but in breach of a Europeanwide convention against bribing foreign officials.

It is in this context that the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office was investigating the Al Yamamah deals until it was called off by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general. The investigation made the Saudis unhappy and BAE Systems had complained that a £6 billion deal to deliver 72 typhoon fighter jets appeared in jeopardy. British business generally complained that it was growing harder to land Saudi contracts.

In ending the investigation, the British government said that commercial considerations were not a factor, but rather the wider public interest, including relations with Saudi Arabia and security concerns - presumably the cooperation in containing Islamists. There were hints, but only that, that the investigation had so far produced little.

Not surprisingly, the Tories, who were in office when the Al Yamamah deal was struck, have supported the decision to end the investigation. Many people, however, will wonder whether, as Simon Hughes of the Liberal Democrats has said, that that was not "the worst of all possible outcomes".

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