Back in the 1980s, Allan Roberts was MP for Bootle and a Labour defence spokesperson. When the Al Yamamah defence sales deal was arranged by the Conservative government with Saudi Arabia and there were allegations of corruption in the air, this was his – and his party’s view:

a. He was “quite confident” that commissions (i.e. bribes) had been paid, and
b. He demanded an official investigation.

How times change … and I wonder if the fact that most electronic databases of news stories don’t stretch back to the mid-1980s has anything to do with the lack of stories in the mainstream media quoting back comments like that at Blair?