The amount of money which was at stake in the BAE bung to Saudi Prince Bandar - £1 billion - is not peanuts. So no wonder government ministers felt obliged to cover it up. And no wonder Blair stepped in last December in order to stop the Serious Fraud Office from carrying on with their investigation.

Britain is one of the world's leading arms exporters with about 20% of the world market. Its biggest customer is Saudi Arabia. The Al Yamamah contract - sealed with Thatcher's son's kiss 20 years ago - had been worth £40 billion to BAE Systems, which is Britain's biggest arms manufacturer.

When Blair stopped the fraud investigation in December, BAE and Saudi Arabia were about to sign a new contract worth another £40bn to replace Al Yamamah. Only days before this, Prince Bandar had met British diplomats in Riyadh.

The reason given then, and now, for the halting of the enquiry by the SFO, is that it was in danger of damaging "national security"! Sure thing! Especially if you consider, as Blair and his ministers obviously do, that BAE shareholders' dividends are what keeps the "nation" secure!

And of course, these shareholders could indeed be a bit damaged, if BAE is found to have breached OECD bribery laws. Which it obviously did. And it is also abundantly clear that successive ministers over the past 20 years have been covering up this bribery and corruption.

For the last 10 of these years, it has been Blair's remit and that of his ministers. They have not shirked from their duty to the rich BAE shareholders. They have even broken their own rules to give them a helping hand.

Which only goes to show, that when you go to vote under this system, whoever you vote for, you will end up giving a mandate for policies which line the pockets of the rich. Not that we did not already know it!