To connoisseurs of irony, who often find rich pickings in politics, last week's offering was a vintage one. British delegates to the inaugural conference of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, in Jordan, were piously denouncing sleaze and promising to tackle corruption "wherever we find it—whether here or abroad". At home, meanwhile, their colleagues were busily quashing a two-year investigation into allegations of bribery in connection with the country's biggest-ever defence contract, the Al-Ya-mamah deal with Saudi Arabia.
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