Corruption, like charity, begins at home

DC made a bit of an ass of himself the other day (or was it all a carefully calculated ploy? Based on his track record, cock-up looks more likely than organised thinking). Of course he was not in error in naming Nigeria and Afghanistan as two of the most corrupt countries in the world, though he should perhaps have added that right here in Britain we have enabled many of the corrupt officials  in those countries to launder their money and buy property in Mayfair with our blessing, or at least tacit approval. Just as we have enabled many wealthy and unscrupulous people to use our off-shore possessions to hide their ill-gotten gains.

The government has said it intends to tighten controls on these areas of trillion dollar fraud, and we can only hope they stick to their word. Personally, I have my doubts whether they will do anything more than make a few symbolic gestures. Meanwhile money will slosh in and out of the despot's favourite haunt, inflating the prices of London homes and leaving the rest of us to wonder what's really going on.

One final word about Afghanistan. I watched a fascinating documentary about the place the other day called Bitter Lake, made by British film maker Adam Curtis. Available only on player because of its political content, it contained lots of amazing and disturbing information on how the unholy mess in that country came to be so. But for me the most extraordinary moment came in 2006, when British forces were embedding in Helmand province. The senior army officers called a meeting with the local tribal chieftains asking for help in destroying their enemies, the Taliban. In a beautiful "whoa! I didn't see that coming" moment, the tribal elders told them it wasn't the Taliban they were worried about, it was the government officials appointed by Hamid Karzai who were their real enemies, they who were sucking the prosperity out of the pockets of the locals and tucking it into their own. But as Britain and the US supported Karzai, what could they do? Turns out, absolutely nothing.