Actually, John Holliker, Labour DID order an enquiry into the BAe/Saudi Arms deal. That was under legislation that Labour themselves introduced, in 2001 I think. The whole thing is a mess of course. "Commissions" and huge ones at that are the stuff of the arms trade. There is now a similar inquiry re South Africa and BAe I think. This, and lots of other things, are contrived at best and corrupt at worst. That doesn't mean the SFO should spend limitless amounts of time and money investigating when/if they cannot/will not get a result. Labour and the Tories have had to deal with this terrible tension around arms industry, commissions, morality, bungs, employment etc etc for many years. The Lib(Dem)s haven't since 1914. Willie Rennie however has taken on a defence job, is shooting his mouth off on defence matters, including cluster bombs, andhe is also apparently still a director and shareholder of a PR and lobbying company that takes money from the arms industry to fluff up their image and get them political support. This has been known for at least six months. Leech shouldn't have stood with him on cluster bombs however useful or not the Lib Dem motion was/is. Typical very bad judgement. There's a pattern.
Christie was not the only factor in Leech's win. There were other fibs and distortions too. But his campaigning was very very sharp indeed. But please don't tell me that less than 750 people were not influenced by this disgraceful campaign? Probably the thousands of old Tories who finally made the switch were influenced for starters. What a strange coalition they had! The swing was three times the national figure and more than other Guardian and student areas. The Christie Hoax was probably a significant part of that difference.
