(October 28, 2007) Sir John Bourn, chief investigator of Britain’s public spending body, the National Audit Office, has himself come under public scrutiny for allegations of lavish spending, paid for by the public purse.

(February 12, 2007) British Prime Minister Tony Blair released a much anticipated Commission for Africa report which called on the developed world to help Africa curb corruption by cleaning up its own act (The Guardian). The report signalled a new and hopeful direction for the Blair administration’s advance on the scourge of global graft. Blair talked about changing U.K. banking laws to speed up the return of public funds pocketed by corrupt African leaders. His government also issued new anti-corruption rules aimed at cracking down on kickbacks paid by U.K. exporters to win contracts overseas; href=”http://www.ft.com”Financial Times”

(February 7, 2007) Companies need the incentive of prosecution, fines and reputational risk to tackle bribery more effectively. The abandoning of a probe into BAE Systems’ dealings in Saudi Arabia shows a lack of will to deal with these issues, says Alexandra Wrage.

(January 15, 2007) International charities, churches and NGOs petition Prime Minister Blair to reopen a corruption probe into a controversial arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

(December 7, 2005) G-7 will receive more than it will provide to poor countries in a decade.

(December 10, 2003) The Treasury is drawing up a face-saving plan to rescue the Export Credit Guarantees Department, after the government agency, which insures British exporters, ran up bad debts of £9 billion

(November 27, 2003) Taxpayers’ money used to underwrite massive arms deal with shaky Saudi government.

(February 7, 2002) The latest research shows that the rich nations of Europe and North America, numbering some 50 million people, have the same income as the 2.7 billion poor people in the rest of the world.

(October 4, 2000) Campaigners vow to keep on fighting after Jubilee 2000 shuts shop.

(July 13, 2000) MPs yesterday launched a devastating attack on the Foreign Office and Department of Trade and Industry over provisional plans to use export credit guarantees to support a controversial Turkish dam project.