Saudi Arabia - should we do business with them?

[Smiler.]

Since the recent flurry of activity linked to the religion of peace, I've been somewhat surprised at the snippets & other tales of woe emanating from Saudi Arabia.

Unless I'm mistaken, they epitomise everything that is wrong with backward Islamic practices.



I know why business & government in the UK likes to cosy up to the the regime, but should they?

That said, I don't suppose there's anything that could be done.

It just strikes me as somewhat hypocritical to be banging on about free speech in the face of Islamic terrorism. And then there's Saudi Arabia.


And before the foaming lefties levy the R card suggesting I'm picking on Saudi Arabia because..... & "what about China, etc", quite.

[TKF]

Should we do business with any nation that kills its citizens?

[GT03ROB]

You won't be left with many business partners...... enjoy your utopia.

[Perik Omo]

While it suits the government nothing will change. We want their (cheap) oil and the money they spend in Knightsbridge and they want our weapons so as far as UK PLC is concerned everything is hunky-dory no matter that they are a bunch of jumped-up camel drivers.

Edited by Perik Omo on Wednesday 14th January 08:36

[TKF]

GT03ROB said:

You won't be left with many business partners...... enjoy your utopia.

Exactly. Some people are very naive when it comes to the world outside their village.

[Smiler.]

TKF said:

GT03ROB said:

You won't be left with many business partners...... enjoy your utopia.

Exactly. Some people are very naive when it comes to the world outside their village.

Does asking a question = naive?

How did you answer?

[jogon]

We should be able to do business with whoever we want but we should not allow it to effect policy and investigations in our own country, should we Dave?

http://rt.com/uk/218319-muslim-brotherhood-delayed...

Even the Saudi's banned the Brotherhood but it's still legal here.

Edited by jogon on Wednesday 14th January 09:09

[TKF]

Smiler. said:

TKF said:

GT03ROB said:

You won't be left with many business partners...... enjoy your utopia.

Exactly. Some people are very naive when it comes to the world outside their village.

Does asking a question = naive?

"having or showing a lack of experience, judgement, or information"

So, in this case, yes.

[Smiler.]

TKF said:

"having or showing a lack of experience, judgement, or information"

So, in this case, yes.

Thank you for the education, I never knew.

[Troubleatmill]

The Saudi's own/ have a controlling interest in/ or a major shareholders in a many UK companies on the stock exchange.

Apparently they make more money from their investments than they do from oil ( before the oil price tanked )

[anonymous-user]

TKF said:

GT03ROB said:

You won't be left with many business partners...... enjoy your utopia.

Exactly. Some people are very naive when it comes to the world outside their village.

It's not really naive, it's just that the UK through foreign policy has to depend on many business partners that other countries with more diverse economies and less dependence on middle east oil, don't need to rely on.

There are plenty of other modern western democracies like Norway, Sweden or Denmark that don't have the same links to these dictatorships that the UK has.

[TKF]

el stovey said:

TKF said:

GT03ROB said:

You won't be left with many business partners...... enjoy your utopia.

Exactly. Some people are very naive when it comes to the world outside their village.

It's not really naive, it's just that the UK through foreign policy has to depend on many business partners that other countries with more diverse economies and less dependence on middle east oil, don't need to rely on.

There are plenty of other modern western democracies like Norway, Sweden or Denmark that don't have the same links to these dictatorships that the UK has.

Norway has one of the least diverse economies. 50% services and 25% oil.

Regardless, it's naive to ask "Should we just stop doing business with Saudi?"

[BlackLabel]

Doing business with them isn't the main issue for me - it's doing business with them/sucking up to them whilst at the same time lecturing others about human rights, democracy etc etc. Okay do business with them but then STFU and stop preaching to others about 'British values', 'freedom' etc etc.

Although I would add that when it comes to the Saudis one thing we should definitely be doing is stopping their funding of Islamic education in this country. Their Wahabi brand of Islam is toxic and shouldn't be promoted in Britain.

Edited by BlackLabel on Wednesday 14th January 10:38

[GT03ROB]

TKF said:

Regardless, it's naive to ask "Should we just stop doing business with Saudi?"

I wouldn't necessarily say the question is naive. To decide we should just stop doing business with them would be naive. We have a great many trading partners that are "worse" than the Saudis whatever that may mean so we should extend our ban to those too. Most of Africa, most of Asia, Russia, Central America, etc.. So as I said earlier we wouldn't have many nations left to trade with!

[pork911]

BlackLabel said:

Doing business with them isn't the main issue for me - it's doing business with them/sucking up to them whilst at the same time lecturing others about human rights, democracy etc etc. Okay do business with them but then STFU and stop preaching to others about 'British values', 'freedom' etc etc.

Although I would add that when it comes to the Saudis one thing we should definitely be doing is stopping their funding of Islamic education in this country. Their Wahabi brand of Islam is toxic and shouldn't be promoted in Britain.

Edited by BlackLabel on Wednesday 14th January 10:38

Yep, I don't think I've ever heard Cameron condemning Saudi beheadings.

[Jasandjules]

Any country that allows this should be ridiculed and condemned.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/18744...

[Claudia Skies]

^^^^ Totally agree.

[Digga]

If it were an individual doing all of these things, I would not want to know them and would be far happier if they were behind bars for life. Politics and the issues of dealing with a collective body of people make the issue slightly cloudier, but in essence, it is a best in poor taste and at worst perhaps hypocritical for us to have the relationship we presently maintain.

[MrBarry123]

Should we? No. Is it beneficial to our foreign interests to have a wealthy, ruthless and powerful ally in that part of the world? Yes. Therefore do we? Yes.

[GT03ROB]

It's a big ugly world out there & there are some nasty beasts. It would be nice not to have talk to some of those beasts.

Our own little part of it is less than ideal....

....after all any country that allows this should be ridiculed and condemned.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire...

if we wish to take some sort of moral high ground it's usually best to be sure we are clean.