Gulf flies high as UK risks being crippled

The Palace of Westminster in London is known as the "Mother of Parliaments". It is the role model for political forums around the world but an unfolding scandal over the expenses of our elected representatives has seriously undermined that claim.

Our MPs have been exposed as penny pinchers, chancers and, in some cases, thieves.

The scandal is actually quite negligible compared to what politicians in some other countries get up to but it has shocked the sense of British fair play. We like to think that we have an incorruptible government but the deliberate fleecing of taxpayers for personal gain by some has dented our faith.

Last week, for example, I was wading through the thousands of scanned documents made available by parliamentary authorities (under much protest) and discovered that one of our secretaries of state had claimed £114 (Dh650) for a vacuum cleaner for his constituency office. Nothing wrong with that but he then claimed £116 the next month for exactly the same thing. There are a number of explanations for this, and none of them is particularly flattering (theft, dishonest staff, incompetence etc.).

We have had MPs claiming as little as one pence for a telephone call and a demand that taxpayers pay for the cleaning of a personal moat. This may be small stuff compared to receiving, say, a $1 million (Dh3.67m) bribe but it feels worse because it is the whole apple cart that appears to be rotten.

From a reporter's point of view, this has all been tremendously fun but it was unfortunate that Parliament choose last week to officially release the expenses data as it meant I was called back early from the Paris Air Show, which was turning out to be a much more lively event than most analysts had expected.

With the aviation sector on its knees due to a downturn in passenger numbers, the expectations for Paris had not seemed good and, certainly, the orders were nothing like those announced in previous years. But there was still a great deal to soak up and one of the most encouraging aspects of the show was the continued strength of the Middle East's aviation market.

Gulf carriers have dominated air shows in recent years with their mega orders for new planes but we were not really expecting to hear much from them in 2009. However, the Gulf was once again at the forefront of the industry's thoughts and John Leahy, Airbus's chief salesman, did not hesitate in identifying the Middle East as the region showing most robustness in the current downturn.

This was confirmed by Etihad, the Abu Dhabi carrier, which announced a staggering $14 billion deal to buy engines from Rolls Royce, General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. This could turn out to be the largest engine order ever placed and was a poke in the eye for sceptics who have insisted that the ambitions of the Gulf carriers are unsustainable.

Gulf Air also placed an engine order worth $1.5bn with Rolls, while Qatar Airways spent about $2bn on a fleet of 24, shorthaul Airbus A320s.

The Gulf carriers' announcements helped to lift some of the gloom that had settled on the show during a wet and miserable first day. However, it was not just in the civil aerospace sector that the Middle East was flexing its muscles and there were military delegations from several countries, including the UAE, examining the fighters and transport aircraft on show. Continued uncertainty about the intentions of the neighbours on the other side of the Gulf has clearly raised concerns and the region is understandably interested in boosting its air defences. Saudi Arabia, which received the first of its Eurofighter Typhoons two weeks ago, appears to be in the market for even more jets in the future and Qatari officials were also having a good look at the Typhoon on show in Paris. There are rumours that a big announcement from at least one Gulf country could be made at the Dubai Air Show in November.

It was refreshing to see the Gulf's airlines and its military delegations getting on with business as usual. The military was doing its job, concentrating on protecting national interests, while the airlines were planning for growth and a bright future. This certainly made a change from the UK, where we are in danger of being crippled by the venality of our MPs and a government that is terminally weak.



- The writer is a correspondent with The Times of London

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