Welcome as is the news that the prime minister has written to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) urging it to build on recent international breakthroughs on secrecy jurisdictions, "to address urgently the issue of tax avoidance" and "to make further advances in the fight against harmful tax practices", has the irony of this approach struck the Government? After all, it is just over two years since you reported (7 January 2007) that a key OECD committee monitoring international bribery challenged the Government's decision to quash the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the alleged BAE Systems slush fund for Saudi Arabian officials which, it believed, could undermine the international convention against bribery. In the spirit of, and consistent with, its newfound openness will the Government now reconsider pursuing the investigation?