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You couldn’t call this unexpected:

Three Britons and a Canadian have been denied the right to sue Saudi Arabian officials they say tortured them.

And while Tony Blair did the usual non-specific condemnation at Prime Minister’s Questions today…

Dr. John Pugh (Southport) (LD): Now that Ron Jones and others have lost the right to sue Saudi officials for torture, what meaningful legal redress is there for any Briton tortured abroad in the light of the Law Lords’ ruling?

The Prime Minister: May I point out to the hon. Gentleman that we intervened in this case in order to ensure that the rules of international law and state immunity are fully and accurately presented and upheld? That is important for us as a country and for others. But our strong position against torture remains unchanged: we utterly condemn it in every set of circumstances.

…you can sleep soundly again knowing that this slight bump in the road to harmonious trade with the Saudi government has been smoothed and the prestige that comes from selling massive amounts of military equipment to one of the world’s most brutal regimes is untarnished.

A cynic might ask whether the Government would have weighed in on the side of “rules of international law and state immunity” against four men seeking redress for what was done to them (one of the men has medical evidence proving he was tortured) had the torturers in question been the goons of pre-war Iraq or Iran, Burma, Zimbabwe or any other abattoir state with which we don’t have a multi-billion pound arms contract. If you are going to get yourself picked up and tortured while on holiday, try and check the Foreign Office’s Strategic Export Controls reports before you leave. If we sell your idyllic destination lots of armoured vehicles and electric stun batons, you’re better off being on your best behaviour.

Blair must now be sweating that England don’t meet Saudi Arabia in the knock-out stages of the World Cup. After all, if the House of Saud take umbrage, who will buy all those Eurofighters? Tony will have to make the call. “I’m sorry Sven, but for the good of BAE shareholders, your lads have to throw the match. Tell you what, lose in a penaly shoot-out, it’ll be more convincing”.

Failing that, just pepper the crowd with MI6 agents armed with blowpipes and curare-tipped darts. “Looks like the heat got to the lads once again, Gary.”

Update: As happy coincidence would have it, it’s Torture Awareness Month.