But here's the probkem with that. Not that I entirely disagree with you, but that logic has a major problem.
The inference is that despite us knowing a despotic regime is killing people in large numbers, we'll be nice about them because they're an ally, and a major arms customer.
So .... we'll criticise and oppose Putin, and Iran, and North Korea, etc, for being despitic, or murderous etc when we don't sell them arms, but shock, horror that we should criticise Saudi Arabia for doing much the same.
And then we wonder why many parts of the world don't respect us or our criticisms of others. Maybe it's because we can apparently be bought, either by large arms deals, or by currying geopolitical influence with despitic regimes because it serves OUR best interests.
And, after all, we have 'previous' on that. One (of many) examples would be supporting the Shah of Iran, and act that at the least contributed to the hardline attitude of the revolutionary Islamic uprising - the "great powers" supporting a brutal regime that suppressed it's own people because, never mind the people it was in our geopolitical interests. The same could be said about backing Saddam until it bit us, and Colonel Ghadaffi untul it hit us, then backing him again, then not.
The first line of the article Zak linked made a critical point - No, most of us wouldn't, but God forbid he should be honest and say it?
How many billions do we have to earn, how many arms jobs do we have to protect, to turn a blind eye to what the regimes buying those arms are doing? What, in deaths of civilians in Yemen, are 100 jobs here "worth"?
And in the end, it comes down to being a large oart of WHY we hold politics, and most politicians, in contempt - we KNOW we can't believe a word many, or indeed most, of them say.
Ask ourselves why "populist" movements are growing in power and success all over the place. Be it UKIP, Trump, Le Pen and the Front Nationale, Five Star, Syriza, Gert Wilders in jolland, and so on, they all have one thing in common .... whether right or left, or even hard right or hard left, they appeal because they show every sign of saying what they think.
Would we have had "Leave" in the Brexit referendum if john Major had had the gurs, and decency, to put Maastricht to a referendum? We'll never know, because he bottled it. Would we have bote Leave if Blair/Brown had put, like they
promised Lisbon to a referendum? Again, two-faced politicians promised us one thing (and the original EU constitution and Lisbon are fundamentally, bells and whistles aside, the same thing) then found some weasel-worded way of squirming out of it.
I'd suggest politicians are largely held in contempt because they've spent the last few decades ignoring and evading questions, using "clever" political phraseology to appear to say one thing, while covering themselves because they actually meant something else.
Just maybe, politicians would find themselves with better support if they stopped conning us, started advocating what they actually think and believe instead of either what they think we want to hear, or what party dogma tells them they have to say.
Maybe our opinion as a country would carry most respect, even with political opponents, if .... just for a change .... we started saying what we thought was right, even
or especially when it was contrary to our vested interest or financial gain.
Ever heard the old joke about "an honest politician"? One that
stays bought.
Or the definition of a "political promise"?
Who actually believes politicians any more?
Another old joke How do you know a politician is lying? Hus lips are moving and words are coming out!
All Boris did was say what so many people think and believe. If we believe government spin, even they have been saying this,
to the Saudis, quietly, behind closed doors, in more diplomatic terms.
But never should we "offend" allies, and worse, embarrass them or hurt their egos, by saying publicly what we say privately and regard as true. It's political whoring, and all we need to discuss now is whether "government policy" makes our country a high-class whore or a cheap streetwalker. Personally, I'd rather our government didn't whore us out than argue over the price, even if is does offend a large arms purchaser.
So Boris, call it as it is, and stop fluffing Saudi egos.