If corruption is when honest dealings between parties are unjustly subverted for financial gain, there is a strong case for saying the West’s whole relationship with Saudi Arabia is corrupt. This despotic Arab kingdom owns a major proportion of the world’s oil reserves. Its surplus oil wealth makes it a highly profitable place to sell armaments, on which trade many Western jobs depend. There could hardly be a plainer basis for a crooked relationship.

Most Western countries have turned a blind eye to countless Saudi Arabian offences against human rights, internally and externally. Now they suddenly find themselves confronted with one they cannot ignore.