A confession: if a bribe is something offered to influence judgment or conduct, then I have given and taken bribes.
I have enjoyed sporting, musical and theatrical events at companies’ expense. I have literally rubbed shoulders with Silvio Berlusconi in the tribuna d’onore at Milan’s San Siro stadium (at someone else’s invitation). I have flown in Robert Maxwell’s jet to Robert Maxwell’s yacht, to hear the corrupt media magnate extol his latest acquisition on the deck off which he later tumbled. I have, in my turn, wined and dined diplomats, civil servants, bankers and chief executives. And I will again because it helps me fulfil my half of journalists’ odd business bargain, in which human contact yields news and improves insight.
This sort of bargain is recognised by the British government in its recently published guidance on the country’s new bribery act. It warns that hospitality can be used to bribe people, but it also recognises that companies using it in a “reasonable and proportionate” way to improve their image, better present their products or “establish cordial relations” should not be punished automatically. As Ken Clarke, UK justice secretary, wrote in the FT: “Under this law, no one is going to try to stop businesses taking clients to Wimbledon, or a Grand Prix.”