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The White
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Robert
Barclay
Robert is an expert within the equine industry who has set up
projects throughout Europe as well as developing international business
relationships and interests in the Middle East and Africa.
Having
spent a lifetime working within the equine sector, Robert has been
heavily involved in equine sports for more than 30 years, and still
maintains strong links with all equestrian disciplines.
His
international career in the industry includes working on, and starting
up, equine projects in Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany and
Iceland, and he has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Africa,
developing international business relationships and
interests.
As well as being Director of a number
of companies including Fox Feeds Ltd, Fox Forages Ltd, HorseHage Ltd and
HorseHage GmbH in Germany, which produce a range of specialist feeds and
forage for the horse industry, Robert is also a Partner in a farming
business.
Awarded a Royal Warrant in 1983,
HorseHage is used by the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket and has also
been supplied to the British Equestrian Teams at every Olympic Games
from Los Angeles in 1984 through to Athens 2004.
The company is the sole supplier of
forages to the Household cavalry, Kings Troop Royal Artillery and the
Royal Military Academy as well as several racing establishments, and has
exported feeds to most of the Gulf States.
Here follows the transcript
between Robert Barclay and Rick Dale.....
THIS IS A PHONE CONVERSATION THAT TOOK PLACE IN
JANUARY BETWEEN RICK DALE AND ROBERT BARCLAY OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL AGRI-TECHNOLOGY CENTRE AND IS ON TAPE
RD=RICK
DALE
RB=
ROBERT BARCLAY (BRITISH GOVERNMENT)
RD:
I am about to tape a conversation between Robert Barclay of the
Government and myself, I am just about to phone him and tape
it.
Resp: Hello … Overseas
RD: Hello, yeah, it’s
Rick Dale, can I speak to Robert please?
Resp: Sorry, it’s who?
RD: Rick Dale, to speak
to Robert Barclay.
Resp: Right, hold on one
sec.
RD: Thank
you.
RB: Richard …
RD: Hello, Robert,
what’s happening?
RB:
I haven’t heard anything over the weekend, I’ll give it a stir this
morning and see what happens.
RD:
OK, there’s just a few things, you know, I did fax you.
RB:
Oh no, no, you did, I’m not intending to interfere in any way or of,
anything you want to do at all, all I want to do is to get a settlement
eventually that will you know, hold him
down again, so that’s up to you, you do, you’ve gotta do what you
wanna do in the meantime …
RD:
Well, last time I stopped doing, you know, we ended up with basically by
you know …getting screwed
RB:
Yes, I’m not, I mean, I’m not intending to interfere with anything
(meaning the demo) that you want to do, if I can get a settlement out of
this, then I am a happy man, but if we can’t, we can’t. It is as
simple as that.
RD:
Of course. I mean …
RB:
I’ll do my best. ??? ??? ??? I
mean I want to see it finished.
RD:
You’re not the only one, but …
RB:
(Laughing) I can imagine I’m not.
(meaning the Omanies)
RD:
The problem we have got, is that if you’re dealing with Abdi (Colonal
Abdi head of the Oman Royal Cavalry), how does Abdi go above him to sort
of get, you know, that sort of other things the horse cruelty, you
know.
RB:
I don’t know, no, that’s, you know, it’s um, I’m pushing the information
at Abdi, if Abdi doesn’t respond then there is little more I can do, is
there? I can’t go up, well I can go up to the Oman Embassy and
things but I don’t want to do that yet.
RD:
Yeah.
RB: That gives it a
level of, of, of, of, ??? that you
wouldn’t want actually.
RD: Why’s that
then?
RB:
Well, because it gets, it gets, horribly complicated and they, they
would probably turn round and say they are not interested
anyway.
RD:
I think it is complicated enough as it is, isn’t it?
RB:
Exactly.
RD:
Is, you know, I’d just like, you know, you talked to me about the
references …
RB:
Yeah.
RD:
… you said you guys would sort out a Government reference. You know
…
RB:
Oh no, I wouldn’t say a Government reference, I’m saying there is a,
there is a, because we are a government organisation we could write you
a letter that made it appear that there were two sides to the story, put
it that way.
RD:
Oh, I see you sid it was before ?
RB:
Do you see what I mean, as a ???, I
can’t, I can’t give you a reference because I don’t know you.
RD:
Exactly, that was what I was going to say.
RB:
Exactly, what I can do is, is, is write you, write something out which
shows that there was, been a problem and make it ??? ??? if anyone wanted to ask questions,
that they came and asked, they’d get an honest opinion, if you see what
I mean.
RD:
But I’ve always, I go for the weekend, you know obviously things have
happened, coz their weekend is different to us, isn’t it?
RB:
Yeah. Absolutely.
RD:
I was speaking to his cousin, a cousin of his (His Majest Thuwainy),
they’re not allowed to get involved, I don’t know if you know this,
they’re not allowed to sort of get involved coz they’ll get their
allowance cut off …
RB:
(Laugh) I can imagine.
RD:
So I know one though, he’s a guy called thuwainey Said, one of
them, he says you know that Qaboos is more worried about being found out
about his, er, his homosexual tendencies to
small boys small boys as we know, you know …
RB:
Err, yeah well that’s Oman?
RD:
What I’m saying is, what my worry is, how would you, you wouldn’t be
able to have anything, you know to do anything, do you know what I’m
saying?
RB:
I can understand that that might happen. And was, that, so, what
he, I what I do feel he can do is sort out the first stages of the
financial bit.
RD:
Coz, I’ve also, in his exact words, and now this is coming from above,
you know this is coming from a guy who is a member of the Royal family,
his exact words were ‘Abdi is a prostitute, a liar and a thief’.
(RB: laugh) Not me, now this is this
guy, you know, thuwainey, you know,
he is a cousin and he can’t get involved in it and he can’t talk to
Qaboos, they are not allowed to get involved in government things coz
like I say they get their allowance chopped off. (RB: yeah) Do you know what I’m
saying?
RB:
Oh no, I can imagine, it’s, it’s, I’ve been
trying to sort the horse cruelty out at the Royal cavalry for two and a
half years now , there are advantages in some ways if you happen
to be an absolute ruler. ie his little boys
RD:
Well, that’s what Sultan means, doesn’t it, (RB: yes) my son told me at the weekend
that that is what it means, Sultan doesn’t mean king or anything like
that it actually means, erm …
RB:
???, it means something completely
different.
RD:
Really? Coz Turk, it comes from the Ottoman Turkmen in fact
…
RB:
That’s right, yes.
RD:
I’m learning all the time, (RB:
laugh) I’d rather not be, to be honest, but there you go.
But you and I both know, one of the things that still ratt…, you are
telling me we can sort out the compensation crap, then how, we still
haven’t got down to the point of the horses.
RB:
I think, no I think we’ve got enough, that’s the easiest thing to
resolve, and I think …
RD:
Do you think so? I mean, (RB:
yes) how would that …
RB:
Yes, I do because I think we, we will be in the process of writing a
whole report for the Omani government on how they are looking after
horses.
RD:
They love reports, they totally love reports, I mean …
RB:
Oh, they totally love reports, but when, in that is a lot of
monitoring.
RD:
Yeah, how, how, how are we going to monitor, or you monitor, and then,
you know set my mind at ease, you know, how, this is the, this is the
thing. I mean we have both seen the cruelty, (RB: mmmm) and I don’t think besides the
bit of cruelty where they are making money, I don’t think the cruelty,
you know I don’t think the cruelty is, by the boys, deliberate except
some of them are, just look vicious bastards, how the hell are we gonna,
you know, you’re not gonna clear it up overnight, that’s for …
RB:
No, no, no, I’m not saying, it would be naïve to think it gonna be, you
know, it’s probably a ten year process to get the whole thing wrapped
up.
RD:
Yeah, I mean look at the thing what they did in Salalah, down there, you
know, you’ve been down there, I’ve been there, you know we’ve seen, you
know we’ve got Paul Cunningham down there at the moment, and he phones
me up and says to me, he says, you’ll never guess what he’s done, it’s a
Bank Holiday weekend, they …
RB:
They just chuck all the food over the door and walk away.
RD:
They chuck three days’ food into the horses. (RB: yeah) and of course, how many collapse do you get with that? (RB: laugh) So how do you stop that,
because that’s laziness.
RB:
The only way we can stop it is to make sure that the ??? responsibility – it comes from
training, and then if that can be made to work, well at least then we
know we’re taking a step forward. We never, it would be naïve to
think, we’re not gonna, you know, we may cure it in the Royal Cavalry
but it would happen all out in the country, all over the place, wouldn’t
it?
RD:
Yes, it’s gonna happen out in the country but the thing is you have got
to start at the top and basically the Royal Cavalry is the top, and
they’ve got the money, this is the bit that wound me straight up all the
way along, you know, like the Suffolk Punches who were bloody killed and
the Clydesdale, you know the thing that wound me up right at the top,
you know, it was, they have got the money and they have got the hor…,
and they have a saying don’t they, you know if you can’t eat it, sell
it, buy it or fuck it, then it’s no good, (RB: laugh) that is one of their Arabic
sayings, isn’t it? I don’t know if you have heard that one before
but that, that’s what I was told, so when the poor old horses are past
their sell by date, instead of euthanasia-ing them the nice way they
were starving them to death, weren’t they?
RB:
Well, that is, that is, that is Muslims they don’t know, they won’t
deliberately go out and treat (talking
together) well, you know.
RD:
But what, what, why can’t, …
RB:
Want you to walk in there and go, and borrow a pistol one day I think,
(laugh).
RD:
The vet that’s a good, that’s the nice vet, you’ve got two vets there
that are decent guys, you’ve got the Greek guy,
RB:
He seems to be quite decent, doesn’t he?
RD:
Yeah, but the best one is the South African (RB: yeah) but I don’t understand, I think
if his country wasn’t in such a mess he’d go back to South Africa, but
his country’s in such a mess, and he’s on 6,000 rial a month, he’s not
going to get that in South Africa is he? Coz what’s 6,000 rial a
month, about £9,000 (RB: £100,000 a year)
a month, that’s £9,000 a month, isn’t it?
RB:
Yeah, over £100,000 a year.
RD:
And he’s tax-free and he’s got a house. (RB: mmmm) you know, he’s not, and
let’s be honest, they don’t work their bloody arse off do
they?
RB:
No, they don’t.
RD:
You know, I mean, have you seen that zoo he’s got there?
RB:
No.
RD:
Have you not seen the petting zoo?
RB:
No.
RD:
You know as you go up to the Royal Cavalry (RB: yeah) you know that, you know the two
big gates, that look like a thing on … you know the
RB:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
RD:
That’s, that’s a zoo.
RB:
I didn’t realise that.
RD:
That’s where he takes, that’s where Sultan Qaboos takes his little boys,
it’s called a petting zoo. (RB:
laugh) He doesn’t pet the animals, if you know what I’m
saying. (RB: laugh) ??? He’s got a bear and all sorts in
there, (RB: I didn’t know that) you
didn’t know that was there? Didn’t you honestly know that that was
that?
RB:
I didn’t know it was there, no.
RD:
That is zoo. Honest to God, it’s a zoo, some beautiful animals,
some beautiful birds and things like that, but it’s his petting zoo
where he takes the little kids to. Have you been up to Safanat (Safa’iq?) yet?
RB:
No.
RD:
You see, they move the be…, you’ve seen the state of the horses down the
Royal Cavalry, Safanat (Safa’iq?) is where they keep, you know,
the, well, you know Julian Smart? (RB: yeah) He’s in Qatar now,
RB:
Yeah, I know, yeah.
RD:
You know that is, that’s unbelievable mate. That is totally, he
said, you know, he got 54 3-year olds, brought down there to train and
he came back, and he said, Rick, he said, he said you might as well
shoot the fucking lot of them, that was his words, you know they all
come up from Salalah, he bred them,
you know, where, you know, Paul Cunningham’s there, and if Paul says,
every time he tries to do something he gets stopped, you know, if he
tries to make out plans and everything, but they just like me and him,
they just want the European’s there to rubber stamp their crap,
basically, it’s, it’s, I don’t know what Paul’s, what’s Paul’s job title
down there?
RB: Stud
Manager.
RD:
Is it?
RB:
Yeah, I think so. Well, that is what is on his card,
anyway.
RD:
Yeah? Coz mine was racing expert.
RB:
??? Manager’s on mine, I
think.
RD:
But mine was racing expert, I’ve never even heard of one of those
before, pathetic, isn’t it? I don’t think they’ve replaced me yet,
have they?
RB:
No, they haven’t.
RD:
I don’t think they probably will, will they?
RB:
I suspect not.
RD:
Well, you know, what can you do? Abdi’s, Abdi’s love is racing,
isn’t it? (RB: yeah) And
that’s what he’s, basically what I saw was he was letting Salim Almahrooqy get on with
whatever he wanted and turning a blind eye to everything there, as long
as he was making his money and he was going off to Dubai racing and
flitting round the world to the race tracks, coz they travel first class
everywhere, don’t they, (RB:
yeah) and I think that’s what he was doing, don’t
you?
RB:
Erm, he’s certainly not a great horseman, let me put it that
way.
RD:
Well, he came from the Royal Air Force didn’t he, or the Royal Flight,
where his brother is?
RB:
I don’t know, I don’t know his origins. But he’s, he’s
...
RD:
The Royal Flight.
RB:
... he’s what you’d call, he’s a very personable front man, isn’t
he?
RD:
Yeah, but he’s gotta …
RB:
… and that would be perfectly acceptable, if he had the expertise
underneath him. There’s no problem with that as long as he’s got
people who know what’s going on underneath.
RD:
But he doesn’t.
RB:
He doesn’t seem to, does he?
RD:
Salim Almarooqy, all he bothered
about is the WAHO Show in 2009, and
basically he’s just, it’s the old chest thumping isn’t it, they just
want recognition for doing nothing, basically, because they are very
brutal to some of their workers, you know, (RB: mmmm) you know, they are quite
brutal to them, well it seems brutal the way they scream and shout and I
know that is an Arab thing as well, isn’t it?
RB:
You wouldn’t want to be a Pakistani working in that place.
RD:
Oh no, (RB: would you?)
… Indians aren’t they, I mean, God, they had them out the front there
and they had a big long line of them, on what, about say an acre of land
for a whole week, picking the weeds, (RB:
yeah?) yeah, in the Royal Cavalry, so I mean instead of looking
after the horses, even the place looks manicured to hell, doesn’t
it? (RB: yeah.) I mean,
what was the name of the English bloke who was there that built that
place?
RB:
Oh, gosh yeah, erm
RD:
It was a Colonel, wasn’t it? I think. The ???, was it Barclay? Something like
that? (RB: no) No, that’s your
name, (talking together) that’s your
name, Barclay, it was something like that though, it was something like
that. And he put that place, like I told you, it was 30-odd years
ago, and like I told you, Ian Borley built the race track, didn’t
he.
RB:
Yeah, he did, yeah.
RD:
It’s not very well, not a good race track, even Ian says that, but
…
RB:
Well, it’s too tight, isn’t it, full stop.
RD:
Yeah, he could only do it within the confines of what he was given,
basically, and erm, I think again, he’d just won the, you know, had had
Mill Reef hadn’t he, so it’s just the prestige thing, (RB: laugh) Lester Piggott stuck his nose
in there and buggered off, didn’t he? Anyway, so what’s gonna
happen, what’s gonna happen today, coz I’m racing tomorrow, but I’ll
still be on my mobile, you’ve got that haven’t you?
RB:
I’ve got your mobile, I don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m just
waiting for a response, it’s as simple as that, and if erm, I’ll give it
a tweak later on (RD: yeah)
and see what happens.
RD:
Well, what time is it there now?
RB:
Well, it’s now lunchtime, it’s beyond lunchtime, it’s 2 o’clock, isn’t
it.
RD:
I dunno, it really works, they work straight through really, coz they
knock off at half past two, you know.
RB:
Well, I’ll give it another tweak, I haven’t done so yet this morning
…
RD:
Yeah, so what happens at the end of this? When we’ve finished
then, can I still have a go at Charles Kendall, because I feel a bit
aggrieved towards them.
RB:
You will get, I mean my, my opinion, in a loose term, is that you should
gain to get a proportion of your compensation, of what it is going to
be, in your wages packet, draw a line underneath that one, because you
can’t, you’re never going to get anywhere trying to sue someone in Oman,
you’ll get absolutely nowhere.
RD:
No, that’s true
RB:
… so, you know, as painfully obvious to you as it is to me, because
(RD: and what about) some of the
poor designs in Oman will bend the rule by someone else and you’ll
never get anywhere at all.
RD:
And what about the two grand I have got to pay the Court in
London?
RB:
Well, that, that, that’s a different matter. The question is you
sued the Sultan, who is in Oman, who’s a foreign resident in the
UK. I don’t know, I’ll have to look at that one. Well, what
I was trying to do was take it stage by stage really your compensation
which Colonal Abdi promised and the horse cruelty.
RD:
Well, I want it all finished in one hit, if you know …
RB:
I know, I appreciate that, but from the Omani’s point, the Omani’s point
of view, I’ve got to knock it off in progressive stages, do you see what
I mean? Because they can’t, what’s happened is that they are just
going ‘oh, the man’s being, we can’t deal with this man, we can’t deal
with this man’.
RD:
Well, I gave them a chance to deal with me … are you …
RB:
You gave them a chance to deal with you, but their mentality would just,
well, he’ll go away, he’ll go away, well you haven’t gone away
…
RD:
I know I’ve petrified them.
RB:
Yeah. So what you’ve gotta do, what we’ve gotta do now is work it
out the other way round, and I’m not, I’ve gotta try and, I have to make
the assumption that you are a decent bloke, and that basically they’re a
decent bloke …
RD:
Well, they (talking together)
RB:
I’ve got to be a acquitable to both
sides.
RD:
We both, we both hate the sight of each other, but there.
RB:
Yes, but that’s not my job is it, my job is to get the thing, is to
(can’t hear) if there’s nobody in
the job, I’m trying to do this for my own you know, …
RD:
Well, yeah, your job, you’re trying to mediate I suppose.
RB:
I’m trying to mediate a bit, and it could be that I’ll fail completely,
in which case I am afraid you are back to square one.
RD:
Well, no, I’m not back to square one because, you know …
RB:
Well, back to where I started anyway, no I will try and make it work and
try and get a mediated solution to it, and to do that, my way of doing
it is to get them to accept first of all that they have not paid you the
wages, (RD: can’t hear) that is a
great psychological step, do you see what I mean?
RD:
Yeah, well I’ve proved that to you, you’ve had my bank … what else
…
RB:
That’s it you see, I think that, but you have to get them to accept that
mentally, once they’ve accepted that, we’re now, we’re on, we’re on a
street and we can get somewhere, we might be able to resolve it.
But if they can’t accept that then I don’t know what the hell I can do,
really.
RD:
But I still want to have a dig at Charles Kendall & Partners LTD
(one of the biggest arms dealers in the world who do all the recruiting
for Oman based in London), like, you know because, I wouldn’t want
anyone else to be in the situation I was in, you know I was frog-marched
with two armed guards down to my house, (RB: yeah) and made to send that other,
you’ve seen a copy of that email, (RB:
to?) to everybody in my email book, (RB: oh yeah, I see, yeah) and I was
frog-marched by Salim Almahrooqy and then at gun point to my house where
I was made to send emails to Abdi’s, you know, and you know, I don’t
want anybody else to be in that situation ever again, because while we
…
RB:
I would my advice would be that if we can’t get a, a, a conclusion with
the actual Royal Cavalry, on a basis of your wages plus the money they
owe you and the horse cruelty, if you see what I mean, (RD: yeah) and what the plus would be I
don’t know, and I want to take a psychological step as I say that you
have not received your wages.
RD:
Well, I’m not bothered about that, that to me, it seems to me, that to
me, for some unknown reason they seem to be going on and on about that
(the money I am and have been more interested in the horses) and I
think, I feel that’s diversionary, do you understand what I am
saying.
RB:
Yeah, well that’s, they’re using it and saying we have, and therefore
we’re not going to look at the rest of the thing, and if I can prove to
them that they haven’t they’ll have to look at the rest of the
thing.
RD:
Well, I think, like I just said to you I think that’s diversionary, on
their part …
RB:
Yeah, they’re using it as an excuse, for which, if we can demolish that
excuse, you are, whatever happens you are legally entitled to the
wages, but there’s no moral, from my point of view there is no moral
conundrum in whether you are right or wrong in getting you your wages,
so that’s not a problem to anyone, they should pay them, full
stop.
RD:
And then we have got the horse cruelty to get on with.
RB:
Then, then we can, I can deal with the horse cruelty, I think to keep
both sides happy as long as they, I can get the Royal Cavalry to accept
that, I, we have had an edict from the Sultan, (RB: yeah?) saying that the problem is
going to be resolved, it’s about 18 months old, that edict and we have
got to remind the Royal Court that that is what is going on and so we
can stop the cruelty once and for all.
RD:
Because you, you’ve been, you said 2½ years …
RB:
2½ years max yes
RD: Well, in
that time, have you seen any improvement, because I never saw any
improvement in the 6-month period I was there.
RB:
Erm, I haven’t seen a physical improvement, what I have seen is an
acceptance that they don’t know the answers, and that’s taken 2 years,
2½ years to get there.
RD:
How are they so slow at doing things.
RB:
So slow at doing things, it’s unbelievable.
RD:
But though, yet when they decide to do it though, they go off like a
bloody scalded cat.
RB:
Well, this is what happened, just before Christmas their, I don’t know
if you ever met Sami, General Sami from the MEF (UEF?) big Egyptian chap with a big
moustache, he was over here for Olympia, doing some judging in Olympia
and he suddenly rang us up and said, ‘this report you told us, a year
and a half ago, you’d write and do all the fundamentals for, I want it’,
so I said well, when do you want it? Oh, by 1st
January, this is just before Christmas.
RD:
Yeah, I got given a report when I was there on how to, on basically what
they wanted me to do, (RB: yeah) but
it was made by some Australian bloke, about 2 years ago, and they said,
well, we wrote this report, you have a look at this and then you do your
report.
RB:
Yeah, they …
RD:
Well I do a repot to but they obviously didn’t like it.
RB:
Yeah, we’re, we’re, we would tackle it from, I mean physically what we
would tackle is as I say the first thing you have to do is put in a
??? in your university, put in an
Equine Management course and put half a dozen people through it.
So that you have got some people who really do know, and then those
people have got to travel round the world and understand how horses are
looked after.
RD:
Well, those people need to work in yards, in Newmarket and such like, it
depends on obviously what they (talking
together) the way …
RB:
What they do in Newmarket, go to America, France, or Germany, it doesn’t
really matter as long as they get some international
experience.
RD:
Yeah, but I know certain, OK, certain, you know, you know, certain
people that have worked, I mean, we know of, Captain Said Belushi (RB: yeah) the one that does the
carriages, the one that feeds his horse chicken feed and (RB: yeah) they look like chickens …
RB:
They look like shit
RD: … well, he
spent a lot of time, he told me, in yards, in erm, several years in
fact, in Germany.
RB:
Yeah, I think he has done.
RD:
But the thing is, he gets his money for his horses, I’m told he’s the
richest man in the Royal Cavalry, he owns restaurants, (RB: laugh) ??? a ??? list this, and he’s got like 60-odd
people on staff at the Royal Cavalry of his own, and only 20 turn up for
work and he’s got the rest working on building sites, (RB: laugh) did you know that?
RB:
(RB: laugh)
RD:
But this is endemic and this has got to be stopped. You know,
because if you’ve got 20 doing 60 men’s work, what the hell
happens? It’s like Captain Sadami wanted to sack his Sergeant, he’d
done about 16 years this Sergeant, up at Safanak (Safa’iq?), (RB: yeah) he was coming in in the
morning, it was one of these ones, you know all the taxi drivers (RB: yeah) coz most of those are Royal
Guard, aren’t they?
RB:
Yeah, well they all have been, yeah, yeah.
RD:
Yeah. And he comes in in the morning, at what time, 6 o’clock and
he goes at 7 o’clock.
RB:
Job done.
RD:
Well, he doesn’t do a job, does he, he comes in and has how many
coffees, they have to sign in, don’t they (RB: laugh) and he buggers off, you know,
what’s the crack there? You know, and this is, how do you stop
that unless you have got good management.
RB:
One of the ways we wanted to, to, to do it, was actually to be able to
get the horses, the horses they’d finished with …
RD:
Yeah, the ones that, you know, well …
RB:
… I’ll let you know, say they had a hundred horses that they want to
dispose of, they’ve finished with, they, you know they’d done a bit of
racing and proved useless, you’d go through, shoot 20 of them, re-export
20 of them and the 20, the remaining 20 put on tourist rides and things
like that so that you can get a bit of value out of them, (RD: ... for that) get them out of the
Cavalry and that’s what we, one of the things we were trying to
negotiate.
RD:
But he won’t sell them because he
saw some being towed or something …
RB:
He saw someone towing a carriage with some that were gifted by the Royal
cavalry, which is why we got originally involved in the first place,
because then they’re British Embassy and they come under, contribute to
sorting this out, so those you know, there, our Embassy knows there is a
problem, but it is not high priority (RD:
high priority) when you have got all, you know you’ve got all the
terrorism issues and everything else.
RD:
I wouldn’t say there was any terrorism issues in Oman.
RB:
They’re undercurrent, their undercurrent, could be quite dangerous but
anyway that’s why the Britsh Government don’t like upsetting them that
and oil.
RD:
Really, I wouldn’t, I really, you know, I, as you know I’m ex army I
didn’t see any.
RB:
It’s a very strategically important place, put it like that.
There’s more important things to worry about from a, if you are dealing
on this levels and you know (talking
together) …
RD:
… you gotta keep good ??? ??? is
strategically important that means, I mean, you are right across the
Gulf from, let’s be honest, probably the biggest terrorist threat in the
world at the moment, or not terrorist threat, threat full stop and
that’s Iran, and then, but when I was there he visited there, that guy
whatever his face is, he visited Oman.
RB:
Erm, er, the Iranian Leader,
yeah.
RD:
He’s a funny bugger isn’t he? (RB:
laughing/coughing) I learnt a lot when I was there about
things, coz I never knew that er, that Iran was basically used to be a
different, like, you know that used to be Persia and they speak Urdu is
it? It is Urdu?
RB:
Farsi.
RD:
They speak what?
RB:
Farsi.
RD:
They speak a different language …
RB:
It’s different from the Arabic, but they are quite similar, it’s halfway
between Arabic and Urdu.
RD:
It’s quite amazing, I never knew all that, I thought they all spoke the
same lingo, myself.
RB:
Well, you, yeah, you’d get away with Arabic.
RD:
Really? I mean, you know Saudi Arabia is the most frightening
place they’ve sent me to, I don’t know whether Abdul’s trying to kill me
then … (RB: laughing) they got
me out of there within 24 hours because there was some threat to me or
something like that, back to Bahrain, and then they flew me back home
from Bahrain the next day (RB: yeah)
I don’t know what that was about, whether it was bullshit or
what. But erm …
RB:
It was probably bullshit.
RD:
They took … yeah, probably, coz I think maybe Colonel Ramsey wanted to
spend the night in Bahrain …
RB:
Yeah, that sounds more like it.
RD:
Coz there is beer in Bahrain and prostitutes, and there is none of those
in Saudi Arabia, well, there probably are in Saudi Arabia, but very
difficult to find, (RB: laugh) and
if you get caught with them you are probably in big do-doos.
RB:
Oh yes, off with his head.
RD:
Well, Ramsey’s a funny bugger, do you know much about …, he’s the
technical expert on his card.
RB:
Yeah, well, he doesn’t have a job to do either, does he?
RD:
No, that’s why he came with me, I mean, just coz he could speak the
lingo, basically, wasn’t it, (RB:
yeah) while he was drunk most of the time so he couldn’t (RB: yeah) as you can see from my er, my
er, my website, I didn’t mind the guy, he was just a bit arrogant, you
know, I mean (RB: he’s erm,) I could
have left him at the airport, at the first class lounge in Bahrain, but
he had the car keys. Anyway, I’ll let you get on, Robert, so …
RB:
… I’ll keep working at it and I might just …
RD:
… give me a bell this afternoon, coz I’ve got to go out now, and like I
say, I’ve got, I’ve got commitments for this March, and it’s quite
snowballing, and I’m trying at the moment to sort of not let it snowball
any further because if we do …
RB:
No, I wouldn’t, at no stage, it’s your decision, I am not going to put
any, any, (RD: what I’m saying is …)
… on you to stop doing anything in that direction at all, that is not
what I am there for, all I want to do is see if we can get you to agree
something in the end, and hopefully quite quickly, but I’ve no intention
of putting any pressure on you from that direction, it would do no good
at all.
RD:
I’m a bit worried that, I’ve got this from somebody who I can’t say,
that this could be kidnapped by the animal rights people you know he’s
got quite a few enemies, you know, old Sultan Qaboos, and they’d like to
kidnap something like this coz they’ve not been able to start it up and,
you know, you know he likes his little boys, (RB: yeah) and, but basically for that
reason, I mean, I don’t know, because, I don’t know how that would work
because you know, you know, erm, whether he, if he comes to England and
someone puts an international arrest warrant for kiddie fiddling, erm,
whether they could pick him up for that.
RB:
Erm, they’d have to prove it happened in the British jurisdiction, which
wouldn’t be very easy.
RD:
But again, you know not really as international arrest warrant is that
it stops so called sex tourist and pedos like Sultan Qaboos
RB:
I mean, from what, the only thing I would say to you (RD: this is what …) is if you do find
that people like that are getting involved, you are on fairly highly
dicey ground because although its commonly known he likes young boys
western governments need him so I wouldn’t get involved in that sort of
thing.
RD:
I don’t want to get involved with those sort of people. At the end
of the day I don’t want to get involved with those sort of people, I
think …
RB:
No, I can see that. They are, they are horrors, some of
them.
RD:
Reputations, and … I mean, I am all …
RB:
They undermine what you are trying to do, to be honest.
RD:
Yeah, and I don’t want to get involved with these quite strong animal
activists either as well, I know …
RB:
They are just as dangerous.
RD:
Yeah, exactly, coz I think they have got other political agendas, or
they are nuts.
RB:
Or they are just mad human haters rather than animal lovers.
RD:
Yeah, I think they’ve need, have had a bad childhood or something.
Daddy didn’t give me enough attention when they were kids.
Something like that, I am not sure.
RB:
I’m going to try, just going to keep working at this and just put up a
bit of moral pressure and see what happens and, it is possible that I
will fail, but I will do the, do what I can.
RD:
Well, you don’t sound very positive, you sounded a bit more positive
last week.
RB:
Erm, I am, I’m no less positive than I was last week. I think that
we have all come to a conclusion that if, it’s, this dealing with Arabs
takes a bit of time, doesn’t it.
RD:
It’s like pulling teeth isn’t it, I think I know where the Spanish got
it from because they’ve got a lot of Arabic in the Spanish
RB:
Islamic blood.
RD:
What did ??? say? He said ‘I’d
sooner have my teeth pulled out than go down and have to talk to Franco
again’. (RB: laugh)
RB: Let me have
a go at it, and I’ll, I’ll see where I get to.
RD:
Alright, mate, well, I’ll speak to you late this afternoon,
then.
RB:
OK.
RD:
Alright, bye.
