Successive governments, and the Tories in particular, have had a problem with the rule of law.
Currently, with prices around $30 a barrel, this is quite an attractive proposition, and the government has just signed new memoranda of understanding with the half-dozen oil companies operating in Nigeria.But, as in all areas of life in Nigeria, there is a huge problem with the rule of law.
Russia has a vibrant consumer market, but investors also look at its corruption and its problems with the rule of law.
Although there are abuses of power and problems with the rule of law in Venezuela – as there are throughout the hemisphere – it is far from the authoritarian state that most consumers of western media are led to believe.
"It is incredible and not acceptable for a president of a Nato member to comment in such a way about another member – especially in a country which has considerable problems with the rule of law", said Volker Kauder, the parliamentary party group leader of Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic party.
The inquiry added, however, that there were serious problems with the rule of law in the atoll nation which urgently needed to be addressed.
Although there are abuses of power and problems with the rule of law in Venezuela -- as there are throughout the hemisphere -- it is far from the authoritarian state that most consumers of Western media are led to believe.
They point to problems with the rules of engagement, with some suggesting that the freedom to invent a new identity is, like Plato's ring of Gyges, taken as a freedom to slip free of all morality.
The problem with changing the rules of the game is that victory ultimately counts for less.
It is likely to welcome the resumption of high-level talks between Belgrade and Pristina and point to persisting problems in the region with the rule of law, corruption, -discrimination, the pace of structural reforms and the polarisation of politics.
All the same, I have a problem with the old rule of "race avoidance", because in my opinion it marginalises and makes second-class anyone who is actually happy to speak from his or her cultural perspective.
