Saunders fights in vain

ERNEST SAUNDERS, the former Guinness chairman, has always been the obsessive type, so it's little surprise to learn that nearly eight years after the scandal that brought him down, he's still fighting to clear his name. Most people would by now have given up. Last week brought a breakthrough of sorts with news that the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg believes he may have been denied a fair trial because Department of Trade and Industry inspectors deprived him of his right of silence.

It is hard to see, however, how the decision is going to do Mr Saunders or any of the other convicted Guinness defendants much good. Even if he does eventually manage to get his conviction quashed, he's still not going to convince most of us that his version of events - that he knew nothing about any of the Guinness skulduggery - is a believable one.