spindrift Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Thank God Labour never allowed arms sales when they were in power... "We didn't start it!" is a pretty poor excuse for Cameron traipsing round the world selling weapons to dodgy regimes who go on to use them to trample on human rights. Us taxpayers massively subsidise the arms trade remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Sidney Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 While the Arab uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa continued against regimes armed by UK firms, David Cameron flew to the region with British arms dealers on a trade mission to boost military sales. He hastily added a quick trip to Cairo to show support for the Egyptian uprising by standing shoulder to shoulder with Field Marshall Tantawi, who, as Wikileaks revealed, the US describes as "Mubarak's poodle. This sounds like a GCSE essay on the corrupt west... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassman62 Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 He's not wrong though is he? So The British government etc sells Russian arms and armaments now does it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davebrmm Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 the labour brothers did,nt sell em weapons they let em all come over here to claim asylum get more money than us and jump the housing list god bless multi millionair blair and the red brothers who turned sheffield in to a joke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donkey Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 So Labour sold weapons to muderous scum bags too, and that supposedly makes it alright for Cameron to vist to a war torn region with a trade delegation mostly made up of arms dealers. If Tony Blair sacrifices babies at the full moon (and I'm not ruling it out) would that make it alright for Cameron to do so as well? Apparerntly yes, according to the usual deep thinkers on Sheffield F***wit Forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 "We didn't start it!" is a pretty poor excuse for Cameron traipsing round the world selling weapons to dodgy regimes who go on to use them to trample on human rights. Us taxpayers massively subsidise the arms trade remember. Do you have any sales figures from Cameron's tour? From what I gather they were primarily there for Kuwait, hardly a "dodgy regime" as you put it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spindrift Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Do you have any sales figures from Cameron's tour? From what I gather they were primarily there for Kuwait, hardly a "dodgy regime" as you put it. The Prime Minister moved on to Kuwait but his defence minister, Gerald Howarth, went with the arms dealers to the defence expo. On sale were examples of the UK's finest weaponry – CS gas shotgun cartridges, sniper rifles, bomb-making parts as well as the big stuff such as BAE's lethal howitzer. But while in Kuwait, Cameron was caught on the hop when asked by a reporter why the UK was still selling arms to the emirate, prompting him to snap: "I simply don't understand how you can't understand how democracies have a right to defend themselves," adding that anyone not holding that view was at "odds with reality". Well, the reality caught up with him when TV footage coming out of Libya showed Colonel Gaddafi's security men crushing protests in Tripoli using British-made armoured personnel carriers. The manufacturer has been identified as Leicestershire-based NMS International, which has sold 10 of the vehicles to Libya. One director claimed the vehicles are "big armoured buses" used to carry up to 42 police officers, and not designed for hostility. It also emerged that NMS has been training Libyan police. The UK has now sold military bits worth £30m to the country, taking the total to about £100m since ex-PM Tony Blair brought Gaddafi back in from the cold. Apart from the sickening knowledge that UK-made equipment is being used by Gaddafi to slaughter his own people, the fact that we started selling again to this ruthless tyrant shows the hypocrisy of the rules which guide our defence exports. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/margareta-pagano/margareta-pagano-cameron-shoots-himself-in-the-ukarmed-foot-2226621.html Making and selling arms is big business. Worth about £7.5bn in exports, the industry employs around 300,000 people – many of them highly talented engineers and technicians; it's a cash-up-front business, high-margin and counter-cyclical. But actually this is tiny, representing only about 1.5 per cent of all exports. Imagine if the resources which the Government put behind it where given to alternative technologies, those which could help wean us off the oil and gas that make us so dependent on the Gulf? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johncocker Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I suppose china and russia don't sell arms to them because of there strict human rights policies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj.scuba Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Imagine if the resources which the Government put behind it where given to alternative technologies, those which could help wean us off the oil and gas that make us so dependent on the Gulf? How do you know they're not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mj.scuba Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Do you have any sales figures from Cameron's tour? From what I gather they were primarily there for Kuwait, hardly a "dodgy regime" as you put it. Hopefully picked up some big orders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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