Business as usual for David Cameron and merchants of death

[donkey]

Can Britain afford to lose the revenue from arms sales? Some of that revenue might be paying for your gyros or your new set of dentures.

 

Most of us don't get gyros and don't rely on the arms industry to pay for our national health contributions as we pay for them ourselves.

[Bassman62]

I just don't understand why people are up in arms (excuse the pun) so much.

 

There's criticism when we don't manufacture enough, yet there's criticism when we do manufacture and export.

 

Perhaps you'd like it if we didn't export anything which could be misused, and we continue our decline to become nothing more than a service industry country of shopworkers?

 

Why should the UK and personally Cameron be to blame for how the equipment is used?

 

Are gun manufacturers in the US subject to so much abuse for the handguns and other guns which kill so many people? Are Ford and GM liable for abuse when their equipment is misused?

Along with the fact that someone will always supply them regardles of whether it is a despot in power.

[Bassman62]

Most of us don't get gyros and don't rely on the arms industry to pay for our national health contributions as we pay for them ourselves.

You'd be amazed just how much you've benefitted indirectly from arms sales in the past.

[hitch_1980]

And once again someone needs to drag up something from decades ago (which have no connection) to have a go at the government of today.

 

Tell me, do you:

 

1) Read The Sun.

2) Call the French "Froggie surrdenderers"3) Still laud it over the Germans for winning WW2 and the world cup in '66.

 

Its actually cheese eating surrender monkeys

[donkey]

You'd be amazed just how much you've benefitted indirectly from arms sales in the past.

 

I'd be amazed if you could provide any concrete information which indicated that was the case.

[Harleyman]

Most of us don't get gyros and don't rely on the arms industry to pay for our national health contributions as we pay for them ourselves.

 

 

Do you have inside information on the government's budget operations?

What revenue source funds what government program?

Until you know that you cannot state that the income from arms sales has nothing to do with unemployment or health benefits.

 

More than likely what you and everyone else pay in contributions towards national health only partially funds it

[Bulgarian]

LOL @ "merchants of death" - it's so melodramatic

[spindrift]

Can Britain afford to lose the revenue from arms sales? Some of that revenue might be paying for your gyros or your new set of dentures.

 

We don't get revenues. It costs us.

 

 

The deals are under written, and subsidised, by us taxpayers:

 

 

If you were in the government, what would you do

with £760 million?

 

Perhaps build 10 brand new

hospitals?

 

Or 100 new schools?

 

Or even increase the

amount we spend on conflict prevention by around

30 times?

 

Or would you give it to arms companies to

help them export military equipment around the

world? Despite the current government’s avowed

commitment to heath and education, unfortunately

they do the latter.

 

 

Even though arms exports only account for around

2% of UK exports, it is the most heavily subsidised

sector in the UK economy apart from agriculture.

 

 

UK

tax-payers foot the bill for these subsidies, which

amount to around £30 per taxpayer.

 

 

CAAT’s new campaign is aimed at ending

government subsidies for the arms trade and in

particular closing the Defence Export Services

Organisation (DESO), the government agency which is

dedicated to promoting arms exports.

 

 

CAAT believes that these subsidies make no sense

morally or economically. Rather than shoring up an

industry which fuels war, harms development and

breeds corruption, we should be using the money to

create real security in the world and help the

economy move away from military production.

 

 

The UK arms trade

Before we look at the economic costs to ourselves of

the arms trade, it is worth reminding ourselves of its

human cost.

 

 

The UK is the second largest arms exporter in the

world (after the United States) and has, according to

government figures, exported over £27 billion of

military equipment in the past five years alone. For

decades the UK government has had a policy of

promoting arms exports, seemingly at any cost. The

result of this policy is that the UK continues to arm

repressive regimes around the world. In 2000, the UK

licensed military exports to 30 of the 40 most

repressive regimes in the world and British weapons

are being used in most of the world’s current

conflicts.

Undoubtedly, the arms trade fuels conflict and

leads to an increase in casualties. What is more, in

modern armed conflicts nearly 90% of casualties are

civilians with about 40% of those being children. It is

estimated that 2,000 children are killed or maimed in

wars each and every day. It is no accident that the

massive rise in casualty figures coincides with the

expansion of the arms trade.

 

http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/shelling-out/briefing.pdf

 

Cameron's tawdry desperation to export death and misery is costing the rest of us money that could be used in far better ways.

[donkey]

Do you have inside information on the government's budget operations?

What revenue source funds what government program?

Until you know that you cannot state that the income from arms sales has nothing to do with unemployment or health benefits.

 

More than likely what you and everyone else pay in contributions towards national health only partially funds it

 

You are the one making the laughable claim that we are subsidised by the arms industry, which implies that you believe that you are the one who has inside knowledge of 'budget operations.'

Unless, of course, it's just that you unquestioningly believe this type of thing due to years of exposure to the crude propaganda of the military/industrial complex and their 'buddies' in the corridors of power over their in the land of the free.

[Bassman62]

The

result of this policy is that the UK continues to arm

repressive regimes around the world. In 2000, the UK

licensed military exports to 30 of the 40 most

repressive regimes in the world and British weapons

are being used in most of the world’s current conflicts.

 

So what, so do other countries, considering you have a two wrongs make right policy regarding legalising Cannabis because alcohol is legal you seem to be operating double standards.