Congratulations to Guido Fawkes for posting something worthy of note…
Whilst a frontbench spokesman for defence under Michael Howard, Howarth was slammed in 2004 for providing a weapons lobbyist with a one of his allocated parliamentary staff passes. Michael Wood of lobbyists Whitehall Advisers (whose clients included BAE Systems and Airbus) who are the backbone of the UK’s billion pound arms industry. Like Caroline Spelman and her farming interests, David Cameron seemingly does not consider Howarth’s past connections to be an issue. Howarth has been made the parliamentary Under Secretary for Defence. He now has a direct role in arms procurement.
Howarth’s devotion to the weapon’s trade is almost touching in its fervour. When the Guardian published a special report, shedding light on corruption in the deals between BAE and the government of Saudi Arabia, Howarth accused it of being a “communist newspaper” which “ha[d] it in” for the company. According to him, the trade “demonstrat[ed] the enduring relationship between Saudi Arabia and the UK“, and attacks upon the former’s human rights abuses were “serious[ly] insulting” and “irresponsible“. While we might disagree with him, it’s hard not to empathise: ’tis, indeed, an unhappy thing when no one sees the goodness in the object of your love.
With Howarth joining the new Secretary for Defence, Liam Fox – a man who said, at a BAE-sponsored debate, that he “do[es]n’t think we support our defence industry enough” – it looks very much as if a passionate clinch is only going to get queasier.
May 20, 2010 at 10:04 am
Great points. Fox himself is, as you’ve said, extremely pro-arms – I wrote about it here: http://bit.ly/bCIJCe
He said in a speech (linked in that article) that he wants to expand Britain’s role in the global arms trade, and showed that he is essentially a US-style neo-conservative. Terrible choice for defence secretary. You should definitely check out the whole transcript – it’s very informative.
May 20, 2010 at 10:27 am
Thank you, Jon – interesting post. That speech is so dry, and, yet, so eerie, it’s practically passive aggressive.
May 20, 2010 at 11:25 am
Yuck! What a vominous collusion, over something so very dangerous.
May 20, 2010 at 4:16 pm
[...] » Back Towards The Locus: Tories And The Weapon’s Trade [...]
May 20, 2010 at 10:05 pm
It’s the possibility of actual aggression that worries me. Hopefully the population has learned its lesson from last time and won’t allow itself to be dragged into any more stupid wars.
Maybe it’ll even wake up and demand an end to the one we’re in now. [/pipe dream]
May 22, 2010 at 2:15 pm
On which note – uh oh…
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7133539.ece
October 2, 2010 at 1:37 am
[...] whitewashed and he was soon endearing himself to financiers, be they in Big Pharma or the arm’s trade. His statements and comrades lead one to surmise that he’s all for a bolstering of the [...]
November 3, 2010 at 1:17 pm
[...] defence secretary Liam Fox said in 2008 at a BAE sponsored shingdig, ‘I don’t think we support our defence industry enough,’ he was talking about sending the postman round with a big fat cheque not with tea, cakes [...]