Storyteller's World

It's such a comfort to know, isn't it, that the UK is the second largest arms manufacturer and exporter in the world. All that trade coming into the country, all those people gainfully employed. But (SHOCK! HORROR!) it turns out that the ethical policies of our leaders, which ensure that we only sell arms to buyers and governments who will not use them for naughty purposes (like oppressing their own citizens, or engaging in regional conflicts [what other kind is there, I wonder? every conflict is in someone's region, and it's just not good enough to shrug and say, well that's OK as long as it's not our region]) - those ethical policies are actually not effective!! People are - no, sit down, you'll find this hard to believe - actually using the weapons they buy from us to kill people.

It's times like this that I wonder whether the politicians are mad, or just assume we are stupid. Yet when you raise questions about the ethics of us getting wealthy by selling people the means to kill people, all you get back - from politicians of all parties - is the stuff about the number of jobs that would be lost if this iniquitous trade was discontinued.

At moments like that, I like to think about Japan. For years after the Second World War, they were banned from making anything with a military application. So they used all their inventiveness, design, energy and manufacturing power to create non-military products. And became the boom economy of the time. Meanwhile we go on squandering our talents and inventions to design better ways to kill people. What was I saying about being under God's judgement, by means of the governments we've elected?

See Safer World