UK is second-biggest arms dealer

[s1962a]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54435335

The bit that shocks me

BBC said:

Almost £100bn worth of contracts since 2010 included the sale of Typhoons to Saudi Arabia and missiles to Qatar.

Why are we selling arms to regimes like that?

[spookly]

s1962a said:

Why are we selling arms to regimes like that?

Money.

[GT03ROB]

s1962a said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54435335

The bit that shocks me

BBC said:

Almost £100bn worth of contracts since 2010 included the sale of Typhoons to Saudi Arabia and missiles to Qatar.

Why are we selling arms to regimes like that?

Because they’ll buy them. Weapons are meant to kill people. Qatar don;t like Saudi. If you are lucky they might use the missiles to shoot down Saudi planes

[ettore]

How did that shock you? We've been doing it for years on end. As indeed do our American and EU friends.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren't our enemies.

[Funky Squirrel]

Good job we have moved up, I thought Russia had a good lead on us.

[s1962a]

ettore said:

How did that shock you? We've been doing it for years on end. As indeed do our American and EU friends.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren't our enemies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-4024673...

I presume you've not read any articles on how islamist terrorist groups might be funded?

[vaud]

spookly said:

s1962a said:

Why are we selling arms to regimes like that?

Money.

Money. Funds a massive industry which in turn generates profits for shareholders. Many of those shareholders will be part of your pension scheme.

[FourWheelDrift]

s1962a said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54435335

The bit that shocks me

BBC said:

Almost £100bn worth of contracts since 2010 included the sale of Typhoons to Saudi Arabia and missiles to Qatar.

Why are we selling arms to regimes like that?

Because no one else will buy them.

[Biggy Stardust]

s1962a said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-4024673...

I presume you've not read any articles on how islamist terrorist groups might be funded?

I presume they don't use typhoons & any money being spent on typhoons can't be given to them.

Where's the downside?

[ettore]

s1962a said:

ettore said:

How did that shock you? We've been doing it for years on end. As indeed do our American and EU friends.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren't our enemies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-4024673...


I presume you've not read any articles on how islamist terrorist groups might be funded?

I fear that life is a little more complicated than that.

[anonymous-user]

s1962a said:

Why are we selling arms to regimes like that?

We need the money.

If we didn't sell to them then someone else would, so we might as well take their cash.

[coolg]

I take that as good news our technical and engineering excellence are still there.

We should be proud that we still make technical things that the world want to buy.

I find it unlikely that terrorists are going to use Typhoons.

How many people have Saudi Arabia or Qatar killed with UK made weapons ?

And would the overall deaths be different if we had not sold them a single weapon ?

Edited by coolg on Tuesday 6th October 17:20

[BritishBlitz87]

ettore said:

How did that shock you? We've been doing it for years on end. As indeed do our American and EU friends.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren't our enemies.

They bloody well should be! I can't think of any country that opposes everything Britain stands for quite as completely as Saudi Arabia.

It's nothing new though, actual British troops were being cut down by Ashanti wielding British-made rifles in Victorian times and no one did anything then, so what chance has anyone got at stopping it when the only victims are random civilians halfway across the world.

As for the money aspect? Its not often I'm in favour of breaking our most hidebound traditions, but maybe we could buy the weapons! I know it's a novel idea, actually having decent-sized fleet of properly equipped tanks and aircraft, enough ships that the RN won't have it's capacity crippled by one unlucky torpedo. We could even build up stocks of ammunition that would last more than 15 minutes in a major war! It would have saved a good few lives in the Falklands that's for sure.

And if we must sell arms to countries of, erm, "ill-repute" could we at least find a dictatorship that doesn't sponsor people to try and murder our kids?

Edited by BritishBlitz87 on Tuesday 6th October 17:39

[anonymous-user]

s1962a said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54435335

The bit that shocks me

Me too. Great to see we're good at something.

[markcoznottz]

It’s got to be something to do with white privilege surely...

[leef44]

Lord Marylebone said:

s1962a said:

Why are we selling arms to regimes like that?

We need the money.

If we didn't sell to them then someone else would, so we might as well take their cash.

The irony is that this is true.

We need the money to pay for the schools and hospitals.

[anonymous-user]

BritishBlitz87 said:

...could we at least find a dictatorship that doesn't sponsor people to try and murder our kids?

Yeah let's stop taking their money off them. That'll teach 'em. In any event it's that ''dictatorship'' that keeps the real nutcases out of power.

[mac96]

Only second? Room for improvement then.

[shouldbworking]

Blimey, you're right. Let's stop this immediately. I guess the £24bn revenue for the UK won't be missed nor the couple of hundred thousand jobs.

[anonymous-user]

If this is something we are good at then in all honesty we should ramp up production and tout our business everywhere.

We need to boost our manufacturing sector as much as possible.