Our very own Dave Cameron is in that hotbed of Democracy Saudi Arabia and agreeing to 'strengthen co-operation with Saudi Arabia and discuss the importance of the UK-Saudi bilateral relationship' Downing Street have said.
So why is David Cameron devoting so much time and energy to Saudi Arabia?
After all, a brief glance at our balance sheet shows that it is hardly one of our biggest trading partners, it comes in a lowly 24th, buying a tad over 1% of our exports, far less than places like Turkey or Poland.
The Saudi's don't make the list of the top 25 import sources and we get the vast majority of our oil from Norway and import more of the black stuff from Azerbaijan than Saudi and i have yet to hear of the Prime Minister dashing off to Baku for top level trade meetings.
So why the dash to Riyadh?
Saudi Arabia is the second largest buyer of UK arms, £15 billion annually, and this is important to the Saudi's because otherwise they couldn't support the regime next door in prosecuting doctors and nurses for treating those injured by the very same guns and armoured vehicles.
The Arab spring uprising that we chose to ignore because rather awkwardly, we are supplying the arms to allow them to do it.
There you go Azerbaijan, if you want the British PM to turn up on your doorstep promising to strengthen co-operation with you, or even want to violently put down an uprising, buy our guns.
3 comments:
Ah, Lucy, the selling of arms goes hand in hand with the warmongers. And who is the world's biggest warmonger and the largest seller of armaments?
America, of course, the land that claims to be spreading democracy and upholding human rights! That it has killed millions and turned destruction into an art form, well, its supporters don't want to know about that!
And now the British are carrying the imperial American flag. They too make the weapons and join in the wars with real enthusiasm, Tally Ho!
The British, once proud, once mindful of maintaining some standard of nobility, have become the craven surrogates of an even more evil, more brutal, more greedy empire than theirs was.
Australia, meantime, trots along behind licking whatever hand pats it!
How times change. Sadly, not for the better!
hey, expanding the message some, well not really. still 2 mmessages suck and murder, just added uk and austrialia to the list...
just the guy who walks around pointing everybody elses flaws.
q
If nobody's buying, then nobody's selling.
If the official sources aren't selling, then the unofficial ones will.
I'm not defending those who deal in death, but this Planet Earth that we live on. Where there is money to made, certain people will always try to make it. Maybe you and I wouldn't do it, but there are 7 billion other people on this planet, some of whom most definitely will.
As usual, the answer won't be found in the 'supply side' of the equation. We need to address the demand.
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