One month ago to the day Corbyn said this…
Jeremy Corbyn: UK should not supply arms to Saudi Arabia
Corbyn has been saying the same thing for a long time now and his fellow travellers at the BBC have been campaigning[and yes that is the right word] along similar lines constantly attacking Saudi Arabia for its alleged human rights failures in the war in Yemen demanding arms sales stop.
Today, as BAE Systems says it will cut jobs due to sales to the likes of Saudi Arabia drying up, Labour are up in arms…
Nia Griffith, Labour’s shadow defence secretary, said: “This is truly appalling news for BAE’s workers and for communities across the UK.
“The jobs that BAE are cutting are highly skilled and their loss will be felt in areas that have a strong tradition of defence manufacturing.
“It is time for the Government to address the clear uncertainty that is felt by the industry and come forward with an urgent plan to save these jobs.
“This must include the possibility of bringing forward orders to provide additional work for BAE’s employees, such as replacing the Red Arrows’ fleet of Hawk aircraft that are approaching the end of their service life.”
So very concerned about jobs at BAE that McDonnell, only last May, was prepared to see BAE practically closed down if the Bosses were paid too much in his opinion….
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has warned BAE Systems risks losing its government defence contracts if Labour wins the election, unless its top boss agrees to a reduction in pay.
Amusingly Emma Barnett actually tackled Labour on their hypocrisy on this issue [Chi Onwurah, Labour MP for Newcastle Central & Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy, Science & Innovation]….which is all well and good if it weren’t for the fact that the BBC is equally guilty of exactly the same hypocrisy, calling for arms sales to Saudi Arabia to be stopped but expressing dismay and shock at job losses …er…due to a failure to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. Amused the Labour MP completely at sea on this. Good to know industry, science and innovation safe in her hands should she ever be in government 🙁
It is only common sense.
Saudi Arabia was looking to buy another 48 Typhoons. The order will take years to fulfill. The political situation in this country is such that they have to factor in the possibility that Worzel Gummidge and his gang of communists will be in power by 2022, eager to end the arms trade.
If you were the Saudis, would you see the UK as a good place to do business with? Maybe the French will get an order for Rafales after all. Even under an idiot like Macron, the French always put their national interests first.
Rob in Cheshire
Remember the Exocets and the Falklands War
We were in the EU then. Thanks France ! “With friends like you …………”
Rob.
Also India has very recently agreed a huge order for French Fighter Jets. It seems that the cost of the Typhoon was too high! The French jets are no were near as good as the Typhoon Jet just a lot cheaper.
That overseas aid we used to hand out to India really paid off, didn’t it?
I wonder how much foreign aid France gives to India?
vesnadog wrote:
Also India has very recently agreed a huge order for French Fighter Jets.
That huge order of 126 jets was reduced to 36 after the French increased their price 2.7 times from the original cost proposal.
I understand that at one time India used the Hawk Jet which is made in England.
Vesnadog wrote:
“I understand that at one time India used the Hawk Jet which is made in England.”
They still do, in facts their Hawks are currently on a huge modification program called Hawk-I which saw the Advanced Hawk first take flight in June.
The Indians like the Hawk as it is is the successor to the Gnat which rang rings around the much bigger (and presumably better) Pakistani Sabre (Supposed to be the best fighter at the time) shooting down 7 for the loss of 2. That has led to an Indian mindset of big is not always best, which is why a lot of its aircraft are smaller than the rest:
Ajeet
Tejas
Jaguar
Mig 21
Mirage 2000
and the Hawk.
As well as being cheaper don’t the French jets fly backwards ?
The vast majority of anti-Saudi sentiment is funded by Iran. (Note, I have no time for SA). Currently there is a huge cold war going on in the region between Iran (And its acolytes) and SA and its gang. (Aka Sunni Islam V Shia Islam) To be fair to Iran, it is simply doing all it can in which to ensure it will not be wiped out by the others (As seen when the rest funded Saddam to invade in 1980). Iran realising it will never win a war against the rest, has spent a lot of money on its public image (Victim) and trying to promote the vision it is actually stronger than it is (Hence the almost daily news reports of the latest world beating weapon)
It has also spent a little money on Asymmetrical warfare which entails others spending a lot more in which to combat them , Support to Hezballah/Syria/Hamas and Yemen etc)
By polarizing world opinion against SA, they do for pennies what entire battle groups fail to do . So they look for the weak link and in this case they target the UK. Spread the view that hundreds of thousands are dying in Yemen due to British weapons and in time, they hope to see the UK remove support. Hoping that the rest will follow. Yet the fact remains the UK sells very little to the SA miltary machine. Yes they have Typhoons (which is always brought out, but it is primarily a fighter jet with secondary ground attack capabilities) The main strike aircraft in the SA inventory is the F15SA, pound for pond the best strike aircraft in the world , it is American. The Chinese are currently using the Chinese version of the Reaper Drone (Wing loon) and have just signed a contract to start building them in country. The SA also use Chinese mobile artillery (In use in Yemen) The tanks it uses are.US M1A1 tanks (minus the Uranium armour the yanks have fitted) Only last week Russia signed a deal to sell the S400 missile system. What I am saying is, that the UK actually sells very little to SA and when a market is closed to people they look elsewhere. (The sale of the Wing Loon came about because the US refused to sell the Reaper)
As i mentioned the public campaign championed by the likes of Labour is simply designed to give Iran the upper hand in its cold war against SA . You know like just like how the Islamic world gets the likes of Corbyn to do likewise regards Israel.
Finally when it comes to arms sales to SA the UK falls way behind the US/France/China/Germany/Italy/Canada and Spain . Have a look at the equipment list of the following SA military arms:
Army
Navy
Air force
As you will see, there are very few items in there, with a made in the UK tag. (Note the Typhoon is called the Euro-fighter for a reason)
On the otherside of the coin (But never mentioned) is the support Iran is handing over to Yemen (For a start over 100 SCUD missiles have been launched into SA from Yemen), the supply of UAVs ,anti-tank missiles and of course anti-ship missiles. As well as training, advisor’s and light weapons.
Yet to the likes of the left only SA is in the wrong. The irony here is the 10K death toll since 2015 is a lot lower than any other war that has taken place in Yemen (and there has been loads )since 1960.
Just noticed an error above that should read as the Saudis are using Chinese drones.
Read somewhere that the USA supply armaments under license and agreements so they don’t drop onto civilian heads (as much as possible) whereas the Chinese don’t give a darn.
Chinese military clamp down hard on masturbating recruits as more than half turned away {express 25aug2017}
CHINA discharged eight per cent of failed recruits under accusations of “excessive masturbation”, a shocking release from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has claimed.
– Clamp down & masturbating & discharged & Liberation Army – jokes that write themselves.
Excellent post Pounce. Thank you for the links.
We are constantly told that the UK work force is under skilled and there are not enough engineers, etc and this is one of the arguments put forward for immigration. Now if this is true then absolutely no one should be worried for the workers of BAE, there skills will be eagerly sought and they wont join the ranks of the unemployed or become UBER drivers.
There is a huge lack of engineers. I know my industry (rail) will hoover up anyone who wants to jump ship (no pun intended)
Don’t forget Jeremy Corblimey also is a CND chief and wants to scrap the new Trident subs which are underway at BAE in Barrow in Furness and providing work for thousands for up to 30 years!
Trident isn’t fit for purpose, we could achieve much the same deterrent with a couple of cheap wonky missiles from North Korea!
Labour have always been two faced, to put it mildly, when it comes to the Defence Industry and their latest crocodile tears of the loss of jobs at BAE in Preston is the ultimate hypocrisy. BAE Systems is the successor to what was formerly BAC (British Aircraft Corporation) which was, in turn, a conglomerate of aircraft manufacturers including the original manufacturer in the Preston area called English Electric. That was the firm which created the Canberra Bomber and Lightning Interceptor, both of which were excellent aircraft.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s BAC were in the process of creating an aircraft called the TSR2 which was to be a British manufactured supersonic bomber. (There is plenty of information about that aircraft on the internet) The plane was already flying and in the final stages of development when it was suddenly cancelled.
The TSR2 had been commissioned by the Conservative Government in power at the time but in 1964 there was a General Election. During the Campaign for that Election Denis Healey, a senior Labout MP, visited BAC in Preston and assured the workers there that Labour definitely had no intention whatsoever of cancelling the TSR2 and that their jobs were definitely safe should Labour win that Election.
That is the background. Here is what happened. Labour won the Election in 1964 and Denis Healey became Chancellor of the Exchequer. At his very first Budget in 1965 he announced that the TSR2 was cancelled immediately and, in preferrence an inferior but cheaper American plane was to be purchased instead. There is strong reason to suspect that the deal with the US had been made during a visit to the US prior to the election during a meeting between Healey and the US Defence Secretary, Robert McNamara. The American plane was never bought as it’s cost rapidly excalated well beyond that of what the TRS2 would have cost.
The worst part of the story is that the damage done to the British Aircraft Industry by the sudden cancellation of the TSR2 was such that we have never alone produced any Military Aircraft since. After that destructive episode by Labour we have either had to purchase aircraft produced by other countries or having had to engage in joint production with other aircraft industries from countries.
And now Labour are doing the finger wagging, they really have no shame at all having been the instigators of the almost total decline of our once world class aircraft manufcturers.
AL
Would that be the same Denis Healey believed by British Intelligence to be a Soviet agent?
With reference to the headline we have already been enriched by one Communist man of steel.
No repetition please.
Errr …… man of steal.
BAE and the MOD need to get off their arses and start selling overseas to reduce costs of military items sold to the UK forces. On the ship & sub building side BAE appears to solely rely on MOD RN orders which the MOD then sells off cheap after about 10 years in service with massive losses of UK tax payers money and to the detriment of the RN. The latest is the muted idea of selling off the Albion and Bulward and the survey vessel HMS Scott plus ex amount of choppers.
Aircraft wise BAE appear to have nothing in the pipeline to replace the Hawk which was one of the best fast jet trainers in the world. Same for Typhoon, I do not understand why all the effort and money is spent on supersonic aircraft when most campaigns lately has seen a requirement for ground attack role and this can be low tech like the US A10 Thunderbolt. The US navy uses some Hawker Hunters for dissimilar aircraft dog fighting etc via a private US company – surely the UK can produce a very up to date low tech Hunter type aircraft which would again be a world best seller.
I think BAE will in the end go the same way as British Leyland – down the tubes and it will be thanks to massive mismanagement by the MOD on UK requirements and the usual massive overspends on projects.
FH
” it will be thanks to massive mismanagement by the MOD”
Do not worry, the new plans are in place. Stored on 8500 laptops.
All we need is for the MOD to remember in which taxi/train/brothel/Turkish Bath/Gay night club/etc they left them.