Weapons Development

Given the attacks and instability that defence and security spending has achieved from Libya to Yemen, it should surprise nobody that the British government is lobbying to place weapons of war under the rubric of international aid. The immediate purpose is to enable various government departments to use bits of the aid budget in mitigation of the Osbornomic miracle; but it cannot be long before Britain's Head Boy and his arms-dealing chums add the "OECD-approved" label to their exports. The benign credentials of this radically reformative merchandise should already be self-evident by virtue of its being clearly labelled Not to be used for internal repression; but it seems this is not enough to satisfy the present bureaucratic definition of international aid. There are even some who claim that the overall purpose of aid spending should be the relief of poverty, which hardly seems conducive to the judicious immiseration of noisy wogs, the greasing of Conservative Party donors, and suchlike humanitarian ideals.