A very interesting op-ed in the Guardian today by Leader Nick Clegg on the current Israel-Gaza conflict.

If you haven’t seen it already you can access it at the following site:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/07/nick-clegg-israel-gaza-war

It is good to hear a senior politician standup and make such a statement. As the death toll rises and the violence continues on both sides it is certain that the current situation needs addressing urgently by members of the international community. 

During conference I took part in an interesting fringe event about ethics in the defence industry.

Chaired by Lord John Lee, and with a panel which included myself, Chandu Krishnan, Executive Director of Transparency International, UK; Murdo Morrison, Editor of Flight International; and Ian Godden of the Defence Industries Council (CEO SBAC), it was an interesting and lively debate. Read more »

I first saw the Typhoon in action at the recent Farnborough Airshow where it gave an awesome display of power and manoeuvrability; I was therefore delighted with the opportunity of visiting the BAE production site at Wharton in Lancashire. 

During the day I saw work being done not only on the Typhoon, but also on Nimrod integration and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as well as the Indian Hawk Refurbishment Programme. I learnt that at the present time 52 Typhoons are now in service with the RAF of which 13 have multi-action ground attack capability. As a result, one would expect to see some deployment in Afghanistan in due course, though so far the MOD have maintained a straight bat on this issue.

The following day I visited Barrow to see how the Astute submarine programme is progressing and went onboard the HMS Astute First of Class. The Astute class are nuclear powered submarines and are hunter, killer, attack submarines which will cost in order of £1billion each. Three others are under construction and Astute is due to be launched next year.

One amazing statistic that came out during the visit is that in the submarine there are no less than 26,000 separate pipes which they make on the site, and 100 miles of cabling.

 However, the encouraging feature at Wharton and Barrow is the emphasis on apprentice recruitment and ongoing training to maintain and develop skills for the future – something that we urgently need to guarantee the sustainability of industry and technology. What is more, although I knew there is a large acquisition in the United States I hadn’t fully appreciated that there are also significantly more employees in America with around 44,000 employees in the US compared to 34,000 in this country. This is in part due to the fact that most work in the US is on armoured vehicles, which is more labour intensive. Nonetheless, if you add up all the employees worldwide outside of the US it equates to the number within the US!

British Defence Industry plays a vital role both domestically and for our force projection capabilities oversees. And in terms of corporate development they really have performed very impressively in recent years.

Nick Clegg today responded to the Law Lords’ ruling on the SFO decision to halt its investigation into BAE.

He deemed the ruling a ”legal licence for international blackmail” and said that the ”rule of law in Britain now seems to depend on the whims of foreign governments.”

In order for the Government to restore its tarnished global reputation there must be an independent inquiry into its role in dropping the decision to prosecute. We need to see openness, transparency and accountability in the arms trade.

 Without doubt, the strong whiff of corruption will remain until the Serious Fraud Office completes its investigation into the Al Yamamah arms deal. It cannot come soon enough.

Commenting on China’s continued attempts to ship arms to Zimbabwe, Liberal Democrat Shadow Foreign Secretary, Edward Davey said:

There is now a compelling case for the international community to take action and prevent any further transfer of arms to Zimbabwe. The regime is unstable and the risk of conflict represents a clear threat to the region.

Arms embargoes have been justified on similar grounds in other countries and there is no reason why Zimbabwe should be considered an exception. Read more »

The Liberal Democrats have long called for greater transparency and accountability in the Arms Trade. Following Thursday’s High Court ruling that the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into secret payments by BAE to Saudi Arabia should never have been dropped, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has  written to Gordon Brown urging him to re-open the investigation and hold a full inquiry into how this unlawful decision was reached.

Nick Clegg has challenged the Prime Minister to explain why he backtracked on his pledge to ensure that the role of Attorney General retains full public confidence, given that proposals in the draft Constiuttional Renewal Bill would give the Attorney General powers to block investigations or prosecutions on the pretext of national security.

He has also called on the Prime Minister to update Parliament on the progress of other investigations into alleged corruption by British companies, and on UK Government cooperation with the US Justice Department’s investigation into alleged bribery by BAE. Read more »