Latest editorial
An elderly Ukrainian woman looks on after Russian shelling in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 29, 2022
FOR Britain’s arms manufacturers exports, especially to war zones, are the gift that keeps on giving. The £1 billion of military aid Boris Johnson just promised to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is a substantial sum — but it is less than 10 per cent of the ongoing exports to Saudi Arabia.
These totalled £11bn in 2019 — according that is to the Department for International Trade. The value of British arms licensed for export to the Saudi-led coalition since the bombing of Yemen began in March 2015 is £8.6bn (including £7.1bn to Saudi Arabia alone).
The Campaign Against the Arms Trade (Caat) estimates that the real value of arms to Saudi Arabia is over £23bn, while the value of sales to Britain’s allies in this coalition of despots is nearly £25bn.
Expanding Britain’s nuclear capability increases the risk of nuclear confrontation. It does not keep us safe – it makes us a target, argues CAROL TURNER
The defence secretary’s resignation reveals not a split over principle but a dispute over pace of military spending, as Britain’s political Establishment unites behind deeper Nato commitments, argues NICK WRIGHT
Washington plays innocent bystander while pouring weapons and intelligence into Ukraine, just as it enables the Gaza genocide — but every US escalation leaves Ukraine weaker than the neutrality deal rejected in 2022, argue MEDEA BENJAMIN and NICOLAS JS DAVIES