Main menu:
The Conservative Secretary of State for Defence Minister Philip Hammond signals a halt to a defence hardware (jets and tanks) export deal in this cover image for PPP magazine. The UK has a long history of creating and exporting high quality hardware to countries that can sometimes at best be described as 'allies'. It is up to the politicians to balance economic advantage with potential threats to human rights in the countries which it exports to. One example where this judegement went badly wrong was in the selling of the jets to the Indonesian government which were then used against its own people who were calling for independence in East Timor. In the current conflict in Iraq and Syria where ISIL fighters are attempting to create an Islamic State they are said to be using weapons provided by the US to fight the Assad regime, but now they are now be used to slaughter innocents over a vast area of the Middle East.