Yakking for Argyll

Hang on. Isn’t the heart of private enterprise supposed to be the old saw ’speculate to accumulate’? And isn’t investment the key to speculation? Not for our feather-bedded UK Government contractors. BAE Systems, due to delver HMS Astute to Faslane in Argyll by the end of this month, has been awarded a fifteen year contract by the MOD to supply ammunition to British troops. The contract is worth £3 billion and includes £120 million which - “allows BAE to carry out much needed modernisation work on munitions factories in the UK, some of which are relying on machinery dating back to the Second World War”. And we’re investing serious public money in irresponsible management like this? And what about the safety of the areas surrounding these dodgy munitions operations - in Birtley, County Durham; Glascoed, South Wales; and Radway Green in Crewe?

Charlie Blakemore, MD of BAE Systems’ Land Systems Munitions wing, says - gaily, of their long obsolete set up: “You can imagine that, with the rate of production we are now at, it’s been some achievement to keep that going in that period to make sure we deliver on time’.” It’s been in your unsafe hands, mate - or more accurately, in your bank.