Thank heavens for that! It is always comforting to wake in the morning, turn on the news, and hear that we, the UK, are operating within the rules.
Because rules are important. They define and delineate the way society, and societies relationships with other societies, operates.
They maintain the rule of law, the sanctity of international agreements, the status quo of national and cross border hierarchies.
I have to wonder though, where does morality fit into this? What about the right to life? The protection of the innocent?
Four, yes four, of our senior government ministers have stated that the sales of arms, of weapons of extensive destruction, to Saudi Arabia are within the regulatory requirements of the various trade bodies / compliance organisations / blah blah blah.
Good to know. To know that, even though the weapons we have sold, and continue to sell, to Saudi are used in an indiscriminate fashion in Yemen, with no consideration for civilian casualties, that we are complying with the rules.
Except that there are other rules. Simple, straight forward standards of humanity that go far above and beyond the compliance to trade treaties.
When the agreements were drawn up, when they were signed and filed away, the one group not involved, invited, considered in the machinations were the ones who suffer and die as a result.
The only concern that manifested itself in those agreements was the continuation of an industry of death, and goods peddled to those considered of advantage in the great geo-political schemes of the powerful.
And so we continue to justify selling arms to a country which has demonstrated a zero consideration for civilians – never mind a dubious justification for involvement in a conflict in another country – and has clearly demonstrable links to the financing of terrorist organisations.
But hey, never mind, because we are abiding by the rules.
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