BAE’s links with New Labour
James P | 15.11.2008 11:07 | Anti-militarism | Globalisation
MPs have just received their invitations to a Christmas drinks reception hosted by arms manufacturer BAE Systems.
And guess which MP is sponsoring the reception?
None other than former health secretary Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt.
This is not the first time that Hewitt has come to BAE’s assistance. In 2003, as Trade and Industry Secretary she publicly backed the case for a multibillion pound defence contract to BAE to keep its Hawk jet fighter in production – a move estimated to have cost the taxpayer £450 million to give the RAF obsolete planes they didn’t even want.
It was also Hewitt who overruled Gordon Brown and Clare Short to grant BAE a government export licence for a military air traffic control system to Tanzania. Short said the deals was was corrupt and "stank".
Is there something that we’re not being told?
And guess which MP is sponsoring the reception?
None other than former health secretary Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt.
This is not the first time that Hewitt has come to BAE’s assistance. In 2003, as Trade and Industry Secretary she publicly backed the case for a multibillion pound defence contract to BAE to keep its Hawk jet fighter in production – a move estimated to have cost the taxpayer £450 million to give the RAF obsolete planes they didn’t even want.
It was also Hewitt who overruled Gordon Brown and Clare Short to grant BAE a government export licence for a military air traffic control system to Tanzania. Short said the deals was was corrupt and "stank".
Is there something that we’re not being told?
James P
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
where?
15.11.2008 12:07
that tanzania deal doesn't seem to have done her too much harm. robin cook would be turning in his grave.
armless
Patricia Hewitt
15.11.2008 12:38
Patricia Hewitt is also now a director of British Telecom (BT)
She joined the BT board at the time that the controversy over BT's implementation of a spyware system, called Phorm, was at its height. BT is still going ahead with trialling a system which will spy on every web page seen by BT customers, supposedly so as to deliver "better advertising".
Is it right that a former minister should become a director of a public company such as BT? Of course it's not!
Should an MP be accepting money from an arms company to host a "drinks reception"? No!
If you want to write to her about BAE, BT or anything else, the e-mail address is:
watcher
Venue
15.11.2008 13:59
In other words, she is using taxpayers' money (which pays for the HoC), to subsidise an arms corporation which already receives vast amount of tax, so that its directors can lobby MPs to give it even more money.
Carrying out an action inside the HoC isn't too difficult - as Plane Stupid recently demonstrated. And once inside, the assumption is that you are 'OK'. Two weeks ago I mistakenly walked into a CBI reception and was offered drinks and food - no-one bothered to check who I was.
James P
Action
16.11.2008 15:03
Angie