[ 11 September 2018 ] On 11 September 2018, Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, reminded parliament of British collusion with Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign against Yemen which, since it had started in 2015, had created what the United Nations described as ‘the world’s worst humitarian crisis.’ She added: ‘It seems as though no Saudi…
19 May 2003 On 19th May 2003, Indonesia deployed Hawk-200 fighter jets, supplied and made by the U.K., to front its assault on the Free Aceh Movement. The Guardian’s John Aglionby observed that ‘ the Hawks were used primarily to scare and intimidate people on the ground by flying low over targets already attacked with rockets…
17 August 1967 Today in 1967, the Birmingham Post revealed that, despite Britain’s commitment to neutrality in the war between Nigeria’s military junta and the secessionist state of Biafra, and despite the government’s claim that it would only provide the generals with military equipment which was defensive in nature, two British built fast seaward class patrol boats…
8 August 1967 Today in 1967, the Commonwealth Minister George Thomas submitted a confidential memo to Prime Minister Harold Wilson reminding him that Shell-BP, then partly owned by the British government, ‘have much to lose if the F.M.G. (Nigeria’s Federal Military Government) do not achieve the expected victory’ against Biafra, which had declared independence after…
28 July 1933 On 28 July 1933, six months after Hitler became chancellor of Germany, the Cabinet decided against implementing any regulations on the sales of British aircraft or advanced aero engines to Germany. The only qualification was that, if, at any time, other countries were prepared to insist on a ‘written assurance from the German…
17 July 1990 On 17 July 1990, just two weeks prior to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, the British government granted Matrix Churchill, a Coventry based company, licenses for the export of machine tools to Iraq, with the knowledge that they would be used to manufacture artillery shells and medium range missiles. In 1992, a…
14 July 1971 On 14 July 1971, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was the guest of honour at a state banquet with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Newspaper coverage was mostly favourable. An editorial in the Daily Telegraph declared that Amin was ‘a staunch friend of Britain.’1 The Birmingham Daily Post reported that ‘this is President…
7 July 1967 On 7 July 1967, the British government decided to explain apologetically to Major-General Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon, the leader of Nigeria’s military junta, that although it strongly sympathised with his efforts to crush any attempt by the persecuted Igbo population of Biafra to secede as an independent state, it would be diplomatically awkward…
15 May 1975 Throughout 1975, Harold Wilson’s Labour government supplied Apartheid South Africa with ammunition, military spares and other critical equipment for their armed forces. Britain’s backing helped the South African army enforce internal repression and prevent anti-imperialist insurgencies across southern Africa, as the regime increasingly resorted to extreme means to pacify the region. In…
24 April 1974 On 24 April 1974, Foreign Secretary James Callaghan explained to the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) why the Cabinet had decided to supply the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet with two Leander class frigates and two Oberon submarines. They had been under construction on the Clyde when the military coup, which…
