Prince Charles goes to the Durbar

Prince Charlie cometh to Northern Nigeria. They are laying on a Durbar for him, and doubtless a bit of polo will be arranged. One always wonders the real reason behind such visits. Usually with royal jaunts, there's an arms deal lurking in the background. Or perhaps this time there's something political going on - I'll leave you to figure out what that might be..

Talking of weapons, notice from this article that the companies that make up the British arms trade are willing to accept they are corrupt, using the importance of the arms industry for the British economy as defence (as well as the age old argument of not wanting to lose out to the French). The UK's record on arms sales is something to be hideously ashamed of - who can forget the badly concealed (in terms of their use) sales of British Aerospace's Hawks to Indonesia (used to repress the East Timorese) and who can be proud of the UK's recent foot-dragging on international legislation against cluster bombs? Every day, serious injuries and deaths are occurring in southern Lebanon, thanks to these truly nasty munitions. But from the British Government's perspective, keeping the sales figures up is all that matters - who cares who dies or is maimed? One thing is sure - you'll never get Charlie talking about the evil of cluster bombs, unlike Diana, who made a big deal out of land mines all those years ago. Meanwhile, the Scottish air-apparent has signalled his intention to commission the new generation of Trident nukes, costing the tax payer billions and billions of pounds, in direct contravention of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Tosser.

The hidden logic of the arms trade is obvious, once you think about it: if you have weapons to sell, are you going to try to sell in conflict-free areas, or are you going to sell to volatile states in conflict with their neighbours? Both the British and the French arms industries have excelled at prolonging war and conflict in Africa, as elsewhere across the globe.