Quotes by Tim Webb

In keeping with the spirit of contemporary corporate awareness of environmental issues, BAE has started work on designing green munitions, lead-free bullets and rockets with reduced toxins. It said: ‘Lead used in ammunition can harm the environment and pose a risk to people.’ The company doesn’t make jokes and of course they’re right. Nobody wants to be shot with a bullet that pollutes the air it passes through or to be blown apart by a missile that contains toxic substances.

In 1965, [Denis] Healey asked Sir Donald Stokes, the head of Leyland Motors, to enquire into the possibility of establishing a sales body for British weapons...
[Following Stokes’ feasibility study], Sir Henry Hardman, the top civil servant at the MoD, said: ‘Sir Donald Stokes had indicated that it was often necessary to offer bribes to make sales... The commercial technique was to gather intelligence on the right people who controlled sales and purchases. When the right person was found, effort would be concentrated on him and, in time, a sale would be effected. Sir Donald stressed that a great many arms sales were made, not because anyone wanted the arms, but because of the commissions involved en route.’

One of the founding fathers of the modern British military suppliers was Sir Basil Zaharoff. Born in rural Turkey, he worked as a brothel tout, counterfeit currency dealer, banker, private arms trader and, finally, the respected director of Vickers, the British armaments manufacturer that was the forerunner of BAE Systems. He spared no effort in sabotaging his competitors’ products, bribing foreign military leaders and arming both sides in a war. Britain made him a baron and he died in 1936, laden with honours.