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All the fun of the (arms) fair this Sunday

A fun day out for all the family has a dark side, as arms dealers shake hands with oppressive military regimes right alongside the picnic blankets.

By Joe Lo
Published:
red arrows.jpg
red arrows.jpg

Image: Red Arrows at RIAT, Airwolfhound/Flickr. License: Creative Commons

This Sunday, families will gather in the Cotswolds to lay picnic blankets, relax in the sunshine and watch pilots perform incredible flying feats above them.  Meanwhile in Yemen, 10,000 people have been killed in conflict, seven million are on the edge of starvation and more than 300,000 have contracted cholera. What links these two events? The planes and bombs which caused the latter may have been sold at the former.