Dirty Fighters

The honest gentlemen at BAE have abandoned their plans for "ecologically sound weaponry", on the unimpeachable grounds that their profits might be adversely affected. New New Labour, the party of clean coal and sustainable uranium, is nevertheless unlikely to have many environmental qualms about its new fifteen-year contract with the company, which provides for the supply of just over two hundred million rounds of penetration and pink-mist annually. The deal will "secure supplies of ammunition to frontline troops in conflict zones such as Afghanistan", which sounds like a jolly good idea. The average restless native in Afghanistan may have a smaller carbon footprint than, say, the average Cabinet minister; but despite the best efforts of the Coalition for Civilised Values, there are still rather more of the former than the latter.