Here:

The government has approved arms exports to 19 of the 20 countries it has identified as “countries of concern” for abusing human rights, according to the annual report on its weapons exports released yesterday. They include Saudi Arabia, Israel, Colombia, China and Russia.

This was my favourite bit:

A Whitehall official said the government takes into account whether arms were likely to be used for internal repression or external aggression.

So what are they going to used for then, if all those bangsticks aren’t allowed to go bang? Are, as we speak, China’s enemies gathering along the borders? ‘Oh yeah, they’ve got loads of weapons but it says here they’re not allowed to use them.’ If you were in a Russian battalion equipped with British kit, you’d be shifting a brick, eh? Don’t want to piss Whitehall off do we?