Well, slap my thigh and call me Roger, you’ve got to hand it to them. This is amazing. So amazing, I almost danced around the room in elation at being alive to see such a thing. Honestly and truthfully, this is one of the most stupendous, awe-inspiring things I have ever seen.

You thought the Blair years saw the pinnacle of high-handed contempt for human life masquerading as political economy? Of moral bankruptcy. Of the pathology that can turn away from human suffering. WELL GET THIS, BABY:

Money set aside to clear landmines and remove arms from conflict zones is to be raided to pay a private defence contractor to keep Tornado jets flying in Iraq, according to a confidential memo seen by the Guardian. The Ministry of Defence plans to pay BAE Systems from the multimillion-pound Conflict Prevention Fund - which covers projects such as destroying weapons in Bosnia and landmines in Mozambique - to subsidise the £5m-£10m cost of servicing each of the six planes.

See what I mean? Read it again:

Money set aside to clear landmines and remove arms from conflict zones is to be raided to pay a private defence contractor to keep Tornado jets flying in Iraq.

GODDAMN. You’ll tell your grandchildren about this one. Doesn’t it make the head spin? They’re going to take money used for conflict prevention to pay for conflict permission. They’re going to divert money allocated to saving lives into taking them instead.

Imagine the twisted, stunted, mutilated, suppurating morality of the people who came up with this. Picture that instead of going home, getting into a hot bath and opening a significant vein or two, they kissed their children, ate a good dinner and slept the sleep of the just.

I mean, what next? Making a woman who turned a blind eye to child abuse Children’s Minister? Oh, I forgot, they already did that.

But wait, this is a good bit:

Defensive news briefs are being developed to counter adverse media comment.

Translation: Yes, we know we’re massive bastards, but we need to persuade the media otherwise.

I don’t doubt they’ll succeed.

You know, I once said that I refused to believe that this government was truly evil. What a naive, ingenuous fool I was. If Gordon Brown were to go on live television tonight and pull off his mask to reveal himself Satan, I doubt many would turn a hair. The Daily Mirror would still say ‘at least he’s not a toff like that David Cameron’.

I could go on about this all day and there’s a very real possibility that I might.

From this angle, one suddenly wonders whether the Conflict Prevention Fund isn’t merely a job creation scheme:

The UK’s Global Conflict Prevention Fund has helped to destroy over one million weapons around the world in addition to providing advice on stockpile security and management.

Get rid of the old ones so the likes of BAE can make shiny new ones. War! Huh. Good God, y’all. What is it good for? Well, it’s quite good at fostering corruption in the name of the national interest. BAE shareholders, yes, it’s quite good for them. The deformed egos of small and otherwise mediocre and unremarkable men, it’s just what they need.

Say it again.

(Via Philip)