Dishonourable Discharge: Most of Lib Dem Willie Rennie Outpourings

Staying with a military theme we noticed the appalling Lib Dem Willie Rennie MP trying to make political capital from the very unfortunate death of Sgt Steven Roberts in Iraq. I agree with Rennie that our government bear blame for Roberts' death.

Though for my money this is for sending "our boys" to Iraq at all, and undertrained, and leaving them there so long, making things worse, and for the mercenary among us, at great expense.

Sgt Roberts was in fact on duties policing people throwing stones. The only guns and ammunition on the scene were in his own tank. Which is where the poor training and bad judgement of his colleague came in. Firing his machine gun out of control and at close quarters and fragging his NCO in the process. This soldier had clearly not intended to shoot his comrade. He was planning to shoot at (or perhaps over the heads of) unhappy Iraqis with stones.

Agreeing with Rennie then is not particularly for the reported equipment shortcomings. Little more than a grim detail of a horrendous big picture.

But Willie Rennie is a complete hypocrite over this, as he is on the war as a whole, and on cluster bombs and other dodgy munitions. As Sgt Roberts
is not his constituent Rennie would surely have been better off keeping his runaway mouth schtum. Hoping that no-one would notice he is completely cup-tied on war and military equipment.

How so? Well you see Rennie has history. His current biography includes:

Willie ... works for a small Scottish communications firm, helping advise the Royal Society of Chemistry and Asthma UK ... Willie Rennie was press adviser to Fife Council's Liberal Democrat Opposition Group and a member of the Dunfermline Focus editiorial team, working with Dunfermline's Lib Dem councillors on local issues.

So, the PR and lobbying firm he apparently still works for spins yarns for the RSC and Asthma UK. He also still moonlights on Hocus Focus. But Rennie forgetfully omits to mention that they also do the business for a Scottish business called RSL, part of Raytheon.

Willie Rennie has been banging on about Cluster Bombs and particularly getting them banned as in this Hansard extract also featuring the hypocrite John Leech from 5 December 2006. He has even signed three EDMs on the subject, spouted at PMQs and is backing this Presentation Bill.

The only problem with all these good works is that his friends at Raytheon/RSL make CLUSTER BOMBS as well as lots of other goodies. Rennie has visited their works as an MP, if not as a spin Doctor before his election, in what he called a "fact finding mission":

"During his visit Rennie was briefed on the company’s activities and future plans by Acting Managing Director Jim Trail before taking the opportunity to tour the site’s production areas.
Commenting on his visit Rennie said, “Living in Fife I had heard a lot about Raytheon and I was keen to see the factory for myself. Having had the opportunity to visit and meet some of the management team and employees it is easy to understand why the company enjoys such a good reputation both in Fife and further afield.”
RSL, the UK-based subsidiary of Raytheon Company, employs 650 people at its Glenrothes facility. RSL designs, develops and manufactures a range of high technology defence and commercial electronics."

As Willie says it is easy to see why Raytheon enjoys such a good reputation. This picture shows some of their munitions ready for active service. What is less easy to see is why Rennie is undermining their business without ever mentioning his liberal conflict of interest in working for this cluster bomb makers' lobbyists.

Major hat tip here to the team at Fib Dems.