Tory Party: Funds from Gun Maker Redux

Notification has arrived at LOL HQ of a spectacularly silly comment on this LOL post. That story followed up this story: that the Tories have taken campaign contributions from a humungous global gun maker while mouthing off about gun crime.

There was a very sloppy Times story picked up by a Tory blog or two but not properly stacked up. Dealt with in the first link.



As it happens that company Heckler and Koch have been projecting huge sales for a weapon called the XM8. This is a lightweight assault rifle. The US Army postponed a decision on buying these things, sticking instead with the patriotic if prone-to-jam M4 carbine. H&K certainly haven't given up on the project and their annual sales target of 900,000 by 2021 cannot be ruled out at this stage.

Our anonymous friend seems to think that this setback somehow nails the "Tory Cash from Arms Maker" story. Obviously it does nothing of the kind.

Heckler and Koch make lots of other weapons and the point stands whether or not they ever manage to break though to the bloody mass market with their XM8.

Political Parties, in my view, should take care on the ethics of their funders. People making their cash by making fashion and mass market guns and knives should be off any list of acceptable donors. In my opinion.

Have done the relevant Companies House searches. I will get back to this story at some point in the not too distant.