All that teenagers from Lord Williams’s school in Thame, Oxfordshire, needed was a letterhead, a mobile phone, an email address, and a little money. They also set up a separate company in Ireland to avoid British controls on the sale of small arms.
The pupils set up two companies, Williams Defence and Williams Defence (Eire). Through their Irish company they arranged deals to destinations covered by British and other national trade embargos, including the sale of Pakistani grenade launchers to Syria, Turkish guns to Mali, and South African rifles to Israel.
The Thame children got quotes but did not go ahead with the deals. However, children from a school in Portloaise, near Dublin, succeeded in buying electric shock batons from Korea and leg irons from South Africa.
George Lear, head of citizenship at the school, said: “We were stunned by what we could achieve. Nobody questioned us at any stage.” Roger Berry, chairman of the Commons quadripartite committee which monitors export controls, said yesterday that Britain was in the absurd position where children could freely import equipment that could be used in torture while anyone could be arrested for carrying “offensive weapons”.
Of course, here in the Land of the Free, you can find these goodies not only via the Internet; but, in your friendly neighborhood sex shop — or self-defense emporium.
Sorry if I got anyone in trouble. Originally, I had an explicit photo at the top — with a warning at the bottom. Duh!
Not unsuitable. Actually, closer to the point than a few other of our “word associations”. I just realized a proper ordering of content would give those viewing — while working steadily away for Simon Legree or his modern Puritan counterpart — a chance to cover their personal buns.
Too much trouble to rework, right now. I just deleted the sexy bits.
Isn’t the same as crossing the border with unlicensed radioactive materials?
The point of much of Monty Python was that the government of England was a collection of silly and illogical snobs. Obviously the stage is set for a Monty Python reunion (well, most of them are still alive anyway.)
Mr.Fusion — you bring up the telling point of how bureacrats [at least those in the US and UK] and politicians deal with critical issues. They throw pieces of paper at them. They seem to feel that if you come up with an appropriate document — and enough of them — you’ve solved something.
Though I celebrate NO religious holidays, the food part is always a delight. We’re sneaking up on one where traditional German Stollen Cake is popular in many communities. We’ve suffered through a couple of years where the real deal from Germany hasn’t been especially available in the US — because a 13-page document [in English, of course] is required for each bakery and each batch to satisfy Homeland Insecurity the cake is not part of a terrorist biological attack.
Of course, the paper makes it so.
Sorry if I got anyone in trouble. Originally, I had an explicit photo at the top — with a warning at the bottom. Duh!
I guess you should change the blog name to “Dvorak Censored.”
Isn’t that what buracracy is all about?
That cake could be a dirty bomb. Or very stale by the time you get it.
Ed
I understand. As my family mostly live in Canada, we have noticed a lot of extra inspections at the border. We can take stuff into Canada with very little hassle. We learned to not bring anything back though. I have to admit, the Border Agents have always been very polite and professional with us.
The fastest way through the border is for me to show my green card along with my wife and daughter’s birth certificates. That green card always satisfies them.
Enjoy your Stollen Cake.
Joshua
You make a very good point about all the paper = bureaucracy. You have to keep in mind though, that in the public sector, they have to account for everything they did and every nickel spent. Even though we expect them to be careful with our money, there can be some pretty hilarious stories about the buraucracy.
Just clearing something up, the British kids never actually got the weapons. The Irish kids did. They are two different countries with two different sets of laws. You should change your headline to relect that.
Dave
When has the truth ever stopped us from making stupid comments?
Found this article in a web search where i was trying to find my site and see how it ranked in various keywords. Clicked when i saw my schools name in Dvoraks blog (Big TWiT fan here)
The shocked that i never heard about this.