Scottish Enterprise has blood on its hands
It has and continues to fund weapons companies supplying Israel
Published in the June 4th Edinburgh Evening News.
Who knew Edinburgh had a Leonardo weapons factory producing ‘high-energy military lasers’ for F-35 fighter jets that Israel is using to incinerate Gaza and its defenceless people? The factory also supplies Israel with Aemacchi M-346 aircraft and components for Apache attack helicopters and receives millions of pounds from Scottish Enterprise. On Tuesday, Palestine Action Scotland cut the internet cables at the factory and sprayed red paint over its fighter jet model displays, symbolising the firm’s role in the bloody Gaza genocide.
Weapons makers Raytheon in Glenrothes and BAE Systems have also received hundreds of thousands of pounds from Scottish Enterprise funding since October 7th, 2023. Raytheon supplies Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ missile defence system and manufactures smart bombs used by the IDF.
The Ferret revealed that despite Scottish Enterprise having introduced new human rights procedures in 2019 after being criticised for funding arms firms who sell to countries with lousy human rights records, no firm has failed the checks even though some were linked to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The Scottish administration has taken a strong stand against Israel’s genocide in Gaza yet a publicly funded body is handing out cash to the arms companies making the weapons to carry out the genocide.
But, of course, all of this would stop if the UK government would halt weapons exports to Israel, a step it refuses to take. And English Labour under Sir Keir won’t change that - it’s too generously funded by Labour Friends of Israel.
Is Scotland’s complicity in this evil down to the fact that Holyrood is a colonial setup created by and ultimately controlled by Westminster? I suspect so which only strengthens the already overwhelmingly strong case for Scotland to end this failing union.
Leah asks: “Is Scotland’s complicity in this evil down to the fact that Holyrood is a colonial setup created by and ultimately controlled by Westminster?” Yes, indeed: the so-called UK Constitution is a masterpiece of fudging that enables those in power at Westminster to do as they please. The table of powers reserved to the UK Gov shows it controls (inter alia) International Relations, Defence, Money Laundering, Firearms, National Security, Emergency Powers, Business Associations, Import & Export Control, Marine & Air Transport. With that range of powers, they’ll be able to find a means to bar Scottish Gov legislation. If anyone challenges them on a matter of law, they can always refer it to the Supreme Court, which can be relied upon to find in their favour, as they did in 2018 with the Scottish Gov’s UK Withdrawal from European Union Bill.
In that case it did so by ruling that the Bill exceeded the powers of the Scottish Gov, but the third stage of its judgement (on Scotland’s right to secede from the UK) was a political judgement, not based on legal grounds. At the time I wrote “As far as I can see there is nothing in Statute that defines how a devolved nation may legally leave the UK, nor, more tellingly, is it stated anywhere in Statute that it is forbidden for a devolved nation to leave the UK. That being so, the judgement is clearly not based on legal grounds but on political views. As such have Lord Reed and his panel of judges acted ultra vires? I’m not a lawyer and would welcome an opinion from someone better qualified in law than me, bearing in mind that both English and Scots Law are involved.”
Basically they can always find a way of thwarting anything they view as damaging to UK’s interests, no matter whether the actual topic (be it seceding from the UK or banning the selling of weapons made in Scotland to any nation seen to be in breach of international law) actually lies within devolved powers. We are indeed a colony by most definitions.