Liberal Democrat integrity: a chance for redemption.

Britain's Export Credit Guarantees Department (ECGD) has long been notorious for underwriting loans to some of the dodgiest regimes in the world to enable them to buy our arms and thus keep our highly subsidised arms industry in business.  Even when the regimes which bought the arms are overthrown their long suffering public are still lumbered with paying off the loans clocked up by their governments in order to to repress them.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign, of which I am an enthusiastic member, points out that Liberal Democrat policy in 2010 was "to conduct our own audit of all existing  government and commercial debts, ruling invalid  any past lending that was recklessly given to dictators."

The responsible minister for the ECGD (now renamed UK Export Finance) is none other than our own Vince Cable, who now says "The government has no plans  to conduct an audit  of debts owed to UK Export Finance."

This boroken promise will not resonate with the British electorate as strongly as that on student fees.  But in terms of human suffering it will have far more serious consequences.

Please join in Jubilee Debt's Campaign (details here) to hold Liberal Democrats in government to our promise and do something to redeem our reputation.