Comment Articles

Modest proposal

Tags:
GEC,
Electronics,
UK,
Industry

Guy Kewney AnchorDesk

Published: 03 Aug 2001 10:15 BST

Like, for example, the theory that the economy of the UK would somehow benefit if drugs were legalised, controlled, and monitored. I see it as my job to alert the high-tech sector to the dangers of this approach.

Alert members of the news-watching community will recall Sir Arnold Weinstock, former head of GEC, who has spent recent weeks publicly lamenting the demise of that behemoth of European electronics suppliers into the ill-regarded Marconi, which is now floundering at the bottom of the stock market.

If Britain's electronics industry is to be great again, we must heed the lessons which Sir Arnold is able to teach us.

Take the "war on drugs" which, admittedly, appears to have little or no effect on the number of drugs consumed in those countries where this crusade is advancing...

It is argued, in "respectable" publications like The Guardian, as well as the Economist -- and even by renegade Conservative politicians like Michael Portillo and Peter Lilley -- that the illegal status of chemicals doesn't prevent gangsters from making profits which rival those of the arms manufacturing industry, nor does it prevent the drugs reaching the streets, either here or in America.

Surely, those of us involved in the struggling high-tech sector, must look deeper than these minor social issues?

Take this quote from the Economist's survey on drugs last week: "Some 90% of police departments in cities with populations over 50,000, and 70% of departments in smaller cities, now have paramilitary units. These Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) teams are equipped with tanks, and grenade launchers... helicopters complete with night-vision goggles... amphibious armoured personnel carriers."

It has long been appreciated, by advocates of Britain's "defence industry" that if we don't supply arms to individuals like Slobadan Milosovic, the only definite result will be that the trade in such commodities goes to rival suppliers of defence equipment.

It is also apparent that the military are the most profitable markets for silicon-based electronics makers. Where the lives of armed servicemen are concerned, only the best will do; and so it is possible to manufacture and sell prototype equipment which the games industry would regard as either too chancey or too expensive, and the PC industry would regard as too unreliable or too short in supply -- to the manufacturers of leading-edge equipment -- like, for example, helicopters, or night-vision goggles.

We now see the technology to actually look through walls. Yes, these things are vital to generals in a field of war; but surely, even more valuable to local SWAT commanders in the ghettos?

And of course, the availability of purely military markets can't be guaranteed. At any moment, combatants in a war theatre may run out of finance, ammunition or foot soldiers, and be forced to surrender, or compromise. But the "war against drugs" has been running continuously since the 70s, and has produced a satisfyingly escalating demand for expensive equipment.