Last week’s Farnborough Air Show was labelled ‘a shop window for deadly weapons’ by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT). The event functioned as an arms fair from 19 to 22 July, before a weekend of air displays. Invited customers included the armed forces of Libya and Saudi Arabia. Defence secretary Liam Fox and business secretary Vince Cable addressed assembled arms dealers during the event.

‘Contacts are made and weaponry deals are negotiated in private chalets arrayed as grandstands for the air displays,’ said CAAT’s Ian Pritchard. ‘Do the crowds thrilling at the aerobatics realise that they are just witnessing the closing ceremony of a week of indiscriminate arms selling?'