Undercover Organisations

Full disclosure.  I am against ALL arms companies.  I am a peace protester and an a committed (and proud) pacifist.  As stated many times this is a NON - POLITICAL blog.  My own personal beliefs and thoughts are of NO CONSEQUENCE on this matter. I write this here because I want to make sure that if you think that there is any bias, that it is stated.  I cannot obviously eliminate my prejudice but i can reduce it to a point where is non noticeable.

Something that has been brought to my attention lately is how something so simple and plain and gets no attention at all is actually something worth more of a look at.  If you browse through the directories on www.whatdotheyknow.com you will notice that there are a lot or different government organisations which are there.  A lot of them are now defunct but there a lot which still do a lot of work.

So why do I bring this up?  Well whilst i was browsing, I noticed how many organisations there are which have had no request.  For example, I was the first person to send a request to the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers (My aim, eventually is to send an FoI request to EVERY government department).  The Ministry of Defence on the other hand has over 2786 (At time of writing).  So what makes the ministry of defence more appealing than the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers?  Well let's be honest, we all know about the ministry of defence but until you read this blog, you had no idea that Worshipful Company of Gunmakers existed  Does it make it any less interesting?  

Now the AWESOME writer Jon Ronson stated “To rule the world you have to be boring”.   One of the most boring titles is the Crown Commercial Service (At time of writing has only 57 requests - home page here) or Defence Infrastructure Organisation (At time of writing only 56 - home page here). Did you even know that these were in existence?  I didn't until I was asked to look into DPRTE Cardiff.  What is this, I hear you ask?  Well, it's one of the main weapons fairs in Europe (Can you see why I made the disclosure at the beginning?).  

Now, I have already tried to see what procedures and you would have to go through to sell weapons to a country that is outside of the EU, but was referred to another agency. The Foreign and Commonwealth office referred me to Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (At time of writing, 645 requests). Well, only another FoI request will tell me on this one.  (Written on my private email).  From being totally boring to being one of the main providers to weapons in the UK makes them quite exciting, doesn't it?  

It got me thinking, however (Always a bad start), What other organisations have the Crown commercial service, and Defence infrastructure worked with over DPRTE Cardiff?  Has Cardiff City dealt .  Only time will tell.  Who know what other undercover organisations we will find.

Incidentally, the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers is all about the making of gunbarrels.  They have been about since 1637.  Learnt something new again, didn't we kids?