Comment A long-awaited Parliamentary investigation into British defence equipment purchasing has just been published. Both the report itself and the media response to it reveal the astonishing degree to which the onshore UK arms industry has managed to dominate this area of debate.

The report, from the MPs of the parliamentary Defence committee, can be read in full here (pdf). It mainly consists of criticism for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), for failing to treat the British arms industry nicely enough. The UK media has followed this line more or less without thought, as this effort from the BBC indicates.

There's surely plenty to criticise the MoD about. Outdated military thinking and strife between the three armed services leads the MoD to order unnecessary equipment in huge amounts, intended to fight enemies which are simply no longer there or which could be better fought by other means.