To Professor Snowden

Open letter 1: To Professor Snowden, when he was President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) (2009–10) 

Dear Professor Snowden 

I am just writing, as an individual, to say I think it very disturbing that an organisation like the IET should find Mr Olver a suitable person to talk about ‘Ethical leadership’. 

Dick Olver is the Chairman of BAE Systems, one of the world’s largest arms firms. In the last few years BAE Systems has got rid of all its non-military activities – the more conflict there is in the world the better the bottom line. Mr Olver likes to talk about ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ but the equipment his firm produces is for killing people. 

The nature of warfare has changed a lot since WW2 and when we see high-tech equipment being used it is by rich countries usually fighting in poor countries and most of the casualties are civilian. Infrastructure is destroyed and the country is left devastated. This is causing, rather than solving, the global challenges like climate change and poverty that Mr Olver himself mentioned. 

BAE is not there to defend Britain – it is a global arms firm concentrating on the US market and selling to any other country with the necessary funds. 

Take a look at the immensely influential novel ‘1984* and you will see that subverting language was central to the control exercised by the regime described. l am sure Mr Olver will have been delighted to have an opportunity of coming to have a chat about ethics. But people are judged on what they do, not what they say. 

Engineers could make such a difference to the world so l find it very sad that they should be looking for ethical guidance from someone whose profits go up as wars increase.