• CLLR Paul Convery (Where and how the council’s pension fund holds shares, November 5) says I exaggerate the links between the investments by the pension fund of the London Borough of Islington and the deaths of children, (Look hard at the arms trade and pension funds, my letter, October 29).

To check his claim let me look at his figures. He says: the pension fund is worth around £1.6billion. It has shares in five companies that are “defence-related”; these five are only 0.15 per cent of the pension fund’s total value.

As I understand it, 0.15 per cent of £1.6billion comes to £2.4million. (I assume a billion is a thousand million.) So the bit of the pension fund that is invested in arms comes to about £2.4million.

The web tells me that a new Winchester rifle costs £899. For convenience round that up to £900.

If my assumption is right, LBI’s arms-related investments could add up to about 2,667 new Winchester rifles. Such a number could mean a lot of damage to a lot of children.

To be clear, I do not say that LBI buys rifles. I do say that this example makes it easier to grasp the issues.

Given that the starting point for my sums is the investment figures provided by the councillor, does he still say I exaggerate?

A further illustration of the issues emerges from a look at BAE Systems, a firm which the councillor mentions and which the pension fund is invested in.

A British company, it’s one of the biggest hi-tech arms companies in the world. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems).

Its website has at least 35 pages / articles on Saudi Arabia – I stopped counting at 35. The site also says BAE employs more than 5,000 people in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Saudi is at war with the Yemen.

“At least 10,000 children have been killed or injured in Yemen in violence linked to years of war in the impoverished country, the United Nations children’s agency said…” (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/10/19/unicef-10000-children-killed-or-injured-in-yemen).

So BAE, a company that makes and maintains hi-tech killing machines, has thousands of hi-tech workers based in a hi-tech country which is waging a hi-tech war against an “impoverished” country.

And the London Borough of Islington’s pension fund invests in that company. One upshot is mass infanticide. Another is that LBI’s pension fund gets bigger.

It works like this: BAE makes and maintains all sorts of arms and sells them to Saudi; Saudi gives BAE profit; BAE’s value on the stock market goes up; LBI’s pension fund “tracks” BAE on the stock market; when BAE does well, the pension fund gets a greater return on its investment.

I‘m glad that Cllr Convery and others plan to tackle arms companies about their ethics. And I understand that there are many legal hurdles… (https://www.middleeastonitor.com/20151003-uk-government-acts-to-stop-councils-divesting-from-israeli-occupation/).

But in 2017 West Midlands pension fund divested from cluster bombs (Divestment from the Arms Trade: Collective action in the West Midlands).

Does the London Borough of Islington invest in these?

In a few years there may be a Labour government. If there is, does Cllr Convery have a plan to tackle it on changing the rules about councils’ divesting?

His reference to government licences for arms exports is naive. Campaign Against Arms Trade will soon take the government to court again about licences.

Hint: governments lie… (https://caat.org.uk/news/arms-sales-back-in-court/).

NEIL DEVLIN
Horsell Road, N5
With thanks to Ian & Kirsten