h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Matrix Churchill don't make weapons, they are a tools manufacturing company. What they were exporting to Iraq were machines that could be used to manufacture weapons.

I thought it wuz pipes which would be used as a weapon as they formed the barrel of a super-gun

No, that was a company called ForgeMasters in Sheffield.

but it wuz related ?

Doh! Fuddled memory mode, obviously. Where were you when it was in PR?

That reminds me of a joke which came out during the Iraqi Supergun affair, which said that shipments of construction equipment were being halted to France, on rumours they were building a 26-mile gun pointed at Dover. Hee hee! I think it was off 'Have I Got News For You'.

Didn't the UK have giant guns (maybe not quite 26 miles long ) pointing at France during the Second World War? (nb., not trying to make any sort of point here, just recall a sort of precedent...)

Don't know, but the chap who was building the superguns for the Iraqis was British (forgotten his name).

nothing on the scale of wot wuz planned in Iraq, the suppergun is an alternative to a ballistic missile

That point about Matrix Churchill has been cleared up

Thanks - I was going to have another look at the web for more details, but unwisely put it off until after lunch. Time, as you know, is an illusion....

It was Forgemasters of Sheffield who built the pipes.

The company were rather suspicious of the order as the spec and tolerances on these supposed 'oil refining' pipes were incredibly tight. Indeed the company actually had to invent a whole new production process to create them!

The DTI on the other hand had no concerns, so Forgemasters built them and hence the start of the whole debacle.

The moral of the story is, if you want super precision steel fabrication - come to Sheffield as we're the best in the world

Matrix Churchill made bores that COULD BE USED TO MAKE WEAPONS (and also pipelines, the premise under which they were sold) but, more importantly, they COULD BE USED TO MAKE WEAPONS!!

Hope that's sorted it out. I'm studying the Scott, Saville and Hutton enquiries in law at the mo. Well, I'm not sure "studying" is the right word.

Ali