UK PM Cameron visited Near East: more on morality of governance.

It turns out that Mr. Cameron’s round trip to Egypt and Gulf has not been just in response to changes and about support he communicated to young Arab citizens’ aspirations to democracy.  People dealing with arms sales were in his train. And that made many British citizens to raise an issue of moral responsibility in governance once and again. Many people questioned reasonability of promoting arms deals at the time when dictatorships use military to suppress their people resentments.

The time was chosen to boost clashing motivation but all to serve for Great Britain interests in the region: take up a lead and be first government delegation after Egyptian resurgence in support to democracy and be first to offer weapon to rulers of the Gulf who have certainly been worried by sweeping uprising in Arab world.

One young female student asked Mr. Cameron at the meeting in Qatar University, if it is a time for Great Britain to be “Great” indeed? The answer was eloquent and sincere: that is PM’s dream! He is proud of his country, its history and people who served for the progress in the whole world, but he has a biggest challenge to settle a devastating budget deficit to ensure the growth.

However are arms deals to boost the British economy what the majority of British citizens want their government to do? Views are clashing: selling weapon to governments is legal, because every government according to UN charter have a right to defend itself, it is reasonable because otherwise other governments with little accountability can take the market - but it does not bring much benefits to reconcile with democracy and humanity concerns, and it can damage the reputation and have a backlash effect on economy and business.

The world still does not live according to common set of rules and values. In doing such moves and speaking openly PM might lose the popularity and involve a risk of leaving the office in next election term. However his openness and bold actions articulate and demonstrate what are pressing challenges for governments and people, and his country practices guarantee that mistakes and miscalculation can be corrected by successor.  The proof of pudding is eating, and in order to make a mistake evident you should take up a risk of action.