Take Action - let's keep up the pressure!

- Please write to the Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street, London SW1 2AA or email him saying how delighted you are that DESO is to shut and expressing your hope that this is the first step towards ending all subsidies for arms exports - see our sample letter below.

- Pray that DESO's closure will see a real shift in wider government support and promotion of the arms trade.

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1 2AA

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to say how delighted I am that the Government is to shut the Defence Export Services Organisation. I am writing as part of the SPEAK Network who have been praying and campaigning about this issue since 2003 as we have been gravely concerned about the way that government support for the arms trade fuels conflict, impacts human rights and undermines development as many case studies and tragic stories show.

I believe that the closure of DESO will have a real and significant impact in addressing this injustice. I very much hope that this move is the first step to seeing an end to the wider Government promotion and support of the arms trade.

I note that your statement on this issue said that in future military export promotion will be the responsibility of UK Trade and Investment. I urge you to monitor UKTI's work and to make sure that military exports, which form less than 2% of total UK exports, do not use a disproportionate amount of its resources with this new development in its work.

Yours sincerely,