Lockheed Martin is set to earn £150 million for running part of the UK National Census. The problem here is that this company earns 80% of its income from working for the American military and has profitted massively from the recent illegal war in Iraq.

There are also concerns that Lockheed Martin will use the information it gets for its own purposes – it offers intelligence services to governments around the world.

Meanwhile, Caci, the company chosen to run the census in Scotland has been linked to the torture of prisoners at Iraq’s notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

There are several people out there calling for a boycott – such as the morning star – on the grounds that it is wrong to support an arms company -although you do face a £1000 fine if you do choose not to fill the form in – and others against a boycott –

Meanwhile Liberal Conspiracy reminds us that Lockheed Martin gets paid anyway and that such a move is counter productive as it just prevents local councils from getting the data they need to provide effective public services.  

Whether you choose to boycott the Census or not – the decision by the government to award this contract to massive arms firms clearly shows, yet again, its willingness to support the arms trade with our tax revenue.