So it’s just you and a multi-billion pound industry?

As an Engineer I was invited to go to a presentation by BAE Systems. Not only was I annoyed that the recruitment and careers services were doing BAE’s marketing for them, but I was familiar with what BAE got up to and so I decided that it was time someone exposed them on campus.

Having booked my place on the presentation I produced a leaflet with the help of CAAT’s and other’s resources. It contained some of the inescapable truths regarding BAE and the arms trade. Presentation day came and I don’t mind admitting I was nervous; it was me versus well-trained, squeaky clean, pin striped PR people. They had come to put their corporate spin on BAE’s dealings – they knew what they were doing. I had come to ‘un-spin’ and didn’t know what I was doing. I had hoped that they would allow for a question and answer session so that I could have an audience to my awkward questions, however they had clearly planned for this and questions were to be asked once the presentation had ended and everyone had started on the free drinks.

However despite this set-back I did manage to talk to almost everyone (about 35 students) individually about the issues. The students I spoke to were very receptive and almost everyone took a leaflet as they were leaving. BAE systems may have many words but I had the last.