There have been a number of stories over the past few weeks about the failure of the 2011 arms procurement plan.

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Mr Ngcuka is used to coming under attack, but he unleashed a veritable war within the African National Congress when he pronounced that there was enough prima facie evidence to pursue a case against Deputy President Jacob Zuma in connection with allegations of bribery linked to the government's arms procurement deal, but not enough evidence to secure a conviction in court.

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The defence minister, Antonio Martino, is also seeing through a plan to abolish conscription and to overhaul the arms-procurement system.

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Mr Carswell has hard-edged views on everything from economic management (he's very worried about inflation) to defence procurement (he thinks the British arms industry is taking the taxpayer for a ride) and he's not shy of expressing them.

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