Santa wages war on arms fair owners

Visitors to the festive fair - which runs from Wednesday until Sunday at London's Olympia - were shocked to see Santa and his elves wielding their unusual Christmas presents.

The group were members of the anti-war organisation Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT), who have been attending recent Clarion shows in a bid to draw attention to its involvement with the unpopular DSEi defence exhibition.

Clarion snapped up the arms fair from Reed Elsevier in May after the company was forced to flog it due to pressure from activists and its own employees.

DSEi has been staged at the Excel centre in Royal Docks since 2001, and attracts arms companies and foreign governments to East London every other year.

It is also been heavily attended by protesters, who are keen to see the event abolished.

The next arms fair is due to take place in September 2009.

CAAT staged a peaceful protest at the Clarion-owned Baby Show at Olympia a few weeks ago, causing backers Bounty and UNICEF to distance themselves from the event.

CAAT supporter Ian Pocock, who joined the protest dressed as an elf, said: "I'm here because this is a good way to make a point about the owners of the Spirit of Christmas Fair also running DSEi, the London arms fair.
"Allowing countries with poor human rights records to buy weapons is no part of the spirit of Christmas."

CAAT spokesperson Symon Hill said: "It is beyond satire for a company to celebrate the spirit of Christmas while making profits from the arms trade.
"Clarion's bosses seem to be the only people who don't find it absurd. Clarion are out of touch with public opinion and their reputation is already affected."

Clarion's chief executive Simon Kimble has written letters to concerned exhibitors since protests first broke out.

He said: "We do not believe, as CAAT asserts, that public opinion is opposed to the defence and security industry.
"Whilst we respect their right to protest, as you would expect we considered our decision to run events for this sector very carefully and we remain entirely comfortable with this."