Lewis Hamilton vs Ed Miliband

Every so often, British sportsmen are prevailed upon not to go to certain countries, in protest at some usually-hideous policy. Now it’s the turn of our racing drivers. Yvette Cooper said on Question Time last night that, at the very least, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton should pull out of the Formula One race this weekend. Ed Miliband wants the race to be cancelled. What baffles me is that the racing drivers should be seen as so controversial, whereas (so far as I can tell) neither Cooper nor Miliband has had anything to say about the British government approving the sale of arms to Bahrain long after its uprising started in Feb 2011. Here is a selection of what the UK government cleared for export, in a country where five died of torture (pdf, p219):
 
1) Gun silencers
2) Weapons sights
3) Rifles
4) Artillery
5) Components for military training aircraft
6) Naval guns
 
There were no Labour quotes in the Guardian write-up of this. If Ed Miliband has spoken up about weapons to Bahrain, I’ll update. But it seems odd to pick on poor Lewis Hamilton.