'UK is world's 21st largest country but 6th biggest spender on defence - why?'
Britain is the world’s 21st largest country in terms of population and the 27th richest per head, yet it is the sixth biggest spender in total on defence. More than enough money is already devoted to the military.
The silencing of counter arguments, as blood-curdlers bang their drums of war ever louder and rattle their swords for extra cash on top of £50billion, is a democratic deficit.
Where is the debate about why so much is wasted on projects such as late and over-cost Ajax armoured vehicles? Or £3bn-a-piece aircraft carriers which are unfit for service – Queen Elizabeth to be replaced by a Prince of Wales, which itself suffered propeller problems?
Why aren’t we discussing whether Britain should be bombing Houthis in Yemen? Or that the whole point of NATO was that our country would never need to confront Putin or whoever on its own, like Ukraine?
'The Tory armed wing has free reign'Labour and Keir Starmer are wary of challenging the Conservatives. And Rishi Sunak is so keen to avoid accusations of being weak, soft and unpatriotic in an election year, the Tory armed wing has free reign.
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Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, who lied about get-rich-quick scams under the pseudonym Michael Green earlier in his career, should be told to stop scaremongering about a “pre-war” era. Menacing talk of conscription is the work of rocket-fuelled culture warriors who value National Service over the National Health Service.
The world is admittedly dangerous. New threats are evolving, with Gaza clearly igniting conflicts across the Middle East.
But all those who lived through the real threat of nuclear annihilation in the 1960s, 70s and 80s know the world is relatively safer than a few decades ago.
Some of the flashing red lights seen by David Cameron, who was disinterred to become Foreign Secretary, were triggered by British Prime Ministers and Governments, including his, launching military interventions in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, where our armed forces should never have been ordered.
Surrendering to militarised politicians, handing them more bangs for more bucks, is no guarantee of security. On the contrary, they’d be worse.
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