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Big increase in arms spending

Tanks

Increase spending for NHS or more for war? Media neglect of astonishing increase in arms spending

Shouldn’t the BBC and other media be exploring this issue? Spending increases in defence while cuts or inadequate increases everywhere else.
 
Could we have a bit more balance in reviewing where cuts might be made? There was a glaring enormous hike in spending on defence  announced by Boris Johnson on 19 November 2020. Completely unjustified  –  a wild macho gesture and a £16.5 billion increase above the Conservative manifesto commitment. It created the biggest defence budget in 30 years even though we are fighting less wars now that Iraq and Afghanistan are over.
 
Surely we can help Ukraine out of existing budgets. What else is defence spending doing for us? Our arms spending for Ukraine is almost equivalent to the spending of all the EU countries combined. Our contribution is disproportionate. We have crying needs in Britain, too. 
 
If defence can have such an increase as outlined above then surely the NHS and social services could have a similar increase.
 
Why aren’t the media talking about this?
 
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Military boom time

Tanks

Boom in Military Spending

Tanks

BRITISH PUBLIC might question vast increase in arms spending

Today, 20 October 2022, Liz Truss, UK Prime Minister, has resigned and the British Government is in a feverish condition following a couple of weeks of disastrous policy decisions and U-turns. The newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, has said that there will have to be painful cuts in the spending of government departments.

SO THERE WILL BE CUTS to public services – AND THE BRITISH PUBLIC WILL surely question why arms spending is continuing to increase rapidly.  Surely the public will not accept that arms manufacture would take precedence of over key departments such as the health service,  and education
The UK now has the biggest defence/arms spending budget in Europe. On 19th of November 2020 the government announced the largest military spending budget for 30 years.
This amounted to a £16.5 billion increase above the manifesto commitment over four years.
On existing forecasts, this is an overall cash increase of £24.1 billion over four years compared to the previous year’s budget.
The Royal United Services Institute said that the “additional cash represents a real-term increase of between 10 percent and 15 percent in the defence budget.”

HUGE FURTHER INCREASES IN SPENDING PLANNED
But now the government is planning astronomic further increases.

Professor Malcolm Chalmers of the Royal United Services Institute web 2 Sep 2022 commented on the latest UK arms spending target:
“To deliver on its commitment to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, Liz Truss’s government will need to increase defence spending by about 60% in real terms. This is equivalent to about £157 billion in additional spending over the next eight years, compared with current planning assumptions. By comparison, the 2020 Spending Review, and the associated Integrated Review, allocated an extra £16.5 billion over four years. This would be the biggest increase since the early 1950s.”

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, Royal United Services Institute website, 2 Sep 2022. TO PUBLIC SERVICES

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Where has the money gone? Aid budget cut funds arms spending

Where has the money gone? Aid budget cut funds arms spending

Cash shortage isn’t just because of covid.  – Biggest arms spending budget for 30 years

The UK now has the biggest defence/arms spending budget in Europe. On 19th of November 2020 the government announced the largest military spending budget for 30 years.

This amounted to a £16.5 billion increase above the manifesto commitment over four years.

On existing forecasts, this is an overall cash increase of £24.1 billion over four years compared to last year’s budget.

The Royal United Services Institute said that the “additional cash represents a real-term increase of between 10 percent and 15 percent in the defence budget.”

No threats of war

This cannot be because we are suddenly under greatly increased threat of invasion.

Lack of money for foreign aid, NHS, Education, Care of the Elderly etc

Surely it is not a coincidence that the foreign aid budget has been drastically cut. Not enough money to meet increased demands in the health service. But the media don’t talk about this huge increase in government arms spending at a time of critical, immediate needs.

David Roberts

30 July 2021

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Rocketing arms spending leaves little for nurses

Rocketing arms spending leaves little for nurses’ pay

The UK will have the biggest defence budget in Europe

On 19th of November last year the UK government announced the largest military spending budget for 30 years. This amounted to a £16.5 billion increase above the manifesto commitment over four years.
On existing forecasts, this is an overall cash increase of £24.1 billion over four years compared to last year’s budget.
The Royal United Services Institute said that the “additional cash represents a real-term increase of between 10 percent and 15 percent in the defence budget.
The National Audit Office, the government’s financial watchdog, said, even before this announcement that the 10-year equipment plan was unaffordable,being too costly by as much as £13 billion. The current annual defense budget is about £40 billion.

Who benefits from vastly increased defence spending?

This cannot be about the defence of Britain. We are not under military threat from any country or likely to be so so within the next decade or two. Can the government name a single country that might want to invade or attack Britain? The government is funding military equipment some of which cannot be positioned or used to defend Britain, for example two huge aircraft carriers which were ordered by Tony Blair and his government. These currently lack aircraft so there is is a big aircraft building programme. There is also the hugely costly and illegal Trident weapons of mass destruction programme. See my post on this topic.

So what’s behind all this spending?

  1. First there is the doctrinaire belief that we must remain best and most supportive friend of America and support America in its military actions whatever they may be. (We have seen to our cost for example, Afghanistan and Iraq that the open cheque has cost huge number of lives, created thousands of refugees, and cost a great deal of money as well.)
  2. From the government’s point of view this spending will maintain or create very large numbers of jobs, especially in parts of the country where it feels a great need to maintain popularity. In Scotland there is a desire by many for independence so assuring jobs there may be a political move. Some of this spending will pay for the building of thirteen frigates which are currently under construction in Scotland. Britain also has plans for the creation of a Space Command capable of launching a rocket from a site in Scotland by 2022.

Boris Johnson’s explanation to parliament

“These projects are expected to create up to 10,000 thousand jobs annually across the UK. These will reflect the expertise and ingenuity of British people both inside and outside our Armed Forces, harnessing the UK’s skills in construction and science and reinvigorating those industries in the coming decades.”

What can we do?

First we need to be specific about what we want. We might then focus on petitions for which we work to gain support.

For example,

  1. We might demand the cutting of the planned increases in the defence budget immediately in order to raise the pay of nurses and give more funds to the NHS.
  2. We might demand a halving of the defence budget before the end of the current parliament.
  3. We might demand the scrapping of the Trident weapons of mass destruction programme and the nuclear powered submarines which carry them.
  4. We might demand that Britain leave NATO.
  5. We might demand that Britain declares itself unwilling to support US military adventures.
  6. We might demand a foreign policy which concentrates on friendly cooperation with all countries and working towards the peaceful encouragement of tolerant and democratic societies in countries where we find human rights to be lacking.

On a personal level the least we can do is write to our MP stating what changes we would like to see. We also need to raise this matter with as many people as possible. This might be in face-to-face discussions but it can also be in the form of letters to the press, tweets on Twitter, messages on facebook etc. We should stop misnaming offensive weapons of mass destruction “deterrents”.

The media should take on the topic of peace and disarmament

We need to lobby the media to deal with peace and disarmament issues and not brush them aside. Why was the huge increase in defence (war) spending at a time of severe financial difficulty not thoroughly explored by the media?

Peace and disarmament should become a long-term burning public issue.

Britain’s reputation as a violence-loving country

When we think of the death, destruction and misery our bombing and interventions in other countries have caused in this century alone it is obvious that the subject is something we are right to be angry about. British governments have proved themselves to be unfit to be in charge of their huge and growing destructive armoury.

True “defence” is a topic which ought to be part of the school curriculum but can we persuade the government to allow this controversial and political topic to be aired in British schools?

Your views?

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on these topics. Please use the comment box below. If you use facebook you can use the second comment box without any formalities, and could share your views on facebook too, if you wish.

David Roberts,   davidrobertsblog.com

Sources

Defense News (online) 19 November 2020
Statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street. 19 November 2020.

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How governments hide bad news –  and the recent bad news they want us to overlook

How governments hide bad news -  and the bad news they want us to overlook

Governments very often have to announce bad news or controversial news to the general public. In order to do this they carefully choose the time to make the announcement. When will people be distracted and have little time to consider the announcement?

It’s my observation, and you can check this out for yourself, that November/December is a favourite time to make unpopular announcements or just before the summer holidays. The general public therefore has little inclination at this time, just before Christmas or summer holidays, to consider controversial issues or to spend time lobbying MPs or protesting about something which in normal times they would be very concerned about.

This is the time of year when the government, whichever party is in power, announces an increase in defence spending. It used to be the time when the fishing quotas were negotiated with the EU and Britain, being always outvoted, usually came away with a deal which wasn’t very satisfactory to British fishermen.

Much more money for defence?

On 19 November the government announced huge increases in defence spending, at a time when money is desperately needed in other areas. Disturbing details to follow in another posting.

 

nuclear power station billowing steam from cooling towers

Another questionable decision taken on a new nuclear power station

On 14 December the government announced that it is “talking to” EDF the French energy company that runs our nuclear power stations and a Chinese energy company about building a new, highly controversial nuclear power station at Sizewell in Suffolk. “Talking to” is double-speak code for “planning to go ahead with”.
British taxpayers may be asked to pay billions of pounds in upfront costs and also to pay for any cost overruns.

The issue of long-term highly toxic radio-active waste will hardly be considered openly.

The Chinese company currently has a 20% stake in this project and is threatening to pull out. This would make the whole situation more difficult and possibly more costly for the British taxpayer. And should the Chinese be involved anyway?

I’ll write about these topics in the next few days or so.

David Roberts, 12 January 2021