Keir Starmer, you claim huge and damaging cuts are vital so we can buy arms and defend ourselves. Prove it | Owen Jones
forRetin is now on “WarWe were told. Earlier this year, NATO Secretary -General, Mark Retty, He asked for that European countries start walking at spending at the expense of pensions, health and social security. He warned against doing this, and the only asylum is “getting out of your Russian courses or going to New Zealand.”
In this increasingly feverish atmosphere, it becomes absolutely difficult to ask for a little perspective, but it is necessary. European elites are terrified after Donald Trump hurried out of American hegemony, which is already a long trend. Meanwhile, work personalities Publicly This could be the “moment of Falklands” for Care Starmer, using Ukraine’s suffering to transform the government’s financial vote, and it occurs to reasonable political opportunism. Britain’s current path can raise a major threat from the Russian invasion: local social turmoil and the rising radical right that threatens democracy itself.
Britain and its European neighbors are roaming military budgets for the arbitrary percentage of GDP must raise questions. Defense boasting ads rarely involved detailed explanations for what these funds will actually spend. Certainly the best approach is to provide a case of what is really required, and with regard to concrete threats. Nowadays, Britain waste a large amount of its defensive budget on triple nuclear missiles, That depends on the United States – And go Failed testsUnreliable anyway.
Billions have been dispensed The aircraft carriers that the former president of defense employees, David Richards, described as “non -settlement metal cans”; They suffer from errors, not to mention facing armed aircraft and anti -ship missiles. Another 5.5 billion pounds was thrown In Ajax Armored Meanicles, which was I handed over eight years Late after they were exposed to multiple problems, such as violently shaking so that the soldiers evolved Sleeping nausea, joints and tinnitis.
To avoid these massive waste, defensive spending must be examined, and real threats are suitable. The Russian tyranny is a permanent threat Ukraine There is no argument, and the armament of the defense war was justified. In the long run, you may be Moldova – with the separate Republic of Transnistria – and the Baltic countries are in danger, although this is a negotiable matter.
The idea that Russia is a realistic, realistic military threat after that – for Britain or otherwise – fake. Three years after the invasion, and 11 years of conflict, the Russian army managed to seize five of the Land Bloc in Ukraine, It is inhabited by the tenth Its population before the war. This, in a country recently elected as a supporter of Russia.
The cost of Russia was enormous. He lost hundreds of thousands of young people. She had already had a demographic crisis, due to the high death rate-which increased thanks to the “trauma therapy” in the Western-backed free market-low-birth and young people who flee from recruitment. This, in addition to mobilizing forces and defensive industries that require workers, has led to a shortage of employment. Although the Russian economy has so far It is proved amazingly strong4.1 % of growth increased in 2024 and high living levels, inflation is 9.5 %, with 21 % non -sustainable interest rates. Moscow run out Of the armored tanks and vehicles, and forced to search the stocks dating back to the increasingly exhausted Soviet era. As Russian revolutions of 1917 showed, the patience of the war in the war can suddenly issue suddenly.
The Soviet Union was a more huge military enemy, and it tried only one invasion outside the post -war bloc: Afghanistan in 1979, proved that it helped reduce the entire edifice. After a bloody Ukrainian disaster, the idea that the rulers of Moscow will walk through Europe In an attempt to take advantage of the hostile population completely it is fictional. Even the Baltic countries – despite their small size and population – look an extension. Investing in the defenses of these specific countries is logical; But the demand of Western European countries to throw huge sums in their defense budgets not.
This does not mean Russia Or in reality, other countries and non -state representatives have not been able to pose other threats, such as Cyberwarfare. In this case, governments must specifically direct spending there. Martin Shaw, a professor of international relations at Sussex University, also tells me that the “Defense Foundation is not valid” to judge what is required; Instead, we need to examine the “root and branch” for defensive spending, to assess the location of the savings, to pay for the actual priorities.
Here is the real threat. To date, the Labor Party has been slaughtered Exoluction on international aid To pay the defense costs. This will cost a life, but it is very popular: although the voters ask about spending on specific humanitarian obligations, such as aid to Ukrainian civilians, the results are to some extent. However, given that the Labor Party refuses to increase taxes on defensive profit, the future spending rises will come at the expense of public services and social security. The research also indicates this Increase military spending Bad for economic growth, especially in the richer countries. The Soviet Union itself partially collapsed due to the excessive defense budget.
Starmer suggests that defensive spending will benefit the living standards of crisis in Britain. This is disputed by the common wealth, Thinktank, Who notices thatIn the past fiscal year, from 37.6 billion pounds spent by the Ministry of Defense, approximately 40 % to 10 companies went. Despite the vast public support, it employs the arms industry a A small segment of the British workforceIt has decreased from more than 400,000 in the early 1980s to about 134,000 people now.
We are already in a position in which the right -wing right -wing parties allowed to rise throughout Europe thanks to austerity and the stagnation of living levels. Demagogue, the extreme right in the White House, condemns its victory, in part, to pressure American workers ’wages. In the recent elections of Germany, the extreme right -wing alternative (AFD) doubled its vote in part because the economic consequences of the invasion of Russia hurt voters. The support of the right -wing extremists has increased steadily since the financial collapse: They are now The most voted political assembly In Europe. Walking long distances military spending at the expense of social spending will undoubtedly support them more. The pursuit of Europe may be proven at the risk of vicious ruin.
