Military Spending
There has been very little spoken about UK military spending during the 2015 General Election campaign. This is remarkable since the UK has the second largest "defence" (that means warfare) budget in the EU. The Tories and LibDems have said very little about their commitment to military spending but we can assume they're quite keen on it. To their shame, UKIP wants to increase military spending to 2% of GDP as does the Labour Party. These arbitrary percentage figures are completely ludicrous and indicate clearly that military expenditure has no relationship to perceived need. Disgracefully, the Greens also support an increase in military spending. In fact their "defence" spokesman spelt this out in a BBC Radio interview a couple of weeks ago. Also in the studio that day was Rory Stewart, right-wing Tory MP and chairman of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee. He congratulated the Green man on this commitment. As this was radio I couldn't tell if he blushed. To be fair to the Greens they are not in favour of renewing the Trident weapon system and that is the case for the SNP and Plaid Cymru. Disgracefully, the Tories, UKIP, LibDem and the Labour Party are in favour of this. Here is a very useful statement from the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). It's sobering reading and I hope you will spread this message.
Imagine a world where instead of spending public money on conflict and repression, the UK took real action to tackle the biggest threat we face. Did you know... --------------- That our government spends 25 times more on research and development into weapons than renewable energy? And there is only 1 member of staff working on renewables in the government's Trade & Investment Department, compared to 128 staff promoting arms sales? The UK pushes arms sales to governments all over the world, including human-rights abusing regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, and it's all tax-payer funded. The government justifies its support for this deadly trade by arguing that it's necessary to protect engineering jobs, but even arms trade representatives admit the industry is “flat-lining at best”. And all of these jobs are subsidised with our taxes. A brighter future... -------------------- The good news is an alternative is possible. Our research shows that government investment in offshore wind and marine energy could create more jobs than the entire arms industry. It would also make use of many of the same engineering skills as the arms trade but, instead of promoting death and destruction, it would help us to build a brighter, more secure future for all. With your help, we can make this a reality. ------------------------------------------- CAAT is producing ground-breaking research ( https://crm.caat.org.uk/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=175&qid=181449 ) to prove to policy makers the positive economic impact we could have by shifting priorities from arms to renewables. We are engaging directly with engineers ( https://crm.caat.org.uk/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=176&qid=181449 ) to gain important insights from within the engineering industry and grow support for a shift to renewables. Most importantly, we are building a mass-movement towards a brighter future ( https://crm.caat.org.uk/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=177&qid=181449 ), with thousands of supporters across the country joining our new campaign. Help us continue to take effective action by setting up a regular gift today: www.caat.org.uk/support-our-work/donate/regular ( https://crm.caat.org.uk/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=174&qid=181449 ) We need this campaign to have a long-term impact to help safeguard future generations, but we need long-term support in order to do this. A regular gift to CAAT will help us continue to be effective, independent and politically focused in our campaigning. The vast majority of our funding comes from individuals like you. Please show your support by donating today. Click here to set up a regular donation to CAAT and help make a shift from arms to renewables possible. ( https://crm.caat.org.uk/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=174&qid=181449 ) Thank you so much for your support.
posted by Colin B. Bennett at 9:36 AM
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