THIS NATION OF WARRIORS

THIS NATION OF WARRIORS

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1) Trident, “Yes”

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2) A new military Head Quarters at Northwood, at an estimated cost of £150 million, with 42 buildings demolished to build 20 new ones

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3) A memorial pavilion to be built for Bomber Command at a cost of £3.5 million at Green Park, Piccadilly

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4) An £80 million Battle of Britain Memorial at Hendon, with a tower higher than Big Ben

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5) That traffic island at Hyde Park Corner consisting entirely of huge monuments to war, Nelson on his column, and London littered with military sculptures

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6) The military roles of the royal family

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7) The recent musical anniversary celebrations of Peace/Victory in the Albert Hall

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8) Remember the Little Ships of Dunkerque. Remember the Battle of Britain

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9) Iraq

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10) Afghanistan

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11) Postage stamps are being issued to finance a pavilion at a war cemetery

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Indeed, a nation of warriors:

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Nostalgia over memories of past victories and of a heroic defeat.

Engaged in present international battles of questionable validity.

Loins girded to fight as yet unknown enemies everywhere on earth.

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Are these warlike states of mind right for today? Are these policies right, and on the appropriate scale, for a small island nation off the coast of Europe, no longer the world empire?

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And whence these attitudes and policies? Perhaps relics of empire, and trauma of loss of that very empire? Delusions of grandeur? Playing a weighty role in the world far in excess of that warranted, in order to have a seat at the top of the top of the top table?

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And having to pay for that expensive role in very hard cash indeed, cash that is desperately needed for London’s and national transport and other urgent infrastructure, and for educational, medical and welfare services, and for the arts?

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I know, just as an example, of the sophistication of design and function, and of the astronomical cost, of the army's helicopters. And I would hazard the uninformed guess, that this nation would not have to make a single one of the threatened cuts, if we instituted a more peaceful national policy, and one more commensurate with the size of its population.

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Guardian 2 June 2010:

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“ Though some large-scale weapons programmes were cancelled in the latest US budget plans, notably the F22 stealth fighter, more money was earmarked for other projects, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UVAs) and cyberwarfare, said Sipri. (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)

The British government is likely to follow suit in the forthcoming strategic defence review, though it is expected to make significant cuts in the number of F35 Joint Strike Fighters proposed for the Royal Navy’s two planned large aircraft carriers... Of European countries Britain accounted for the biggest absolute increase (of $3.7bn) followed by Turkey and Russia.”

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So much money spent on death...

29 August 2010

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ps

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I found a historical echo of my theme in an obituary of the historian Tony Judt (1948-2010) in the AJR Journal (Association of Jewish Refugees) of November 2010 by Anthony Grenville:

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" Judt's analysis of Britain after 1945, to take just one example, is engrossing. He begins with the stark fact that Britain emerged from the war insolvent, having lost one quarter of its national wealth and burdened itself with crippling dollar-denominated debt that it struggled for decades to repay. But, as Judt shows, the British people were utterly ignorant of the extent of their national banruptcy, accepting as normal the levels of austerity where the queues, rationing and shortages were almost reminiscent of conditions in the Societ bloc.

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Apparently the British Government shared this ignorance for, in its eagerness to preserve Britain's (largely imaginary) 'place at the top table' , it budgeted £209 million on military expenditure for 1947, as compared to the £6 million spent on all military and diplomatic expenditure in the years 1934-38. Quite what maintaining full naval fleets in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean as well as the Atlantic, plus a full 'China station', a raft of 120 RAF squadrons worldwide and miltary forces from Hong Kong to Trieste, was supposed to achieve for a bankrupt, middle-sized European nation remains obscure. As a result, Britain was unique in devoting hardly any of the Marschall Plan aid it received to industrial investment or modernisation; 97% of the funds it received went on repaying the country's debts....

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Judt shows how the shoddy, unreliable and overpriced goods produced by Britain's inefficient, strike-ridden industries were unable to compete with the products of West German industry, whose costs were kept down and whose quality was kept up by sustained investment in new and efficient production methods. Britain thus lost the peace almost as comprehensively as it won the war."

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Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. Helas!

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pps

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20 11 10: I just saw a protest march billboard:

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“CUT WAR NOT WELFARE”

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I'd add:

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“CUT ARMS NOT ARTS”

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and

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“CUT UK MEGALOMANIA NOT MEDICINE"