Guns or Butter

 

The idea of ‘Guns or Butter’ appears to be back on the table The concept was one which was favoured by Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring in the 1930’s. What choices are imbedded in this idea? The state is faced with deciding what its priorities are going to be for those who inhabit that state. Shall we decrease our spending on social welfare in order to increase its spending on military personnel and weapons the state says? Or shall we choose to concentrate on funding domestic programmes and infrastructure that benefit our citizens?

Continuing the long list of military useful idiots who have previously appeared in this Blog cheerleading for war. Here comes General Sir Richard Barrons co-author of the government's Strategic Defence Review which laid bare the threats posed to the UK writing in The Sun. Holding up the bogeyman of the Russians in a manner which verges on a psychiatric disorder he asks what is to be done?

His solution: ‘First, as citizens, we must all accept this difficult world. We didn’t want it, but we don’t get to choose. We must rebuild our national resilience, fix our Armed Forces and make sure every adult, enterprise and institution plays its part. Should war come, it will be a ‘whole of society’ endeavour. And we must act today. This means more money into defence and resilience immediately, even though money is tight. Without more tax or borrowing, finding perhaps £10billion a year more from now means hard choices across our £1.3 trillion public sector and allowing more private capital into defence. But we have to do this now. Today’s Government is struggling to do this, partly because defence is not the first thought for many MPs and mostly because our politicians see no votes in it. So the British voting public must rally to our own defence and urge our MPs to make the hard choices needed to keep us safe.’ Sure, Jan.

The Mail Online reported a speech given by a Labour Peer who,‘accused Rachel Reeves of blocking funding for the Armed Forces and urged ministers to free up cash by slashing the bloated benefits budget.

'Britain's welfare budget is now five times the amount we spend on defence. So I ask, are we certain that this is the right priority – jeopardising people's future safety and security, while maintaining an increasingly unsustainable welfare bill?' Sure, Jan.

One is reminded of the billionaire nuclear plant owner in The Simpsons, Monty Burns, who likes to command, ‘release the dogs.’ The dogs set upon us all here are meant to scare us into choosing guns not butter. It’s unlikely to work but it won’t stop TPTB from continuing down the path of unleashing death and destruction if there is a profit to be made from so doing.

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR