Arms race

There’s a lot of noise in the political sphere about the defence plans announced by the PM, with military leaders and defence ministers condemning it as too little. On the contrary, it seems to me that we spend too much on defence and, as a result, cut spending in most other areas– including the cuts to the aid budget which not only cost lives but also reduce our soft power, make conflicts more likely, and add to the arguments for more spending on defence, a true own goal. The big culprit in all this is our nuclear capability. A commitment of £63bn to further enhancing this capability is proposed.

To be clear, we have for many years invested in Trident and now Dreadnought nuclear capabilities and the bill has been huge. All for weapons we will never use, which make use of nuclear against us more, rather than less, likely and which, if used, would kill many millions of innocent civilians, men, women, and children. Weapons which threaten to break our non-proliferation undertakings and turn us all into war criminals.

The Strategic Defence Review identified the threats we face in the modern world as cyber threats, threats to undersea cables, and threats from drones – all of which imply refocussing the spend on these areas. Instead, we seem to be buying more boys’ toys, dancing to the tune played by the defence manufacturers and wasting money in the process. I struggle to see how we rescue our politicians from the spell they seem to be under, and I worry that engaging in what amounts to an arms race can have only one result.

The new Seneschal

Appointment to the court 
meant an induction process 
for the new seneschal 
proud but eager to please

responsible for the defence of the realm
he met with King and courtiers
the Grand Vizier, the power brokers
the eminence grise

the message they gave him 
was, in short, not to rock the boat
their words and blandishments
casting a spell

keep spending, buy more
all will be well
we need to counter 
every threat

he dreamt he was in a pond
surrounded by a hundred frogs
each demanding attention
clamouring to be heard
each one with goods to sell
a weapons system, a killing machine
‘Kiss me’ each cried ‘Kiss me’
a decision you won’t regret

 years passed and when he awoke
he was alone
surrounded by a wasteland
the frogs were gone

the court, the king, the nation
all consigned to history
leaving only memory
and devastation

Image courtesy of David Sandoz under license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/