Tuesday 4th November

We first went into serious debt as a country because of war.  For centuries kings had waged wars and financed them by taxing the rich (who in turn took everything from the poor of course).  It was the Napoleonic wars which took us first into serious debt, and taxes were raised to pay for it.  Then the two huge wars of the Twentieth Century took us deeper and deeper into debt, as it did most of the nations of the world.  Even America which was lending money to us got into debt.  In essence rich people were lending money to Governments for them to wage wars; the same rich people were making money out of armaments and supplying the armies.

And so it has continued.  In all the arguments about the current deficit and who caused it or the ever-growing pile of debt no-one ever seems to consider the costs of Afghanistan and Iraq and now the bombing of Isis.   There was never any real justification for the invasion of either Afghanistan or Iraq.  And it must have cost billions.  Whether we will ever know the exact cost is unlikely, but that money could have been spent on decent hospitals and schools.  But there is never enough money for them, is there?  But whenever America decides to bomb someone there we are, (hands up – let us join in please) with our puny but expensive contribution, happy to blow a few billions more, and to kill a few thousand more in the process.  But wars are big business nowadays and no-one wants the Government to stop buying bullets and bombs and tanks and aircraft and big ships.  Except us – you know, the ordinary citizens who just see the madness of it all.  Unfortunately we really have no-one who is willing to stand up and say “No More War”.   The defence of our nation is the excuse that is always thrown up, as if we are about to be overrun by radical Muslims tomorrow if we do not keep spending on killing machines.  And as to the real threats, Russia, China or America – we wouldn’t stand a chance anyway.