OVER the next four years, the UK will spend eight times more on the military than it will on tackling the climate crisis.
With just 7.1% of last year’s global military spending, we could have vaccinated everyone on earth against COVID-19.
We’ve got our priorities all wrong.
In 2020, global military spending rose to nearly $2 trillion, and the UK is the fifth highest spender in the world.
At a time when our community has been wracked by COVID-19, thousands have lost their homes, jobs and businesses, the government has been spending money expanding into new areas of warfare such as killer robots, and increasing the UK’s nuclear warheads, which breaks international treaties and fuels a nuclear arms race.
Military spending makes us less safe, and wastes vital resources on outdated notions of military strength.
Spending like this makes a mockery of Boris Johnson’s ambition to be a ‘force for good’ in the world.
It’s time we chose healthcare over warfare, to truly defend people and planet.
Catherine Brown
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