We’ve got our priorities wrong

Recently, I learned that 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 per cent of last year’s global military spending, we could have vaccinated everyone on earth against Covid-19.

It just seems like we’ve got our priorities all wrong. I do understand the need for military spending, but so much?

Just think of what the extra funds could do locally! Only recently (April 1) there was an article in the WSCT about ‘Cutting day services for adults with learning disabilities’ – is this acceptable while we spend so much on arming ourselves in a world which has been relatively peaceful of late?

In 2020, global military spending rose to nearly $2trillion, 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 and increasing the UK’s nuclear warheads.

Military spending actually makes us less safe and wastes vital resources on outdated notions of military strength.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.

I believe it’s time we chose healthcare over warfare, to truly defend people and planet. BEN GRIMWOOD Timms Close,

Horsham