Spend on health, not on useless ‘defence’

AS the NHS sinks ever deeper into the mire of under-resourcing and Tory ministers concurrently demand more “defence” spending, I ponder government sanity.

Your correspondent’s recent suggestion to cut overseas aid (except, perhaps, for emergencies) is sound but other options exist in a world of common sense.

Why do we need to be one of the most aggressive nations on earth fighting wars of no direct threat to us? That’s not defence.

Whoever decided we needed an aircraft carrier more expensive than any other vessel we have ever built? Then to find it leaks and probably we will have no planes for a decade, if ever, is/was clearly deluded and unsuitable for high office. To make things worse they ordered two.

As if this were not bad enough the government still thinks Trident submarines are a good idea. It is clear to me that the Chinese probably already have and the rest of the world will soon have submersible aquatic “drones” which will follow such “undetectable” submarines and be themselves undetected, making the Trident concept null and void. In any conflict an enemy would have, on day one, two sore-thumb targets – our aircraft-less carrier and un-hideable Trident. Day two, war over and we’ve lost.

No wonder we have no money to spend on the real needs of the people.

We should all make sure that our representatives know the views of the people that the open sewer of defence spending has a cleaner, better and more deserving home within the medical and social facilities of Britain. PJ Chorley Newtown