Have we got our priorities all wrong?

We could have vaccinated everyone in the world against Covid with about 7% of what the U.K. government spent last year on the military. And I’ve just read that we will have spent 8 times more on the military over the next four years than we will have done tackling climate change.

In 2020, global military spending rose to nearly $2 trillion, and the UK is the 5th 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, breaking international treaties and fuelling 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 Military spending makes us less safe, and wastes vital resources on outdated notions of military strength.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.

Yours sincerely,

Moyra Jean