Cut War Not Welfare

Stop the War has opposed the wars on Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya and elsewhere because they will only bring death and destruction to the countries attacked. But the government is spending huge sums on wars at the same time it is cutting at least £80 billion from public expenditure. There is no area of public life that will not be affected, and the tragedy of austerity is already hitting communities up and down the country. But there will be no cuts in the cost of waging wars in foreign lands.

We have now had more than ten years of Britain fighting unjustified wars in other people’s countries. The government insists there is no alternative to the slashing of welfare provision for the most vulnerable in our society, whether it be the bedroom tax (£465 million a year), cuts in disability allowance (£2.2 billion a year) or cuts in the National Health Service (£20 billion by 2015).

But there is an alternative. None of the cuts would be necessary if the huge sums Britain spends on its military and armaments were invested in providing for social need instead of the government’s war machine.