Money to burn

Strikes on both sides of the channel today: in France over the curtailing of young people's employment rights and here in Britain because they want public sector workers to work longer before they get their pensions.

The supposed reason for these attacks by government is the usual neo liberal one: that the money isn't there to pay decent wages or pensions.

Strange that logic never applies when we're talking about war. A recent parliamentary answer revealed that we are spending £2.8 million per day on Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last year we spent £1.1 billion on Iraq and £220 million on Afghanistan. Total costs of the war so far, including this year's spending projection to £5.6 billion in both countries.

By far the lion's share of this has gone on Iraq, where in the past four years we have burned £4.2 billion.

That would pay for a lot of people to retire at 60, or would solve the schooling crisis, or would care properly for our old people.

None of this makes headline news. We have gone to war on a lie and now the government is spending with impunity. Maybe more MPs _whose pensions are incidentally bigger and better protected than any other public sector workers and who are so quick to criticise the low paid _could scrutinise where our public money is going and what the priorities of government are.

And wouldn't it be nice to see money for caring services protected in the way that military spending always seems to be.