No to Starmer’s war economy

British Admiral Radakin’s pronouncement of a ‘third nuclear age’ made headlines across the world last week. Like Keir Starmer in his Mayor’s Banquet speech, Radakin was whipping up fears about an array of ‘foes’ threatening Britain to justify increased defence spending, particularly to ‘strengthen’ Britain’s nuclear arsenal.
This coordinated promotion is preparing the ground for the government’s Strategic Defence Review, due in early 2025, which will ‘“consider the efficiency and effectiveness of the nuclear programme” and outline how it will spend 2.5% of national income.
Meanwhile this week, the government also announced department spending limits for 2025-2026 that won’t allow additional funding for pay increases. This means that public sector workers, including in health and education, will face ongoing pressure to meet their living costs.
The government is using a number of tactics to justify prioritising military spending over these other sectors, and spending on capital as opposed to staff and their pay.
It is exploiting people’s legitimate fears at the rapidly escalating crisis in Ukraine and the Middle East. Yet it is the very actions – in lock-step with the US – of this and successive British governments, that sustain these horrific conflicts.
The government is also trying to present building new nuclear submarines – a colossal drain on public finances – as a dynamic catalyst for Britain’s economic growth. So, the Defence Industrial Strategy’s Statement of Intent, published last week, states it aims to make sure ‘the imperatives of national security and a high-growth economy are aligned’. A ‘better defence industry’, the statement argues, will ‘provide resilience and self-reliance for our nation’.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
Looking firstly at this offer of a high-growth economy. At the time of the government’s vote to upgrade Trident, CND commissioned research into the employment implications of cancelling the £205bn upgrade and concluded that the money saved ‘could be used for a massive level of investment that would create many more jobs than the current or future nuclear weapons systems can provide. The sums involved are so vast that whole areas, such as the one around Barrow, where the Trident submarines are made, could be regenerated.’
The industry is not jobs-rich. The majority of the ‘investment’ goes into the ‘capital’ of the submarines, which either sit in dockyards being repaired or patrol the seas. The nuclear industry can’t create the millions of jobs needed to build a strong, dynamic, sustainable economy. Other sectors that are crying out for investment could do this. For instance, investing in sectors like social care, could, according to the Future Social Care Coalition report ‘Carenomics’, ‘power growth, unlock jobs, boost business and save the NHS money’.
We all know the huge carbon bootprint of the military industry, which represents at least 5% of global emissions. Investing in renewable energy and energy-efficient house-building programmes, would catalyse sustainable economic growth and help Britain reach the scale of climate action that is needed to halt carbon emissions.
Starmer and Healey try to present the militarisation of the British economy as something that is beneficial to the British population. More beneficial than alleviating child poverty, halting pensioner winter deaths, and scaling up investment in renewables.
Nuclear warheads don’t offer any security to people losing their homes due to flooding. Or families unable to feed their children. Or older people dying of hypothermia this winter.
The reality is you can’t build sustainable growth on genocide, global militarism and the threat of nuclear war.
This drive for increased defence spending is coming from the US nuclear alliance of NATO, which is now pushing member states to increase spending to 3% of GDP – so taking on even more of the financial burden to strengthen US military and nuclear dominance. That’s the kind of ‘self-reliance’ the government’s Industrial Strategy is really about.
So, as we look to 2025, let us take inspiration from Nihon Hidankyo, the survivors of the US atomic bombing, who, having campaigned nearly eight decades for a nuclear free world, won the Nobel Peace Prize this week. Challenging the war mongers, the military and nuclear lobbyists, our determination and tenacity is needed now more than ever.

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