Dear John Whittingdale,

I understand that you voted with the Government yesterday to bomb Syria.  Following our meeting two weeks ago when we presented you the petition about tax credits you mentioned amongst other things that you didn’t like John Maynard Keynes.  May I draw your attention to a few words written today by Michael Rosen.

Vote for war.
We’ve got to keep this economy going somehow.
Keynes wasn’t right.
But Keynes for killing makes sense.
Pump prime the arms economy, stimulated growth.
You see, everything connects.
When they don’t there’s trouble.
And when there’s trouble we pour oil on troubled waters.
Oil? Who mentioned oil?
Not me.
You must be thinking of someone else.
Thank you.
Bombs away!
Chin chin.

I think it says it all.  Keynes to suit a Tory agenda for war.  It seems to me that the West is nothing more than the military industrial complex.  It exists only to feed the war machine not for what is right but for money.  Arms dealers and politicians create the enemy and feed the enemy whilst we are treated to never- ending rounds of duplicity and deception and you spout sanctimonious words about freedom, democracy and keeping us secure.

All the while you threaten us by keeping us fearful for ourselves and our families.  You vote to kill innocent people in a foreign land where you won’t have to face the terror, blood and destruction which will result.  Lives of people just like you and me.  We rarely hear (apart from a few brave journalists who speak out) why terrorist attacks on the West occur – the elephant in the room is studiously ignored in a deliberate fashion.  And all the while Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are still in pieces as a result of Western interference.

When Secretary of State Kerry called Assad’s gassing of nearly 500 children a moral obscenity he had obviously forgotten Madeleine Albright’s assertion that the death of 500,000 children due to sanctions in Iraq were ‘worth it’.  Surely this shows that the so called moral compass of our politicians only applies when it suits their agenda.  The hypocrisy of our leaders is pathetic and deplorable.

So finally to remind you, last week at the Spending Review George Osborne said there was no money.  We have to tighten our belts, cut services, destroy people’s lives and all to satisfy an evil ideology not based on any sort of necessity.  This week suddenly there’s plenty of money for war equally to destroy people’s lives but in the most horrific way possible and with complete disregard for the victims.  Collateral damage I believe you politicians call it.  I can’t even bear to think about the terror that will be caused by our actions let alone the consequences for the future.  The past 14 years of spurious wars are testament to the stupidity of our leaders and an inability to learn any lessons at all.  Not that you want to learn the lesson, it would seem.

So do tell me Mr Whittingdale where is the money coming from if we didn’t have any last week?  I’m afraid I believe that these are political choices made by wicked men for the benefit of a few rich people who are determined to have it all at the expense of us all.  For someone who calls himself an economist you clearly either choose not to understand how our economy really works or you know but prefer to indulge in duplicity rather than the truth.

Yours sincerely,
Prue Plumridge

 

Arms manufacturers stocks soar after UK decision to join Syria bombing

Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade told CommonSpace: “Unfortunately, where most of us see war and destruction the arms companies see a business opportunity. It is conflict and military intervention that fuel arms sales, and companies like BAE are only too happy to cash in from it. These companies don’t care who uses their weapons or the damage they cause, the only thing they care about is profit.”

The arms sales of the world’s four biggest corporations alone are equal to more than $100bn for 2013.