#tax breaks, #royal family, #millennium dome, #war on terror – lovely ideas, Tories, but “there just isn’t the money.”
If you look at actions, rather than words, the Conservative Party has little problem with public spending – just so long as it doesn’t lead to redistribution. Militarism, or floating the Queen down the Thames on a barge, is OK, because the poor won’t get richer. Even spending on the NHS is fairly OK. The real threats to social order are welfare, social services, education, prison reform – things that might just empower people. Keeping a gap between the rich and poor is the underlying agenda of the Conservative Party.
According to the UK National Audit Office, the total cost of The Dome (a John Major commission) at the liquidation of the New Millennium Experience Company in 2002 was £789 million, of which £628 million came from National Lottery grants. That’s about 1% of today’s total #budget. See http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/breakdown
@guardian – UK military operations since cold war have cost £34bn, says study: http://gu.com/p/3zjqa/stw
@JohnPilger – We have created a hotbed of extremism in Iraq, inspiring ongoing expenses in a continued ‘war on terror’ which can’t be won until we stop being terrified.
For a lighter account of Tory madness, buy Adventures in Tory Land: Democracy in Middle England. Go to: http://amzn.to/1N1doeS
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