{"id":14203,"date":"2026-04-22T18:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davelevy.info\/wiki\/?p=14203"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:17:15","slug":"more-on-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davelevy.info\/wiki\/more-on-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"More on Defence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

James Schneider writes on defence in the ‘Statesman in an article entitled in the magazine, The Great British defence con<\/a>, but within the URL as “britains defence budget must get more bang for its buck”, and interesting metaphor given that one of the criticisms of the current SDR is the amount of dollars it proposes to spend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have made some posts to my buffer targets, which includes mastodon<\/a>. These posts criticise the UK SDR focus on ‘exquisite’ weapons and our reliance on US availability and support. I was reminded that we seem to be preparing, if not already in a new cold war and decided I needed to expand what I said, particularly as George Robertson, obliquely quoted in the Schneider article, the lead author of the SDR is calling for more expenditure and cuts in welfare to fund it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the things I looked up to write that reply. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consent and threats<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In their paper, Organised Responsibility<\/a>, Kaldor and Cooper, entitle their concluding paragraph, Welfare is Resilience<\/em><\/strong>. It should be added that so is the Overseas Aid and Development budgets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. In a seminar, given by Danny Dorling, promoted by Another Europe, the comparison between European and British social wages was made, and I went looking for the chart he used. I couldn’t find it, but retrieved his Report: Brexit a failed project in a failing state<\/a>. This has a chart in it, but it wasn’t what I wanted; it maybe else where. I found Danny Dorling’s bibliography<\/a>, on his site, and a reference to his book, Shattered Nation<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. I attempted to make one of my own<\/a> using chatgpt, without breaking Dr Frank Oliver<\/a>‘s first two rules of chart making. It may also be a chart that reinforces the rule, that interesting findings are likely to be wrong. It’s hard to read, and another reason for not using it, is that I am unclear as to exactly what the ‘social protection’ expenditure includes. Does it really include public health expenditure? The more I look at it, the more I question the reply. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. I felt it worth checking to see how popular the UK contribution to the war in Ukraine is<\/a>, and found a poll by ipsos. The answer is pretty well supported. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    On the US dependency<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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    1. Perun, on an imaginary unified EU military<\/a>, see also my article of the same name<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      On funding<\/h3>\n\n\n\n