AN OUTSIDE VIEW

The UK is to purchase two new aircraft carriers at a cost of £4 billion. Another £12 billion is to be spent on aircraft for the ships. Meanwhile, the Army is hoping to spend £14 billion on a new generation of armoured vehicles. That is enough to pay for hundreds of miles of much-needed new and upgraded railway. Asked about the cost and whether it was justified, Admiral Band said that although the present focus was on two land campaigns - Iraq and Afghanistan - it was vital to invest in the future, 15 or 20 years ahead, and he envisaged carriers playing a crucial role in projecting power and protecting Britain’s global interests. Reading all this, nobody would think that Britain was a country that was grossly overcrowded into about one-third of its land area, with an economy that is chronically sick but currently running into one of its periodic crises, where young people could not afford a place to start a family, with a creaking infrastructure, a rotten school system and a democratic ...