THE Lib Dems passed a conference motion at their party conference saying the government should borrow the money for further defence spending, from ordinary British people, by selling them defence bonds at a reasonable rate of interest, instead of resorting to the bond markets.
Many small savers – like myself -would willingly take money out of the building society to invest in government defence bonds instead.
This could address the government short fall in defence spending.
In the case of people like me – public sector pensioners – receiving a public sector pension – the government would essentially be borrowing back the money they are paying us over and above our state pensions.
Exactly what defence equipment that money is spent on is of course quite another matter.
We must take account of fighting in Ukraine and how Ukrainians have defended themselves lately.
Nigel Boddy,
Witney Court,
Greencroft Close,
Darlington
Healey and Carns departures are a ‘huge blow to the government’
THE resignations of both John Healey and Al Carns are a huge blow to the government.
Their resignations are a dignified response to a Defence Investment Plan which is not fit for purpose.
Al Carns is a decorated former Royal Marine who has a fantastic understanding of what is needed to improve significantly what our Armed Forces’s need.
In his resignation letter he also referred to changes that he disagreed with around the amendments to the Troubles Bill. The amendments mean that veterans can now be prosecuted for action taken in Operation Banner.
The terrorists were given immunity as part of the Good Friday agreement.
In the Armed Forces’s, there is a perception that Labour detests our Armed Forces’s and Veteran community, and with the Troubles Bill and the Defence Investment Plan they are doing very little to change that perception.
John Jones,
Russet House,
Birch Close,
York
Welfare spending in spotlight after resignations
THE defence secretary has resigned saying this country is spending more on welfare than defence.
What to me seems ridiculous is that we are giving large amounts of money to people who have very large families knowing they can’t afford them but continue to produce kids because the country will pay for them.
It’s like buying a small house with limited parking and having four or five cars and no place to park them, there is no thought given about anyone else except themselves.
This government also continues to not think about how high unemployment is growing as long as it pays for people who do not want to work, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Labour have always supposedly looked after the underdog, well the so called underdog is milking the system for all it’s worth at a cost to those honest people who work hard and save.
John Norman,
Woodthorpe,
York
Read more:
Ripe for cuts
IN answer to a question posed to me (The Press June 11) by Quentin Macdonald as to which Government budgets I would cut, my reply is easily formulated – welfare, net zero and foreign aid.
Peter Rickaby,
Moat Way,
Brayton,
North Yorkshire
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