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In the same hours that the British were on the front line in the Red Sea, they guaranteed nearly three billion euros worth of military aid to Ukraine. They are positioned shortly behind the Americans in terms of assistance, which should be understood not only in military terms, but together with indirect support through many economic, cultural, and professional channels.
Where do the economic resources for this global commitment come from?
Essentially, this money comes from savings on the domestic front. English governments took money away from schools, healthcare, and justice, to put it into the war industry.
In Great Britain, the prison population has risen to 88,000 in 2023 and is expected to continue rising to nearly 100,000. For the most part, the prisons were built in the 19th century and are considered overcrowded, miserable, and unhealthy. To save money, the probation service, the fame of English-speaking tradition, was partially privatized in 2014, but the experiment had such disastrous results that it led to a hasty return to public hands.
There are excruciating analyses of the British prison that are merciful compared to what happens in other sectors of the public service. The Post Office case is sensational: a scandal that only came to light in 2023 thanks to the television program Alan Bates vs The Post Office. The scandal concerns employees seriously convicted of falsifying post office accounts; it later turned out that it was a faulty and lousy electronic program that made the reporting error: the convicts were innocent, which was probably known to the instigators, and protested in vain to investigators and magistrates.
The post offices, founded in 1653 in the days of stagecoaches and horses, were among the oldest and most respected institutions in England; however, by far the most respected institution was the National Health Service (NHS), established in 1948 when Aneurin Bevan was Minister for Health in the Labor government. The NHS embodies the best of England’s brilliant idealistic aspirations, from those of Lord William Beveridge to those of the Working Men’s Medical Aid Society, a Welsh self-help community that was self-governing, cost-effective, and had been in operation since the late nineteenth century, providing a model of community care. The National Health Service was so esteemed that it received a famous definition from Nickel Lawson, who said it was the nearest thing to the religion of the English. The NHS is now a symbol of everything that doesn’t work in the United Kingdom, because it saves money on everything: the best doctors and nurses flee to Australia, expensive patients are killed along with the stamp and label of official authorization (as in the case of little Charlie), deaths and injuries due to clinical errors – this is all just carnage: you have to save money, so keep patience, someone is involved, this is the country that invented survival of the fittest.
Among the savings on the skin of His Majesty’s subjects, the worst disgrace concerned perhaps the most famous British institution – Scotland Yard and the Metropolitan Police, tormented by apocalyptic incidents. Police officer David Carrick was subpoenaed in January for 85 cases of rape or abuse committed between 2002 and 2021. The only person worse than him is Wayne Couzens, another cop sentenced to life in prison for the false arrest, rape, and murder of Sarah Everard. These are examples of a long and unprecedented series of offences characterized by a common factor: they were committed over many years and were partially known, but not investigated in depth, particularly due to the downsizing of staff and essential services such as internal controls. There are 100,000 cases of domestic violence per year in London alone, with several women committing suicide in despair, but distrust of these institutions is serious, says Andrew Wadey, head of a special law enforcement agency.
Retirements and downsizing affect the entire security system; the consequences are seen in all areas. Shoplifting still runs into the millions and millions, as before, but now it often escalates into physical attacks and armed confrontations – and this is about food and medicine, not oysters and champagne. Thieves are visiting homes like never before: 527 homes a day are burglarized in England and Wales, but only 5% of them result in prosecutions; since 2019, there have been around 900,000 completely unsolved cases officially recorded – a frightening number indeed.
Commenting on the data, the Liberal Democrats indignantly declared that Britain’s rulers are asleep at the wheel; therefore, they argue, their driver’s licenses should be taken away. But no one is bluffing if a gun is on the table, and no one can take away the license of a driver who obeys the rules of the road with a gun in his hand – if he is driving against traffic, others will have to adapt.
The United States will manage its elections in 2024 by pumping a whopping $4 trillion into government bonds. Trillions to be added to the enormous debt already contracted with half the world; the English debt follows in size. It’s a war economy because the collateral for debt is weapons. For this reason, there are no resources for schools, hospitals, justice. The money is mostly used for armaments and military industry. They are not sleeping at the wheel, but driving along the beaten path – no matter the cost.
