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\nMore than fifty humanitarian, climate and peacebuilding organisations are urging Keir Starmer to rethink Britain’s growing military spending, ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, photo credit: Mustafa Taskin from Pixabay<\/p>\n
More than fifty humanitarian, climate and peacebuilding organisations are urging Keir Starmer to rethink Britain’s growing military spending, ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara.<\/p>\n
\nMore than fifty humanitarian, climate and peacebuilding organisations are urging Keir Starmer to rethink Britain’s growing military spending, ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara, photo credit: Mustafa Taskin from Pixabay<\/p>\n
The joint letter, organised by Quakers in Britain and Rethinking Security, follows this week’s Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which promised a further \u00a315 billion for the military.<\/p>\n
Signatories including CAFOD, Green New Deal Rising and the Iona Community warn against skewing funding away from other forms of international engagement.<\/p>\n
The shift represents a “staggering shift” of resources from productive to destructive ends, at a time of armed conflict, inequality and climate breakdown.<\/p>\n
Development, diplomacy, peacebuilding, and conflict and atrocity prevention are all essential and underfunded tools in building a safer world, they say. <\/p>\n
Signatories say:<\/p>\n
The UK’s military spending is on track to reach its highest level since the Second World War The ratio of military to development spending will soon reach almost nine-to-one, up from below four-to-one six years ago. The UK’s nuclear weapons programme now exceeds Russia’s spending and is the third most expensive in the world. <\/p>\n
They warn the Prime Minister will face pressure in Ankara to further entrench the UK in a “war-orientated economy.” <\/p>\n
He should instead strengthen the UK’s role in peacebuilding, climate cooperation and international justice, they write.<\/p>\n
Hannah Brock Womack of Quakers in Britain said the DIP took money from every government department, while “we’re told there’s not enough money for decent social care.”<\/p>\n
“These are political choices. They are not inevitable and they are not uncontroversial,” she said. <\/p>\n
“As Quakers we are driven by our faith, and in this letter, we join a diverse range of organisations also saying: stop, think again, this is the wrong path.”<\/p>\n
Ruth Harvey, leader of the Iona Community, said peace was “an active process of making things whole and restoring what is broken.”<\/p>\n
“We’ve signed this letter as part of our commitment to reconciliation and disarmament,” she said. <\/p>\n
“These are the tools which help us follow Jesus’ example of nonviolent action, which we are still called to today.”<\/p>\n
A copy of the letter will be sent to Andy Burnham MP, Keir Starmer’s likely successor.<\/p>\n