I think you're right about the limited value of nukes - after all, many of our current enemies would be impossible to target with such a weapon and would positively delight in being vapourised by one anyway (quick route to heaven and all that). However, foreign aid is in fact a lot of money - perhaps £12 billion a year which is less than defence but still a huge amount, at £200 per head of the UK population - now I'm happy to give money away myself when it's my choice, but I have no choice about the foreign aid budget. Some interesting stats here, and perhaps significant that some "foreign aid" seems to be included under defence: UK Defence Spending 1692-2016 - Charts What really worries me, when looking at figures like these, are details like the fact that we now spend a similar amount on national debt interest as we do on the whole of defence, and that we are obviously borrowing money only to give it away as aid (although I take the point from some that a proportion of it comes back round again).
Don't worry, if they get their 'freedom' then they'll have to stand on their own. I wonder if the Universities will still be free then?...
I think I'm in favour of an independent Scotland, because I am in favour of people living in smaller self-governing units where they spend their taxes on themselves and make their own decisions. I can't quite understand why people are so keen for Scotland to stay in the UK, but don't want the UK to stay in the EU. Surely it's a similar argument? London doesn't want to be governed by Brussels, and Edinburg doesn't want to be governed by London. In both cases there are dire threats of what will happen if the union is broken. In both cases the bigger entity is trying to make things difficult for the smaller one. Liechtenstein is pretty damned small, but it's a separate country with close ties to Switzerland. It uses the Swiss franc and probably shares foreign policy with Switzerland. Scotland is rather bigger than that.
Totally. It'll never happen though, because the Orangemen will never let us. Even if the Welsh and the Scottish were only too keen, the Proddies will be blowing the place up if we even look like abandoning them. Still, I suppose you could have a weird England-Orange Union. Why not?
And by exactly the same argument, Kent should be independent of England, and Thanet should be independent of Kent, and so on ad infinitum. How about Vaud separating from CH, Glidd? Why not?
Well, that's sort of the point of a federal system. Vaud is already independent, in most things. It has it's own budget, raises its own taxes, has its own police, runs its own schools, has its own hospitals, looks after its own roads. It has its own parliament, with its own government. All the cantons operate like this. The Federal government just does things like defence, foreign policy and monetary policy. And of course my village also raises its own taxes (40% of my income tax) and has it's own village council which has real power to organise the village. The Swiss are so many miles ahead of the rest of the world in their political systems...
Why not invent a whole new paradigm, with the counties becoming like Swiss cantons, and power devolved to them (with adequate voting and representation of the inhabitants). Central government would then be far smaller. People would be happier.
Or perhaps a better idea... Scotland can be independent as long as it takes Northern Ireland with it (the Orangemen have some Scottish heritage don't they?) and England and Wales can remain as a unit, with a sensible degree of devolution, and perhaps some greater autonomy for some English regions.
OK this will sound harsh but follow my reasoning. What is worse one staving kid or two starving kids? Our aid keeps these people alive and what do they do then. They breed like rabbits as one of us has pointed out. Result even less food and water to go around. There is a finite amount of food and water in these countries and that limits the population. All we do is make more starving kids. Sorry but I give nothing to charity as I do not want to add to the misery. I would also add that every charity has a highly paid management team so again sorry but my money stays in my pocket. Regards Steve
