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Open Government must immediately move to increase defence spending as promised

Created by Adrian Sidney Lewis
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We believe the Government’s plan to increase national security expenditure to 5% and defence expenditure to 3.5% is a laudable aim. We do however believe there is far too little urgency about this planned increase.

With increasing instability in the world and doubts about NATO, we feel the Government should urgently prioritise defence spending above other commitments. An article in The Times on 14/04/26 highlighted this lack of urgency on the Government’s stated defence commitments. Defence spending during the Cold War was 4-7% of GDP. Preventing a problem is always less expensive than fixing it. Defence expenditure during WW1 and WW2 peaked at 47% and 80% of GDP respectively. By spending 5% or more of GDP now we may deter any aggressor and avoid the high financial and human cost of a hot war.

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