WHAT you don't know about the Thatcher government's The pamphlet shows how the manufacturers and their 3Lcomplices in the Tory Parmy mak ine cconomy ary lo buy weapons whose only use is to kill and maim millions of people.
also shows parliament has little or no say in wnal gels spent the financial year 1980/81 the detence cash limit was set at 610.1 billion. But that turned out lo be not enough. By the end of the year it had been upped by £743 million which was a rise of 7:5 per cent.
procedures parliament hovere! made sure that no discussion wils allowed on mos of these mics case. altogether less than iwo per cent arms budget was subject to any detailed parhamentary scrutiny.
expenditure death and obsolescence -most weapons including Trident 1 are ourdated by the time they go into production was already nore need.
Tories have their way thines will onlv get worse In the period 1981/82 the aims spend lotal £12.6 billion which is 11.5 per cent of total government expenditure which means that Britain spends more per person on the armed forces than any other NATO country.
Crumble As Britain sinks ever deeper into recession and services visibl crumble before our eyes. the Tories have jacked up military spending by eight per cent since coming to office From 1975 total public spending, alter taking inPinion to "2m has dipped billion.
Main areas of production spending General support (8%) {316m spending. and the has jumped by &5 billion. while military billion.
Any increase in public services has been immediately the head. As Minister of Health Gerard Vaughan says: 'cash limits are paramount once the year starts.
Limits But closing hospitals down is one thing that any Tory minister is willing to do. Cutting Chevaline, Trident, Polaris and all the other military paraphernalia is quite another matter. which has meant that single military expenditure concerned the wash limit To make sure that the keep the war machine rolling and not be distracred by cash flou proDiens they have been guaranteed profit of 20 per cent since 1977, which is ‹.o per cent nigner man the average return on industrial capital in period 1973/77.
workers may have to put up with Project Tornado GRI & F2 plane AV8B plane' Sting Ray torpedo Type 42 Destroyer equipment Heavyweight torpedo Nimrod planes Sea Eagle missile Rapier missile update New sonar systems Sea Skua missile Blow Pipe missile Ptarmigan communications' Notes Estimated value of work going to UK. Total development and initial production costs. First phase only.
miserly four per cent wage increase, and unemployed youth of Britain may face years Security, but no British Aerospace and the electronics companies' main arms projects Cost (approximate) £9,500m £1,000m £ 920m 680m 500m 360m £ 350m 320m 240m 200m 200m 150m Equipment procurement: where the £585m Research & development (26%)
£1,683m Development (22%) £1,419m Research (4%) £264m Production (65%) £4,167m such economic problems confront the arms bosses.
Government policy
to buy the and boost the profits. The Company BAe/GEC Marconi BAe GEC Marconi Ferranti/GEC Marconi GEC Marconi GEC Marconi BAe/GEC Marconi GEC Marconi Plessey BAe Shorts Plessey equipment 1981/2 £2,623m Aircraft Group Military aircraft Year Ending sales 31 December tm 1975 1979 1980 Dynamics Group Year Ending Sales 31 December fm 1975 1979 1980 Defence White Paper 1981 said: 'The government will WEAPONS SOLD AND PROFITS MADE Civil aircraft sales Em Glasgow-Saturday 10th Outstanding Trading military profit' orders £m fm 1,813 1,7032 Trading Orders profit outstanding Em 1,337
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schemes and plots of the arms manufacturers, can now be put right. Go out and buy a copy of War Lords: the CIS Report on the UK Arms In- dustry, which at a price of 95p is a giveaway.
Sea equipment (32%) £1,343m Land equipment (20%) £820m Air equipment (40%) £1,689m
money goes 1981/2 Budget overrun (estimate 10%)
New equipment (39%) £2,540m Spares (25%) £1,627m
Forces pension (9%) £603m Civilian pay (25%) £1,716m