Wednesday, November 26, 2008

in the economic crisis we face, replacing Trident is even more of a Fucking Stupid Idea than it was before

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It was always obvious to anyone who didn't have their head firmly embedded in some vested interest's rectum, that the idea to replace the Trident nuclear deterrent was another product of that mythical object that resides somewhere in the cellars of Whitehall and has been responsible for so much government policy over the decades: The Fucking Stupid Idea Box [FSIB]. That Edward Pearce is dedicating column inches in the Guardian to laying out exactly how stupid this idea is really brings home what toerags our politicians are for not seeing this themselves, despite the current fiscal clusterfuck.

Lets say the true cost of the program would be half of the top-end estimate of ~£70 billion. Canceling it would still take a healthy chunk out of the national debt, which is going to hit £1 trillion by ~2012. An interesting figure is that of the annual interest the government pays on its national debt- some £30.8 bn this year. Seems like there would be a whole lot more money for services if we could reduce that a little bit, yesno?

While we're saving, why not plump the budget with a few more billion by clamping down on the FSIB's other eructations: The government could simply refuse to handle any planning applications for coal-fired power stations, new roads, runways and other outright insanities. Lets also not bail any more banks out, lets just nationalise them with only token remuneration to the shareholders who sat by wanking over their dividends while the directors ran the banks up the proverbial creek. Lets invest the money instead in some nice, renewable generation capacity, some new, high-speed train lines and some nice, ultra-efficient social housing projects. I could go on but I've got to stop fantasising- the longer you do it for, the more painful it is to return to the real world.

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