Diary Entry, June 2024

The announcement of further military aid to Ukraine arrives at an opportune moment - for the British government, that is. When Healey warns that “Putin wants us to be distracted,” he reveals more than he intends. The economic reality is this: every munition shipped east represents a political choice masquerading as strategic necessity. The Treasury could just as easily fund hospitals or schools with those same pounds, but chooses not to. This is not a criticism of aiding Ukraine - it is a reminder that scarcity is always manufactured.

What fascinates me is how effortlessly war expenditure escapes the austerity arguments applied to social spending. No one demands the Ministry of Defence prove its “fiscal sustainability” before approving another batch of drones. The animal spirits of the security state operate under different rules than those governing the unemployed.

And yet - the geopolitical calculus may be sound. Russia’s aggression must be checked. But let us at least name the trade-offs: every drone sent is a nurse not hired, a bridge not built. The long-run benefits of containing Putin are real, but so are the short-run costs to our own people. The politicians invoking “necessity” would do well to remember that economic choices, even in wartime, are never neutral. They merely privilege certain sufferings over others.

PS: How curious that “distraction” only flows one way - when Gaza burns, it distracts from Ukraine, but never the reverse. The balance sheet of Western attention reveals its own political arithmetic.