CES_williamson

It's pretty simple really - as a nation we don't need a large standing army, we do however have a large and ageing population that require health care, pensions and benefits. The second link was to illustrate the misconception by the vast majority of the British public that there are far more benefit cheats than there actually are.

If we start spending more on defence than we do on welfare we'll pretty quickly end up in the same situation as the USSR did. You can easily see t...

You can see where the money has been spent in defence if you look beyond boots and Glocks. The procurement program for new vehicles in Afghanistan for example.

I'd say there are more honest workers than we think there are and most people on welfare do legitimately deserve it. I know I agreed with Charlie earlier so I don't want to sound like a hypocrite but the government does have other responsibilities. It puts spending into perspective when you actually see the figures. As Lozart said a lot of people 'have the proportions...out of whack' and the article disproving common misconceptions associated with similar social issues Charli...