UK PM Keir Starmer has tried to use the horrific attack in Golders Green, in which three people were badly hurt, to justify a massive war and ‘security’ budget hike. The beleaguered PM segued weirdly between topics in a long, jargon-filled screed.
He used the blog as a chance to hype arms firms and the war industry. The piece, titled ‘Facing the challenges of this moment‘, seems to have gone largely unnoticed by the legacy media.
Starmer linking antisemitism to a need for war
He opened with this:
The appalling terror attack in Golders Green this week was not an isolated incident. It was a brutal reminder that antisemitism is not something happening somewhere else, or to someone else. It is here, it is real, and it is growing.
And too many people still refuse to see it, or choose not to.
Antisemitism is a threat to our whole country.
Then he moved on to a pledge to fund the police and security infrastructure:
That is why we have moved immediately to strengthen policing and security funding. Why we have increased already enhanced protection for communities at risk.
And why we are reviewing whether the powers available to law enforcement are adequate for the threats we face.
Before scrambling to link Golders Green to an argument for more money for war:
What we are seeing on our streets does not exist in isolation.
Global conflict is bleeding into life at home.
We are facing a war on two fronts – in Ukraine and in the Middle East. A fractured world, more dangerous than at any point in my lifetime.
And it has brought us to a tipping point.
In a sense – though not the sense he means – Starmer is onto something. At the Canary we make a point of writing about how the imperial boomerang has come home. By this we mean the violence and authoritarianism that always characterises imperialist wars and empire imposed on the population at home.
But Starmer effectively twists this argument out of shape, saying that the outcomes of the wars justify more militarism.
He argued:
We’re already delivering the biggest sustained investment in British defence since the Cold War.
And in the coming weeks, we will set out how we are going to go further and faster.
Yes, Keith. This will stave off antisemitism. Sure.
Arms firms will save us…
Starmer also repeats the lie that the UK isn’t involved in the Iran war. Simply put, this claim is long dead. But then he places profit-driven arms firm, who have an active interest in war and instability, at the centre of his vision:
And, to build the formidable productive power and innovative strength that we need.
British companies already account for over a quarter of the continent’s defence industrial base.
They are a job-creating, community-building machine.
So our aim is to build a shared industrial base across our continent, with British industry at the heart.
Starmer also touches on renters’ rights and a few other milquetoast nods to progressive politics. But at the heart of this odd intervention, Starmer maintains – without evidence – that militarism is the way to secure a safer, more prosperous, and less divided Britain. In his desperation to cling on to power ahead of council elections which look set to wipe him out, Starmer will lead us deeper into an abyss of war, racism, and global instability.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
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