A piece in the Express brings to mind the the Whitfield and Strong song recorded in 1970 by The Temptations and Edwin Star, War, What Is It Good For?

The response, as SOYMB has pointed out on numerous occasions, is profit!

‘A global ramp-up in military spending amid wars in Ukraine and Gaza helped push weapons manufacturer BAE Systems make a record profit of just over £3 billion last year.

Europe’s largest defence contractor, and the biggest in Britain, said earnings surged by one-sixth compared to 2024, buoyed by “growing threats” to security around the world.

BAE Systems makes weapons ranging across missiles and artillery systems, tanks, planes and warships.

It also makes cybersecurity products and advanced electronics, including for countries’ space agencies, and it is the biggest military contractor to the UK Government.

The company said it secured £33.7 billion of orders last year, taking its backlog to a new record high, amid more demand for its combat vehicles, and improvements to fighter jets and submarine technology.

“Today, nations are facing increasingly varied and complex threats to security,” the company said…’https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2017346/uk-weapons-company-profit-BAE

Another report in the same media notes the launching of a nuclear submarine built by that company at a cost of one point six billion pounds. Apparently, get out your union flags and wave them, it will enable the Royal Navy to ‘project power across the globe.’ 

Flag wavers are more likely to be of the Colonel Blimp type. He was a 1930’s cartoon character who was pompous and jingoistic. The days when Britain’s navy ruled the waves are long gone.‘ By the 18th century, Britain had established a naval hegemony that was to remain unshaken until the 1920s.‘ History Extra 

And long gone too is Britain’s empire. Why does the UK ruling class still behave as if it was a significant power still in the world? The amount spent on the submarine is almost equivalent to the amount saved by the government in cancelling pensioners winter fuel allowance.

An increase, projected, in the the UK defence budget to 2.5 per cent would cost an estimated five billion pounds plus.

The priorities of capitalism are not focused on its majority class. The time is long past to send armaments of all kinds to the scrap heap along with capitalism.

EMPLOYMENT (ZOOM)

From April First we can all expect to find increases in cost of; Council tax; Water rates; Mobile phone bills; Internet provider bills; Car tax; Insurance; Bus fares; Train fares, Petrol, Diesel and so it goes.

We’re all fools for continuing to let capitalism, it’s elites, and its shills, carry on plundering resources, and plundering us.

Rachel Reeves is concerned that workers will demand higher wages.

What of those on fixed incomes and benefits?

A 2022 political campaign Enough is Enough, called for ‘A real pay rise, A cut in energy bills, An end to food poverty, ‘Decent’ homes for all, Higher tax for the wealthy, Nationalisation of Certain Industries.’ Fabianesque aspirations that even in the unlikely event of being implemented would do nothing to change the underlying cause of the problems sought to resolve – capitalism.

‘The consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation rose to 3% in January, the Office for National Statistics  (ONS) reported, up from 2.5% in December.

The ONS said a jump in the cost of meat, bread and cereals pushed up food bills, while higher private school fees after the government’s withdrawal of VAT exemption increased the cost of education services.

Rachel Reeves said: “Getting more money in people’s pockets is my number one mission. Since the election we’ve seen year on year wages after inflation growing at their fastest rate – worth an extra £1,000 a year on average – but I know that millions of families are still struggling to make ends meet.”

The chancellor is understood to be concerned that a rise in inflation through the spring and summer will spur public sector workers to demand more than the 2.8% wage increase the government has agreed can be paid from existing budgets.’

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/19/uk-inflation-increases-rising-prices-squeeze-households

‘Millions of households face a greater than expected increase to their energy bills of about 5% from April after a slump in Europe’s gas storage levels caused market prices to climb, according to analysts.

The average gas and electricity bill for a typical household in Great Britain is expected to rise by £85 from April to £1,823 a year under the energy regulator’s price cap.

The latest energy price increase would mark the third consecutive quarterly rise in costs for households, in a blow to the government’s election promise to bring down energy bills by “up to £300 by 2030”.

About 9 million households that use variable tariffs linked to the price cap will see an immediate impact on their bills from April, while it will be delayed for others on fixed tariffs.

The energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, will confirm the figure for the energy price cap covering the three months from 1 April on Tuesday 25 February. The regulator increased the cap in January by 1.2% to a rate equivalent to £1,738.

Adam Scorer, the chief executive of National Energy Action, a fuel poverty charity, said the third consecutive price cap rise would hit households “after three years of abnormally high energy bills”.

“There is no getting used to this new normal for the people we try to help. Millions of the most vulnerable households are struggling with debt and severely rationing their heating,” he said.

Although a further rise was widely expected, the increase is expected to be steeper than first anticipated after cold, still weather across Europe forced many countries to rely more heavily on gas power plants as wind power dwindled. As a result gas storage levels dropped across the continent, causing wholesale market prices to rise sharply.’

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/feb/18/ofgem-forecast-increase-energy-bills

The supposed Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times is undergoing some heavy lifting at present. Western ‘leaders’ appear to believe they are Mildred Rached. Rather than be in charge of the ‘inmates’ in their various States it is they perhaps who should be put into care and their delusions that those they ‘represent’ are in favour of continuing a conflict, one of many taking place, which has already maimed and killed any thousands.

‘Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced that the UK is ready to play a “leading role” in providing security guarantees to Kiev and deploy troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission, should a ceasefire agreement with Russia be reached.

In an article for The Telegraph Starmer described the Ukraine conflict as a “once-in-a-generation moment” and an “existential” issue for Europe, justifying the potential deployment of British personnel.

“The UK is ready to play a leading role in accelerating work on security guarantees for Ukraine… But it also means being ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary,” the prime minister wrote.

“I do not say that lightly. I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way,” he added. “But any role in helping to guarantee Ukraine’s security is helping to guarantee the security of our continent, and the security of this country.”

Starmer’s announcement comes as European leaders prepare to convene in Paris for emergency talks, prompted by US President Donald Trump’s recent push for a peace deal with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and growing concerns over a potential reduction in US defence commitments in Europe.

Trump surprised Washington’s European allies with a lengthy call to Putin to discuss possible steps toward resolving the Ukraine conflict. Since then, the US State Department has circulated a document reportedly containing six questions to assess these nations’ willingness to commit to a long-term security arrangement for Kiev.

“If third-country military forces were to be deployed to Ukraine as part of a peace arrangement, what would you consider to be the necessary size of such a European-led force?” was one of the questions, according to Reuters. 

Another reportedly asked: “What additional capabilities, equipment, and maintenance sustainment options is your Government prepared to provide to Ukraine to improve its negotiating hand and increase pressure on Russia?”

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed in January that Kiev needs “at least” 200,000 European soldiers as peacekeepers to enforce any potential agreement with Russia. However, analysts cited recently by the New York Times consider this figure unabtainable, noting that deploying even 40,000 troops would be challenging.

The Trump administration has repeatedly signaled its intent to minimize US involvement once a potential truce is reached, instead seeking to shift the financial and logistical burden of supporting Kiev onto Washington’s allies in the region.

“To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be US troops deployed to Ukraine,” US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.

Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, emphasized that no peacekeeping force can legally operate without a mandate from the UN Security Council. Senior Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik previously warned that “any contingent entering the territory of Ukraine without the consent and permission of Russia is a military target, with quite understandable consequences.”’

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR

The Brits are seething. Seething at the Ukraine military. How very dare you waste the “valuable military resources” we have given you! Don’t you know you’re supposed to read the user manual? Used ‘properly’ these weapons are capable of killing far more people.

‘British defence officials have accused Ukrainian forces of “wasting” expensive Western weapons and equipment, The Telegraph reported. According to the newspaper, NATO and Kiev are at odds over aspects of military strategy in the conflict with Russia.

The Telegraph quoted British sources as complaining that Ukraine is attempting to use NATO-supplied weapons in accordance with traditional Soviet-style combat tactics, resulting in significant losses of valuable military resources.

One military adviser described Ukraine’s use of UK-supplied NLAWs antitank missiles, which cost £2,000 ($2,500) each, as reckless. The missiles are being fired “as if they were RPGs,” the source told the Telegraph, referring to inexpensive Russian shoulder-fired grenade launchers.

The adviser is said to have observed instances when a massive barrage of NLAWs was launched at Russian positions, with each salvo costing more than £100,000.

The paper noted the apparent conflict between NATO and Soviet-style military strategies. While Soviet-era military doctrine emphasizes overwhelming firepower, often relying on infantry-led offensives and probing attacks to wear down the enemy, NATO troops prioritize precision strikes and manoeuvrability to achieve battlefield success.

However, Ukrainian troops have reportedly justified their reluctance to accept NATO tactics, arguing that they fail to align with the realities on the ground. These disagreements have reportedly led to tense exchanges, with one alleged incident in which British trainers had to “reach… for their sidearms due to the threat of violence.

Telegraph sources also accused the Ukrainians of abandoning reusable Javelin missile command launch units (CLU), which cost over $100,000 each and often end up in Russian hands. “The Russian army probably has more Javelins than the British Army now,” a source claimed, adding that while he and his colleagues support Ukraine, the UK’s effort to back Kiev “was built around lies.”

The Telegraph report comes as UK defence officials have warned that the country’s military is currently “hollowed out” and underfunded due to years of neglect. British MPs have sounded the alarm that London is woefully unprepared for a “high-intensity” war.

Despite these concerns, the UK has pledged £7.8 billion in military aid to Ukraine, which includes tanks, air defence systems, and long-range precision strike weapons.’

Throughout human history there have been atrocities of one kind or other visited upon its fellow man -inclusive term including women and children.

Atrocities continue to take place today.

It is eighty years since between 13 and 15 February 1945 members of the British and American working class, at the behest of their capitalist overlords, devastated fellow German workers at Dresden.

American novelist, Kurt Vonnegut was in Dresden as a prisoner of war at the time of the raid. He wrote Slaughter House Five based on his experience there.

“ Germans did not expect Dresden to be bombed, Vonnegut said. “There were very few air-raid shelters in town and no war industries, just cigarette factories, hospitals, clarinet factories.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut

Below is reposted from SOYMB 15 February 2013.

‘While Britain and America claim to be an advocates of human rights in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and many other countries around the world, history itself is corroborating evidence that they, the greatest human rights preachers, has also been the most flagrant human rights breachers.



With the Russians advancing rapidly towards Berlin, tens of thousands of German civilians fled into Dresden, once known as “Florence on the Elbe”, believing it to be safe from attack. As a result, the city’s population swelled from its usual 600,000 to at least one million. Dresden was known for its china and its Baroque and Rococo architecture and its galleries which housed works by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Botticelli.It had not been attacked during the war and was virtually undefended by anti-aircraft guns.



On the night of Feb. 13-14 1945, Allied bombers using the Dresden football stadium as a reference point, over 2000 British Lancasters and American Flying Fortresses dropped loads of gasoline bombs and phosphorus bombs every 50 square yards out from this marker. The enormous flame that resulted was eight square miles wide, shooting smoke three miles high. For the next 18 hours, regular bombs were dropped.



Twenty-five minutes after the bombing, winds reaching 150 MPH sucked everything into the heart of the storm. Because the air became superheated and rushed upward, the fire lost most of its oxygen, creating tornadoes of flame that can suck the air right out of human lungs. 70% of the Dresden dead either suffocated or died from poison gases that turned their bodies green and red. The intense heat melted some bodies into the pavement like bubblegum, or shrunk them into three-foot-long charred carcasses. Clean-up crews wore rubber boots to wade through the “human soup” found in nearby caves. In other cases, the superheated air propelled victims skyward only to come down in tiny pieces as far as 15 miles outside Dresden. People died by the thousands, cooked, incinerated, or suffocated. More than 100,000 people died, mostly civilians but the exact number may never be known due to the high number of refugees in the area.



According to the historian author Max Hastings, by February 1945, attacks upon German cities had become largely irrelevant to the outcome of the war. Austrian historian Jörg Friedrich agrees the RAF’s relentless bombing campaign against German cities in the last months of the war served no military purpose. This war was a “good” war. State-approved violence has been responsible for tens of millions of deaths. Robert Saunby, Deputy Air Marshal at Bomber Command commented after the war “That the bombing of Dresden was a great tragedy none can deny. It is not so much this or the other means of making war that is immoral or inhumane. What is immoral is war itself. Once full-scale war has broken out it can never be humanized or civilized, and if one side attempted to do so it would be most likely to be defeated. That to me is the lesson of Dresden.” Apologists for the bombing point to Nazi Germany’s own crimes. Following the war’s end, however, the U.S. and Britain occupiers were quick to allow all but the top Nazi leaders to play a role in western Germany.’

https://soymb.com/2013/02/mass-murder.html

HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS? (ZOOM)

Below is the text from leaflets that The Socialist Party will be distributing in three London local by-elections.

On this occasion The Socialist Party will not be putting up candidates but is encouraging voters to cast a ‘write in’ vote.

What matters – profits or people?

All the parties standing in this by-election support capitalism (the profit system) and are squabbling over which of them should run the administrative side of it here at local level. So, there’s no real choice.

They think the profit system can be made to work in the interests of the majority. But it can’t, and they end up having to do the system’s dirty work of saving money on public services so that taxes on profits can be kept down.

Profits first, people second, that’s the way the profit system works. It’s the only way it can work. Which is why Socialists say it must go. Support for any of the parties that want to run the profit system is a vote for more of the same: more insecurity, hardship and cuts, while the rich can afford the best of everything.

What’s the alternative?

If we are going to put an end to this we must act for ourselves, without professional politicians or leaders. We’re going to have to organise ourselves to bring about a society geared to meeting people’s needs – without a price tag – not profits.

But the only basis on which this can be done is common ownership and democratic co-operation. In a word, socialism.

The Socialist Party is not contesting this by-election but you can still say NO to a system based on profit, privilege and competition and YES to one based on equality, co-operation and meeting needs by writing “I vote for socialism” on your ballot paper.

Churchill said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. In socialism there will be true democracy but no ‘governments’

For The Socialist Party’s view on achieving socialism through using the democratic system even with its imperfections see the SPGB pamphlet, What’s Wrong With Using Parliament? Available to read online.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/product/whats-wrong-with-using-parliament/

The chutzpah of the Ukrainian ‘leader’, see below, in providing reasons why elections are cancelled there ‘During this war, our population are against elections and, having an election would require martial law to be lifted. if we suspend martial law we will lose our army, he said, explaining that Kiev would not be able to keep the troops on the front lines otherwise.’

In the UK nine Council elections have been cancelled leaving more than five million people unable to vote in them this year.

The excuse given by Angela Rayner, The Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, is a reorganisation to unitary authorites.

Social media is seeing an increase in people who, as a protest, say they will stop paying their council tax. Whether this ‘protest’ will be as large, or as effective, as the one against the ex Conservative Prime Minister and her attempts to introduce a poll tax, remain to be seen.

As has been said, if voting changed anything they would abolish it.

The only solution for the many ills within a capitalist system, whether it be assault on democratic rights, exploitation or involving innocents in devastating wars is the replacement of the minority benefiting system by socialism.

To quote William Morris;

‘One man with an idea in his head is in danger of being considered a madman: two men with the same idea in common may be foolish, but can hardly be mad; ten men sharing an idea begin to act, a hundred draw attention as fanatics, a thousand and society begins to tremble, a hundred thousand and there is war abroad, and the cause has victories tangible and real; and why only a hundred thousand? Why not a hundred million and peace upon the earth? You and I who agree together, it is we who have to answer that question.’

‘Holding an election during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would be a disaster for Kiev for a number of reasons, ranging from popular disapproval to running the risk of losing its army, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Ukraine conflict, Keith Kellogg, said Washington would like to see Kiev hold presidential and parliamentary votes before the end of the year. Elections have been suspended indefinitely by Zelensky, due to martial law.

According to Zelensky, having an election would require martial law to be lifted. We suspend martial law we will lose our army, he said, explaining that Kiev would not be able to keep the troops on the front lines otherwise.

People will come back home and will have every right to return home, he said, adding that those who do not would still lose their combat capability and morale.

Elections in Ukraine at this time would only benefit Russia, the Ukrainian leader claimed in an interview with ITV News. The topic of elections has been brought up by Russians, he said.

In his interview, Zelensky maintained that Russia only wants to see elections in Ukraine to bring about destabilization. He also claimed that the people do not want to have an election, and that he is absolutely not afraid of them.

During this war, our population is against elections, all people are against it.

According to Zelensky, having an election would require martial law to be lifted. We suspend martial law we will lose our army, he said, explaining that Kiev would not be able to keep the troops on the front lines otherwise.

People will come back home and will have every right to return home, he said, adding that those who do not would still lose their combat capability and morale. Ukraine launched a massive mobilization campaign after imposing martial law, following the start of Russian military operation in February 2022.

Kiev has faced criticism over its heavy-handed approach toward mobilization. Numerous videos have appeared on social media showing Ukrainian conscription officers chasing potential recruits in the streets and subjecting them to abuse.

The mobilization campaign was also marred by widespread draft dodging, corruption, and desertion. Last year, the elite 155th Mechanized Brigade made headlines after around 1,700 members reportedly fled the unit without firing a single shot.

According to Zelensky, having an election with the troops still in the trenches is not fair. He also described it as nearly impossible logistically, with around 8 million Ukrainians now living abroad. Earlier in the interview, he called on Kiev and Western backers to first provide Ukraine with security guarantees and economic aid sufficient to convince people who have fled the country to return.’

Party members and supporters of the SPGB do not wear tinfoil hats. The complete opposite in fact, socialists are very aware of how capitalism operates and the lengths it goes to control the majority who run capitalism on behalf of the minority.

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean to say their not out to get you but the SPGB has never worried about the buff file on a Whitehall desk, or wherever the spooks live. As a political party the SPGB has always been fully clear and open about its purpose and aims ever since 1904.

The naïve, it has to be said, stupid individual who thinks the state is there to benefit them, and who says, if you’ve nothing to hide you’ve nothing to fear, is dangerously wrong in that belief. Read the Martin Niemölle poem, First They Came.

They are too many examples to list of states and governments, historical and contemporary, attempting, or being successful, in coercion and clamping down on free speech.

Below are two penlights shining into the dark pit. News sites are reporting ‘legally, the order notice cannot be made public.’

Did someone in the Labour government discover George Orwell?

From June 2024:

EU Commission is allegedly considering a major expansion of surveillance practices in the bloc that could potentially affect every single EU citizen, German news website t-online reported citing confidential draft recommendations it had seen.

A 28-page document, reportedly drawn up by a group of experts on behalf Brussels, lists a total of 42 suggestions of possible tighter surveillance measures in what the media outlet described as “unprecedented privacy limitation.”

The paper, titled: “Recommendations from the High-Level Group on Access to Data for Effective Law Enforcement” demands app developers create “backdoors” for the law enforcement agencies to get to any content they need.

The investigators should be able to circumvent end-to-end encryption in messenger services like WhatsApp or Telegram using some sort of a “general key” provided by the developers, t-online reported. Companies that would fail to meet such demands should face penalties, the document reportedly states.

The list of suggestions is not limited to messaging apps, though. The proposed changes also target the Internet of Things, calling for “greater standardization” of various home apps and devices, including “all forms of connectivity.” The measure is expected to particularly affect home assistants like Google Home, Alexa or the Apple assistant as well as anything up to smart refrigerators, allowing authorities to obtain data collected by such devices.

The paper also calls for the introduction of data retention, according to t-online. A data-retention regulation requires providers of telecommunications and Internet services to store the traffic data on all its users for a specified period of time and to be able to pass them to law enforcement if needed. Such data could include IP addresses, phone contacts or location data.

Germany’s Federal Administrative Court – the nation’s highest judicial body ruling on administrative law cases – had previously classified groundless and indiscriminate data retention to be a violation of EU law and banned it in Germany. Now, this may change if the EU Commission follows through on these recommendations, t-online warned.

The document reportedly justified the proposed mass surveillance approach with the need to “ensure effective prosecution” of cases related to organized crime and terrorism activities and in particular to identified terrorist-attack plots at an early stage.

A digital expert, Anja Hirschel, who is also a member of the German Pirate Party advocating digital privacy rights, warned that such plans represent “an unprecedented… leap right into a fully monitored society.” “Everything we do, where we go and who we communicate with, will be visible at any moment and without any barriers,” she told t-online.

Brussels has not commented on the report about the draft surveillance recommendations.

Last year, a Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld already warned that EU governments were using “totalitarian methods” to spy on journalists. She was commenting on allegations that some EU nations were using the Israeli Pegasus malware to surveil an editor of an EU-based Russian news site.’

From February 2025:

‘The UK government has issued a “technical capability notice” to Apple, compelling the tech giant to create a backdoor to its encrypted iCloud service, the Washington Post reported. The move would enable UK law enforcement and security agencies to access encrypted data stored by Apple users worldwide, according to the newspaper.

The UK’s Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), referred to by critics as the “Snoopers’ Charter,” grants authorities the power to mandate that tech companies permit access to users’ data for investigative purposes. It also makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government has made such a demand. The recent notice requires Apple to provide a means for decrypting user data. It is currently protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only users can access their information.

Creating such backdoors could weaken overall security and set a dangerous precedent, according to Daniel Castro, vice-president of the US-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. In a statement he has described the UK’s move as an “unjustified over-reach that threatens the security and privacy of individuals and businesses around the world.”

Last March, in a submissionto the a parliamentary committee, Apple expressed concern that the IPA could be used to force companies to “break encryption by inserting backdoors into their software products.” Apple asserted that it “would never build a backdoor” and would rather withdraw “critical safety features” from the UK market affecting the security of British users’ data.

Ross McKenzie, a data protection partner at law firm Addleshaw Goddard, told The Guardian that the UK order could lead to a clash with the EU, potentially affecting agreements that allow the free flow of personal data between the UK and Europe.

UK security officials argue that encryption can hinder efforts to combat crime and terrorism. “Maintaining proportionate, lawful access to such communications in the face of ever-more prevalent encryption is sometimes our only means of detecting and understanding these threats,” Ken McCallum, head of the UK’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, stated last October. He believes that “privacy and exceptional lawful access can coexist if absolutist positions are avoided.”

The UK Home Office has declined to confirm or deny the existence of the notice, stating, “We do not comment on operational matters,” according to The Guardian.

Apple has long defended the encryption of its operating systems, notably challenging the FBI in court in 2016 over a demand for a “backdoor” to access the iPhone of a suspect in the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack. In legal filings, Apple argued that the US government was requesting something it did not possess and that creating such a tool would be “too dangerous.”

The FBI eventually unlocked the phone using an Israeli spy tool, though it reportedly found nothing of value. Later revalations showed that other Israeli spyware, called Pegasus, had been used to hack tens of thousands of iPhones worldwide, targeting journalists, dissidents, and even heads of state.’