BRITAIN’S public infrastructure is broken, degraded by years of Tory cuts. Massive public investment to rectify this situation — in our colleges, universities, schools, hospitals, railways, local councils, you name it — could not be more urgent. Yet we must be patient, the new Labour government insists, as the Tories have “maxed-out the credit card.” 

It seems odd, then, that while the government take policy decisions that will keep hundreds of thousands of children in poverty and subjects many more pensioners to freezing homes justified by fiscal prudence, the Prime Minister and Chancellor can nevertheless find billions for defence. 

Though the Prime Minister has not yet named a specific timeline, he is steadfastly committed to hiking British defence spending — already the third-highest in Nato in absolute terms — to 2.5 per cent of GDP.