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The cost of Libya is a blow to Osborne's credibility

The £260m cost of the war undermines Osborne's claim that "the cupboard is bare".

Finally, we can put a figure on the cost of military action against Libya: £260m. Liam Fox confirmed the amount in a written statement to MPs, revealing that the campaign itself had cost "in the region of £120m". Another £140m will have to be spent replacing missiles and other munitions if the mission is to continue at its present rate.

It's a blow to the government's credibility and particularly that of George Osborne. On March 22 the Chancellor told the Commons that the cost of military operations against Gaddafi would be "in the tens of millions, not hundreds of millions". This has now been exposed as a dramatic underestimate.

But more significantly, the cost of the mission undermines Osborne's previous insistence that "the cupboard is bare". It is harder for ministers to defend library closures, Sure Start closures and the rest when the government is spending hundreds of millions of pounds on a war far from home.

The coalition has sought to present many of its decisions (the VAT rise, the tuition fees increase, the abolition of universal child benefit) as "unavoidable" but today's news is a reminder that it has choices too. Given that the government spent £694.4bn in 2010-11, £260m is, as Jock Stirrup, the former chief of the defence staff, said on The World At One, "very small beer". But it's the perception that counts. Public support for the mission, already at a record low, is likely to plummet further.

24 comments

moullycliemia's picture

Consent to all of you!

VarioDewneyyyour's picture

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matthew fox's picture

According to Liam Fox, the cost of the campaign has increased, due to having to avoid civilian casualties.

He his under the impression, carpet bombing is dirty cheap.

I don't remember the Conservatives supporting Blair, when he sent the military into Sierra Leone and Kosovo.

tuttifrutti's picture

Anon
Agree. Why is no-one, or very few, people reporting on this? It is frightening....

Mr Danger's picture

Dear Misrata,

We'd love to help but it would require cutbacks to library hours. Plus even though you have pleaded for our help and we have UN and Arab League approval, we'd rather fall back on tired myths like war for oil and perverse logic than somehow makes it racist to support you.

Good luck with the 'rocket' barrages that are 'landing' on your 'houses' (you see? a few scare quote and the problem goes away!).

PS I just realised we are going to have to cut all our aid budgets to zero. Otherwise Osborne is a liar etc etc.

Sincerely,

The Left

Grey_Rage's picture

We can always find money for killing arabs. What a said state of a country we are. Pensioners knee deep in sh*t, Libyan (wrong type) of civilians, knee deep in misiles and bombs.

p j wall's picture

Surely everyone now knows that Gideon osborne could`nt run a bath, let alone the british economy??, he talks down to us as if we`re all idiots and turds who should know our place!!. Just take a look at his infamous bullingdon club photo, that one photo says everything about Gideon osborne, or should i say "multi millionaire", "we`re all in this together", "what we inherited" Gideon osborne.

charlesfrith's picture

Always money for oil wars. The British are to spineless to protest.

Flunnylon's picture

Este pensamiento magnífico tiene que justamente a propósito

ang's picture

@George.
Did you not hear Danny Alexanders, eventual reply, to a question about the cost? He said, 'We can 'well afford' it.
Apart from this being the type of language an excited young boy would use, it so blows their 'cupboard bare' claims out of the water.
Britain is a very rich country and could also 'well afford' to educate it's young people, keep hundreds of thousands of public sector workers in work, pump money into the NHS and treat our old and most vulnerable people with the dignity they deserve.
The 'no money left' mantra is a cover to destroy the state.

maxinemf's picture

The political class in both the Labour and Tory parties have from the very beginning been out of touch with public opinion on the Libya debacle. Now we are hearing that the rebels whom we are entrusting to defend civilians are human rights abusers too!!

madasbalooons's picture

Did Osborne ever have any credibility?
Not in my book.

madasbalooons's picture

Exit strategy?
None.

Anon's picture

stop ignoring the legalaid cuts. now.

Charles Wright's picture

Is it time then for the Labour front bench to begin modifying its line of support for the action? It's beginning to look a little like Iraq 2, and some serious questions need to be put as to diplomatic solutions, exit strategy and not least the Lib Dems'support for the action compared with their oppositional stance on Iraq.

Willp's picture

Britain’s brutally aggressive adventure in Libya is to be utterly condemned.

Claiming falsely to protect civilians, British military jets are raining munitions from the sky on to Tripoli and other Libyan cities in a “shock and awe” assault, acting on behalf of one side in a civil war abroad, attempting to assassinate the head of state of a sovereign country and to teach a lesson to Libyans who dare to support their independence in the face of imperialist intentions.

The British action is both shameful and cowardly. British troops are not to be risked yet the Libyan people die in intensive bombing raids. In spite of a deliberately vague UN resolution, the action is illegal under international law. It is terrorism, inflicted by our government against a sovereign state which is no threat to us or its neighbours.

Britain acts as cheerleader to EU aggression, promoting the interests of the USA, which grabs its chance to seize control in awkward Middle East states which refuse to do its bidding. It is no coincidence that Libya has the highest standard of health, education and infrastructure in North Africa, that Gaddafi’s government is resistant to religious extremism, and that Libya has high-quality oil.

At a time when government tells us there is no money for civilised life at home, there is unlimited funding for the bombings – likely to top £1billion by the end of the year. War is waged on us at home, and on the Libyan people in their country.

Where is the outcry? Why have workers not protested against this outrage? The voice of the trade unions is absent. Not surprisingly Labour MPs remain largely silent, except to complain that they aren’t being fully consulted on each escalation in the war which they support,
and to assert that the civil not military budget must be used to fund it.
In targeting Gaddafi as head of state, and killing his son and three young grandchildren, the British government is perpetrating state terrorism.

We support the right of the Libyan people to determine themselves the affairs and government of their country, free from imperialist meddling. Whatever the future holds for Libya, it is not our business, nor that of the USA or the EU.

Lou's picture

Charles,
Unforunately, Ed M said at PMQs yesterday that the opposition still fully supported the humanitarian actions in Libya.

In the same PMQs, Cameron referred to it as war in Libya, not a humanitarian effort. I would like to see some debate over when a humanitarian effort became a war. If it is a war then why has there been no opportunity for the House to debate the change in action and vote on it and does 'war' mean we will see ground troops going in which is not permissable under the current UN remit?

The Labour Party (and LDs) supported and backed a humanitarian effort, they both need to look again in light of the rhetoric of Cameron and Danny Alexander (QT March 2011) at exactly what they are supporting and raise this as a matter of urgency in the House.

puzzlebobble's picture

Assuming the spin about Gadaffi being about to kill tens of thousands of civilians was true (was it?) I think the immediate action may have been the right thing. But it is 3 months and a quarter of a billion pounds later; how the he'll is it still ongoing? Given massive military superiority and, according to the spin, support from most of the locals how on earth have we not managed to negotiate a ceasefire that protects civilians from Gadaffi - the point of the whole mission, no?

capt-price's picture

As long as there is a strategic benefit to bombing the shit out of Libya, these oily tic's will find the money from somewhere.

Mizar's picture

I suppose for Cameron it is a virility thing. And a perk, to be able to launch bombs on poor wretches around the world. To him, worth a few hundred millions.

Olu Ojedokun's picture

I think the Tory led government and most of the media rely on one belief, that the people of Britain are gullible. Maxed out credit card and all that simplistic babble!

They are in for a huge shock, just as their predictions for the last elections were wrong, their perception of the great British public will also prove to be well off the mark.

On Labour's support for the war, oops sorry, humanitarian intervention, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, who is he? and is leader need to withdraw their support since they never supported a war in the 1st instance.

Parker Santiago's picture

The British action is both shameful and cowardly. British troops are not to be risked yet the Libyan people die in intensive bombing raids. In spite of a deliberately vague UN resolution, the action is illegal under international law. It is terrorism, inflicted by our government against a sovereign state which is no threat to us or its neighbours. http://www.pc-geeks.org/

AGM's picture

I don't believe the Government when they say the war in Libya has cost £120 million to date (and how many lives?); they're lying. It was quoted jubilantly in the papers that when they first attacked the country they fired off 120 Tomahawk missiles. Each one of these missiles costs £600,000.

Anton Jury's picture

What I find fasinating about all this is that A Reserve Fund is financing the Civil War in Libya !

When George Osborne and David Cameron came into Office they said that there was no money in the Pot !

But there are Reserve Funds !

So why were these Reserve Funds not accessed to Pay Off or Lower the British Deficit when George Osborne and David Cameron came into office if that was their Top Priority above everything else.

They have told us a pack of Lies, thats why.

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