THE Ministry of Defence spends no less than £21 billions a year of the taxpayers' money on the military. It is now revealed by the Public Accounts Committee that MoD expenditure is expected to increase by another £2.8 billions above current estimates.

The Government intends further billions to help Germany, Spain and Italy build the £15 billion Eurofighter. What couldn't the NHS, education, pensions and housing do with this money?

The Cold War between America and Russia ended in the mid-1980s, when Gorbachev declared that Russia would unilaterally withdraw 8,000 warplanes, 80,000 tanks and 500,000 Red Army servicemen from its borders.

Almost every other government in Europe has since reduced its arms spending. To be fair, this included the UK, though our percentage cut was almost the smallest of all.

Surely, our country could now act with equal courage and determination, without waiting for other governments to cut first.

An even bigger achievement of this would be to reduce fears of the Cold War returning, along with the danger of a third world war fought with nuclear weapons on both sides.

FRANK ALLAUN (President, Labour Action for Peace), Eastleigh Road, Manchester M25.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.