That was done under the guise of ending colonialism and neo-colonialism, something your Fabian/Laborites had no problem with, as I’m sure you know. We were then under FDR and his wife, the closest thing to Fabians we’ve ever had, until today. Those decisions were made at the SIS Building, Thames House and the Royal Institute for International Affairs as much as they were at Foggy Bottom, San Francisco and the Harold Pratt House. It’s now known that both governments were infested with communist agents and sympathizers, including the vice president before Mr. Truman, Henry Wallace.
Oh yes, I know exactly why it was done and by whom, but it doesn’t change the fact that what we could afford when we had the largest empire the world had ever seen, we can’t afford now.
Considering we’ve had 13 years of financially disastrous labour government to recover from, it’s amazing we’re bringing into service some of the world’s most expensive and advanced naval hardware such as the Daring class, Astute class and the Elizabeth class carriers, both of which it appears will now go straight into service with the F35B on.
Personally I think we’re doing pretty well to be fifth most powerful in the world currently and I expect military spending to increase again once we have a Conservative government in place of the current coalition one and our deficit is reduced significantly.
http://www.globalfirepower.com/
And at least we do use our forces, unlike many european countries who do nothing or send token support.
Was the world better off with Imperialism? I believe it was. In Africa average life for a male was 55 years—now its 35. The idea that ending the great Empires would usher in a new era of democracy hasn’t panned out—only replaced colonial administrators with tin horn dictators.