DEFENCE SPENDING

If building a new airport brings out the most Nimby-ish (not in my backyard) tendencies in folk, then defence spending must represent the other end of the spectrum. Nobody wants to give it up, as events in Denmark are demonstrating.

The combination of the end of the Cold War, the collapse of communism, and budget constraints are forcing all rich, developed, nations to review the amount they spend on defence. Modern threats require more intelligence, fewer "boots on the ground", and more cooperation, both between individual services jealous of their turf and traditions, and between nations. Denmark is no exception to these trends.

Earlier this year, the politicians in Copenhagen agreed to cut Dkr.2.7 billion from the defence budget in order to reduce the tax burden on businesses. That was the easy part; the problems come in deciding what to cut and where. Abolishing værnepligt, a sacred cow to those on the right, is difficult to oppose when more than enough young men are volunteering anyway. But the real deal-breaker is closing barracks.

Army bases provide lots of employment, often in out-in-the-sticks places that don't provide many alternative jobs. So as soon as any closure proposals leak out, up pops a local mayor on the news to tell the nation that closing this or that base would be a catastrophe for the local economy and society. These mayors cover the whole political spectrum from left to right, so there are no easy answers, particularly when the current Government is a coalition with a bare majority (defence spending has a tradition of being agreed "across the aisle"). Indeed, some of the national politicians, while agreeing to the cuts in principle, feel unable to support the details because they represent a constituency that (yes, you guessed it) has an army base in it that may get closed.

Not an easy problem to solve. How the Government tackles it will affect in large part the local elections due next autumn. Denmark is a decentralised state, where local councils have real power, so national decisions that adversely affect local interests will almost certainly get punished.

Walter Blotscher