Chapter 988 Participating in Ru0026D

"We pay attention to the quality of life of every citizen, but we will not ignore the security of our civilized society. Even now, threats to Europe and Britain still exist. On the 17th of this month, Ukraine's Crimea region split with the support of Russia..."

On March 21, Cameron made a speech in the British Parliament and mentioned:

"So in such a complex situation, we must be able to ensure that we have enough ways to protect Britain, Europe, and our civilized society with common values. This is why I proposed that Britain develop a new generation of strategic medium- and long-range missiles with European allies such as France, Germany and Italy..."

After the BFT Fund returned 14 billion pounds to the British government, Cameron finally became tough again.

It is no wonder that he attaches so much importance to Barron's opinion. After all, in addition to the media platform controlled by the other party, the arrival of this fund can indeed help Cameron to make another repair to the economic recovery of Britain, which is not ideal at the time before the general election in 2014, so that Britain can show the public that his term of office is still remarkable when the general election comes next year.

For example, of the 14 billion pounds of funds, 1 billion pounds has been injected into the National Health Service (NHS), which is also the livelihood area where ordinary people feel more about the government's policies.

It can be said that in Britain, if ordinary people get sick, they only need to choose NHS to wait in line, while rich people need to consider more-which private hospital has better technology.

NHS is Britain's "universal free medical insurance". NHS concentrates excellent medical staff and medical resources, and provides almost free services from seeing a doctor to treatment and hospitalization and surgery.

Well, it looks like this on the surface...

The same thing - after we leave, they will build schools and hospitals for you and increase your wages. This is not because they have a change of heart or because they have become good people, but because we have been here.

The first country in the world to achieve universal free medical care was the Soviet Union.

After World War II, facing the social welfare of "8-hour work system, free education, free medical care" promoted by the Soviet Union, Britain was under great pressure. Finally, under the pressure of opposition from some dignitaries, the hospital was nationalized and the National Health Service (NHS) was established. The purpose was to provide free medical care for British citizens.

It should be admitted that this system has indeed made great contributions to the health of the British people - even when Mrs. Thatcher was in power, she sold state-owned assets on a large scale, but she did not dare to privatize NHS hospitals.

Also, at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, NHS also appeared on the stage as the pride of Britain and won cheers from the audience.

But in another word, free is the most expensive.

Because the operating funds of NHS come from taxes, and the aging of British society is becoming more and more serious. In addition, after the subprime mortgage crisis, the British government's income has dropped sharply, which has led to the NHS having to bear increasing pressure on universal health care.

Especially after Cameron came to power, in order to cope with the subprime mortgage crisis, he has been reducing government spending - he has reduced government investment in health care from 3.6% to 1.5%...

This has led to the British people actually needing to deduct a special "medical tax" when paying income taxes.

In addition, using NHS to see a doctor requires enough patience. If it is a minor illness, the doctor will prescribe you a pill and wait for a week or two. But if you need a CT scan or even surgery, it is normal to wait for weeks, months or even a year...

The situation in Britain is not bad now. After a few years, when the epidemic broke out, the waiting list of NHS in Britain in 2023 was as high as 7.6 million people... At that time, the total population of Britain was only 65 million, and more than one-tenth of the people were waiting in line to see a doctor. I just want to ask if you are afraid.

So for minor illnesses and injuries, and for those that are not urgent, although the NHS has a long waiting time, it is at least "free".

But for emergencies, you need to buy commercial medical insurance separately, otherwise you can only "heal" while waiting.

It can be said that Cameron's previous cuts in medical investment were also a point of opposition from many people. Now that he has received funds, he has injected 1 billion pounds into the NHS, which at least has been welcomed by many people.

In this case, he also took advantage of the fact that Crimea announced a referendum on independence from Ukraine on March 17 and joined Russia as an autonomous country, and began to promote the issue of cooperation between Britain and France, Germany, and Italy on the development of strategic medium- and long-range missiles.

In fact, from the perspective of the British government, since it is now necessary to allocate funds every year to purchase American Trident missiles and related maintenance and upgrade costs, if the European Missile Group can develop strategic medium- and long-range missiles to replace them, it also requires government funding for configuration, and they do not reject the more "autonomous" European joint development of missiles.

But what needs to be considered is that after all, the accumulation of European countries in this area... There was once a technology accumulation, but most countries have been abandoned for a long time. Perhaps only France has been maintaining research in related directions. So now with European missiles It is still unknown whether the joint research and development of the four countries based on the group can produce satisfactory results after investing funds.

Therefore, for the sake of caution, even if the British side is willing to promote this cooperation, the Cameron government will only invest less than 100 million pounds in a symbolic trial in the early stage.

"In fact, BAE Systems has internal objections to investing funds in the European Missile Group for the research and development of related strategic missiles..."

Wang Wanting said to Barron:

"European Missile Group is not publicly listed, so in terms of corresponding research and development, it relies on funding from the governments of these countries - specifically, they first assess the types of missiles and performance indicators needed, and then allocate budgets for this, and then research After success, mature missile products will be provided to various countries..."

The problem now is that Cameron does not want to immediately confirm the replacement of the Trident missiles currently purchased from the United States. Therefore, the British government will not allocate all the money. It will only promise to replace it after the research and development is successful, thus making European Missile Group received corresponding orders.

This attitude is naturally out of caution. After all, before the general election, the government is still very sensitive to fiscal expenditures. With the "supervision" of the opposition parties including the Labor Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, it is easy to be caught. Questions will arise to attack this policy - why not continue to purchase American missiles, whether it is necessary to participate in research and development, whether it will increase the financial burden, and so on.

The error-free version is being read! 6=9+Book_Bar debuts this novel.

In this case, without much certainty, BAE Systems is hesitant to participate in this strategic missile research and development project - because if participation is confirmed, France, Germany and Italy, for example, may be able to obtain government support If there is more upfront funding, then BAE Systems will need to bear a considerable part of the British investment.

"If that's the case, then we can finance this part through Standard Defense Group, but ultimately it will need to be done in the name of BAE Systems."

After all, BAE Systems itself is one of the shareholders of the European Missile Group, and its shareholding is still very high. It is the same as the joint shareholding of France and Germany, and is higher than Italy's 25% shareholding ratio.

In this case, Standard Defense Group can contribute capital by purchasing convertible bonds issued by BAE Systems, and agree with BAE Systems that if this strategic missile development is successful, these convertible bonds will be converted into BAE Systems Ordinary shares - after all, if the strategic missile is successfully developed, it will inevitably be a stable source of income, and BAE Systems is also happy to maintain its shareholding in the European Missile Group.

If subsequent research and development is difficult, or continued additional investment is required, then this part of the convertible debt held by Standard Defense Group will be exchanged for part of the shares of the European Missile Group held by BAE Systems.

BAE Systems is very willing to accept this condition, which can make their risks controllable.

At most, it will only lose part of the shares of the European Missile Group. By then, this part of the shares will still be held by the Standard Defense Group, which is also a British company.