Originally Posted by
Finningley Boy
pr00ne,
I never suggested that Attlee and Bevin were Stalinists, I said Bevan, as in Aneurin Bevan, was, as oppose to Ernest Bevin. Yes, AFVG, isn't it easy to get the lettering jumbled now and again. Everything else you said was conjecture. TSR2 was cancelled by the incoming Labour Government as was the F-111, not because of Tory Party cuts but because as you yourself pointed out, the devaluation of the pound to try and increase export orders because their public spending programme was growing beyond the country's ability to pay for it. But the Wilson Government, according to you, appears to have not wanted to do a lot of things they did anyway. I accept that they didn't cause the cancellation of AFVG, but, as you would I'm sure make the case if it was a Tory Government, it was cancelled on their watch. I did point out that they then proceeded with the MRCA, a clear follow on derivative. I also don't understand why you got upset at me about the Labour Defence Study Group, I said their recommendations were ignored. But what about the Carrier cancellations, this brought about the resignation of the 1st Sea Lord, Admiral Sir David Luce and although no longer in office, former CDS, Lord Mountbatten, wasted a lot of time and energy trying to reverse the decision himself. On a tangent away, I thought his relinquishing of the CDS post must have been incorrectly portrayed in 'The Crown' after almost six years incumbent and being 65 years old, I'd have thought, Royal connections or not, it was overdue time for him to retire, not pushed out prematurely by a lefty government.
FB
Sorry
Finningley Boy, with the exception of what the purpose of the subject of my target folders may have been in terms of a following Vulcan strike nearby or passing through, EVERYTHING else in my post was documented historical fact! The Labour Government were elected on a manifesto commitment to reduce the UK defence budget to something equalling our commercial rivals and competitors, to reduce the resources that the country devoted to the aerospace industry, and to examine carrier air power and the possession of nuclear weapons. They were not fundamentally opposed to carrier air power, but many in the MoD were, and many in the RAF were. Labour listened and acted. Oddly enough the following Tory administrations did NOTHING to resurrect or preserve the fixed wing carriers. It was Labour that kicked off the then Through Deck Cruisers, and there was not a peep of replacement carriers from a Tory administration until Tony Blair's Labour Government proposed them in 1998. Not upset with you about the Labour Defence Study Group, just that you seemingly portrayed it as just another example of Labour anti defence thinking. If that wasn't meant then no problem. The Labour Government DID want to do a lot of things that they couldn't because of the disastrous impact of the previous Tory Govt mismanagement of the country's finances, but I only mentioned two, the cancellation of F-111K and the withdrawal from the Far East. Labour have undoubtedly done damage to the defence budget over the years, but I would claim that nothing that they have done has done as much damage as The 1957 Defence White paper, Front Line First, Defence Costs Study, privatisation and contractorisation, capability gapping and Cameron's 2010 SDSR, all carried out by Tory Governments.