Any government worth its salt knows that defence of the nation comes first......although many modern generation politicians dont want to accept this, and a population unused to home based war have long forgotten it. The freedoms and liberties (including economic and business) are founded on those concepts which after all, UK policy in previous centuries established as the worldwide norm. Most of our younger generation have little concept of this given our appalling and "revisionist" education system that means many can't even read and count, never mind grasp how we need to constantly hold our own and be seen to be so doing. Many already think we have no relevance in the world and can just stick our heads in the sand and shut down our interaction with the real problems we all face.
We may have to trim our sails for sure and be far more selective on what we commit to, but as a leading nation with much to offer (albeit near bankrupt), we have to sustain our influence and as much potential fighting power as possible. As a trading nation with assets, territories and honourable committments across the globe still, we have to have power projection capability of some sort, as well as maintaining internal UK defence capability for the direct threats such as terrorism and unwelcome incursions to our airspace, and enough military to defend the state if civilian discipline breaks down be it from political motivation, economic stress or national disasters. We have to ensure it is also aligned to major political and economic shifts likely due to climate change and the emerging economic powers. YOU DON'T DO THIS BY RADICALLY DESTROYING YOUR CAPABILITES ..which given modern technological and manufacturing lead times cannot easily be restored.
Now - does the Nation in general understand this....No...why because after years of soft living and nanny state expenditure and attitudes we have become obsessed with spending on the NHS and social welfare matters at the expense of genuine economic prosperity - after all a prosperous nation is more healthy and less self-obsessed with trivia - even the English soccer team have lost the plot vis patriotic motivation IMO!. This rot set in after WW2 when we tried to build a "new Jerusalem" rather than lay the foundations of building a modern industrial base and hold our then position as the worlds biggest exporter (unlike the Germans and Japanese (and French) did with all the US aid cash. That said, even then governments of both flavours tried hard to spend enough defence cash on capabilities to keep us at the top table. For those thinking there is a get out here...going internal only definitely means the UK will be an offshore irrelevant island in the next fifty years - then where will the NHS funding come from as the Chinese laugh at us as they own all the world's natural resource companies (read what they have already done in Africa, South america and the Middle East), and the Indians and US own all our home based industries - and the Spanish our banks???
Our government has in part understood this - hence the potential smaller reductions in spending in The MoD.....although there are many things to be done if we had the balls to maintain many of our present fighting capabilities -including keeping the logistic back-up so essential to keep us in that very small group of nations that can effectively project a level of power realistically anywhere on the globe. Be proud of that..'cos its still true, as is the fact that defence and fighting is what we still do well at a world class level and are respected as doing so. Now is not the time to screw that up in the way several generations of politicians and investors have screwed up the other things we did so well. Forget not too, that we are still the world's 2nd biggest defence exporter on the back of our internal defence capability and reputation.
There will be sacred cows that go....it is politically inevitable.....but staying in the top league is where we should be if we are not to sink into final irrelevance. We need to maintain influence at every top table and by showing we do the most important things well, are still needed, and are willing to defend our interests when really neccessary - this is where its at as the world moves to a very different set of influences on our lives.
Mmmmm rant over
....and I'm all for keeping the Carriers...whoever flies the b***dy jets and what they are..as long as they get far enough, drop kit accurately, there's enough of them, and can still do some BVR shootdowns on the way out or home!!...and it has to be said the RN uniforms look smarter!!!
Cheers
