IMO we have witnessed today what is tantamount to deriliction of duty by HMG. How can any government of ours have the two faced cheek to claim we remain strong, particularly when viewed against their own Strategic analysis of the threats against us, never mind the reality of those conveniently under-played, and what the emergence of the future superpowers (China in particular) means to our place in the world and our access to precious resources to maintain our way of life. The PM eulogises on how it is always a governments responsibility to put defence first...mmmm well that would be a novel development would it not?
Today we as an island and maritme nation have lost some eseential capabilities......maritme air combat capability, any sort of dedicated maritme patrol and attack (never mind the ISTAR contribution it could make) and a signifcant proportion of our Tac and long range transport . And now Sentinel too - so much for increasing our capability in the future ISTAR and cyberwarfare domains eh? So much for protecting our sealanes and our deterrent eh? ... and as for protecting that single new carrier and the rest of the RN if there is anything of a submarine threat....well your guess is as good as anybody's!!! Lets face it people,our politicians of any party have grown up in a softy Britain and would rather spend more billions on the inefficient NHS, and even more billions on slackers and Benefit dependent wasters than ensure the protection of our country, the maintainance of its influence on world affairs, and in the end, our ability to demonstrate that we still mean business. I cannot imagine any potential aggressor giving a damn if we halved our social security budget, but OMG they will count every reduction we have heard today and calculate very carefully what it means to our ability to counter whatever plans they have to get one over on us. Britannia is inded now sinking below those waves we once ruled.
