Has anybody else noticed that the line that has traditionally been trotted out by Cameron et al, namely that we have the fourth largest defence budget in the world, has been strangely absent of late?
Maybe it has something to do with this slipped in the middle of the BBC report:
Speaking at a campaign event in Colchester, the prime minister said the UK's defence budget was the fifthlargest in the world and second only to the US in the Nato alliance.
Interesting. Very interesting, care to elaborate Mr Cameron?
As for:
"You can see that very specifically today in Iraq, where the second largest contributor in terms of air strikes and air patrols is Britain by a very large margin," he said.
"You have to add up several other countries to get to the scale of what we are doing, second after the Americans."
Well how many strikes have we done in Syria? Ah that's right, none. We've just left that half of the problem to the other nations in the Coalition who are bombing Syria. Bit disingenuous to only consider the part of the problem that fits the narrative that all is fine eh?
And how do we stack up against say, ooh, the French? With their aircraft carrier now on station in the Gulf on top of their Mirages in Jordan. And their 816 troops in Lebanon which is also teetering on the brink right now, alongside a similar training mission to our own in Iraq. And somehow, they've also managed to find time to get involved in Ukrainian negotiations. And I won't even begin to look at how many troops they still have scattered across the map in Africa countering extremists there.
Maybe people are right, maybe they really don't give a damn about defence. Their bluster and BS at least used to be credible at one point, rather than being able to be pulled apart in 5 minutes. And to think it all started so promisingly with the announcement of a strategic review and the creation of a National Security Council. Wonder what their last big decision was - custard creams or bourbons?