Last month I sent the following to the PM copied to the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Defence and the cross party Defence Committee. Yes, I know I lost my rag a bit but . . .
"Dear Prime Minister,
It appears that one of the greatest influences on changing political behaviour over the past 30 years has been the relentless focus of rolling media on our politicians and the impact, real or imagined, of their every utterance on opinion polls. This has led to a seemingly total pre-occupation by the political classes with short term domestic issues to the exclusion of almost everything else and is confined to those areas which politicians deem important to voters. Thus, while the political classes obsess over the latest polls and plan whatever short term domestic policy measure – particularly with respect to the NHS and education - might lead to a lift in their relative positions, the outside world becomes an increasingly fractured and threatening place.
With all due respect, you and your colleagues across all parties appear to have forgotten that our peaceful, liberal democracy which permits the luxury of endless domestic navel gazing and political point scoring only exists because it was fought for on many occasions at the cost of countless lives, and it will only continue to survive if we are able to defend it. The lessons of weakness, so painfully learned by previous generations, appear to have been disregarded. That a strong, capable defence deters aggression and makes war less likely seems to have been forgotten as those areas regarded as being more important to voters receive attention while others, in particular defence with respect to which it suits politicians of all parties to believe that voters are unconcerned, are more or less ignored even as threats which have the real potential to threaten our fundamental way of life continue to multiply.
There is today a crescent of Islamist fundamentalism extending from the borders of Turkey, via parts of the Middle East through North and West Africa to the Atlantic. Entire nations are falling to a murderous creed which detests everything the West stands for. It is expanding daily, enslaving millions, and may yet threaten the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia leaving our energy supplies at the mercy of people who would do us untold harm. At the same time Russia is re-arming on a massive scale, invading sovereign nations and probing our own defences with submarines and aircraft in an increasingly aggressive manner. On the other side of the world China is also modernising its armed services on a scale that is scarcely believable. Taken together, this country and its allies face the gravest combination of potential threats, if not to our continued existence then certainly to our democratic societies, prosperity, freedom of action and way of life, since the Cold War.
History is littered with examples where wilful lack of preparedness has led to desperate conflict with a loss of life which might have been avoided or, at the very least, where the ability to continue to maintain a society and way of life is significantly compromised. But, while recognising that you have many other concerns, you and your colleagues seem determined to ignore the lessons of history and appear to believe that the status quo of the last 30 years will be maintained despite growing evidence to the contrary.
The 2010 SDR reduced the Air Force to a handful of combat aircraft squadrons, the Navy to less than 20 effective surface ships and the Army to around 80,000 personnel. Cuts that led to having to ask our allies to send aircraft to help us find a submarine close to the base of our own nuclear deterrent submarines. It is not just the cringing embarrassment of such situations but the apparent belief in political circles that this is just a side show with no real importance or significance. It seems that no politician sees any connection between the emasculation of defence in the UK and Europe and, for example, Russia’s actions in the Ukraine. Non-democratic regimes and dictatorships despise weakness in all its forms: indecision and lack of resolve in the face of belligerent behaviour only encourages further and more extreme aggression.
Defence and security of the country and its dependencies should be the number one priority of any government, not the last on the list. Our Armed Forces do not just exist in order to provide men and women in colourful uniforms for state occasions or just to be the convenient whipping post when further savings are to be made because politicians dare not touch what they perceive to be more vote-sensitive departments. The level of expenditure, however mishandled in the past, should not be the primary criteria when it comes to the defence of the nation and its interests and it is time that politicians of all parties stopped hiding behind meaningless platitudes about existing defence expenditure and committed themselves on a cross party priority basis to repairing and rebuilding our armed forces: even if this means harder choices in other “ring-fenced” areas. If the necessity of this was properly explained to the public instead of hidden away, it may actually become a vote winner.
We are not detached from what is happening in the world and, under the circumstances with the 2015 SDR looming, it is beyond belief that any Government of whatever hue would consider anything other than increasing expenditure on the Armed Forces – rebuilding a capability and expertise that, once lost, will be nigh impossible to restore. History will judge whether you and your colleagues make the right choice."
Needless to say, just had an anodyne response . .