Couldn't agree more about stupid aid decisions but the intent of this thread -and I know I contributed a bit to drift was that we can no longer afford the armed forces that match politicians vain glorious view of Britain's Place in the World.
The fact is we no longer really matter on the geo political stage and will not matter at all after brexit. Our history and shared European heritage gives us a strong voice on foreign affairs in the Eu and despite the daily Mail the Eu matters a lot in the world as it is the single largest trade bloc.
So our government wastes a fortune on the wrong type of military and secuirty resources for the sake of keeping a nuclear deterrent.
Why bother, geographically an attack on London is virtually an attack on
Paris so we should pursue a shared deterrence with the French. Much better than our very non independent deterent provided by our Atlantic cousins who most certainly wont let us use nukes unless they agree or want us too .
As for the fifth biggest economy (despite which we cannot pay for a decent health service, have an appalling level of infant mortality below average survival rates for many cancers and heart conditions and cannot provide proper care for the elderly or infirm. The reason is our GDp includes all those so called invisible exports or services as they are called now . These don't really exist as a contribution to the economy in the same way as all those fleets of Mercs and BM and VWs , and trucks and machine tools and ships and high speed trains etc etc which many of our neighbours produce.
Sure money comes into the city of London and most flows out again as the City is more broker than lender. Also the City is now entirely foreign owned and the profits that are made there all disappear back to USA China Germany France etc leaving us with a healthy balance sheet but no actual cash.
So bleak times ahead for you uniformed boys and girls , a shame, you deserve so much better and as a country we need a 21st Century military not a Napoleonic war version with an airforce. But when you have a PM who lies through her teeth like she did today about PPi and NHS pay what chance do you have.