View Full Version : Shadow Defence Secretary
sharpend
14th Jan 2019, 13:56
Watching the defence debate in the House today and thought I would look up the profile of the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nia_Griffith Can anyone a reassure me that she is perfect for the post. Otherwise I think I am losing the will to live. God help our armed forces if Labour win the next election.
Lionel Lion
14th Jan 2019, 14:33
I’ve watched a lot of European cinema too but probably not the same kind.......
Davef68
14th Jan 2019, 14:43
To be honest, no real difference to many other previous Defence/Shadow Defence Secreatries that had no real prior Defence expertise or interest. (George Robertson springs to mind
Asturias56
14th Jan 2019, 14:46
What's the problem? She seems as bad as all the others.... I haven;t googled the list but name ONE decent UK Defence Secretary in the last 20+ years? Recently they've changed them every 6 months.......
Probably Healey was the last "Big" beast in the job altho friends of mine in Whitehall reckon that Portillo wasn't bad
it's not important in Cabinet, the incumbent is trapped between the Daily Mail & the Telegraph and the Treasury and any decent news is stolen by #10
rog747
14th Jan 2019, 14:48
She can spell as she was teacher
She can speak lots of Languages
She was rapped over her MP expenses (twice)
Divorced and now a lesbian
Pontius Navigator
14th Jan 2019, 15:42
Watching the defence debate in the House today and thought I would look up the profile of the Shadow Secretary of State for Defence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nia_Griffith Can anyone a reassure me that she is perfect for the post. Otherwise I think I am losing the will to live. God help our armed forces if Labour win the next election.
She has a bombing range next door.
oldmansquipper
14th Jan 2019, 15:43
She can spell as she was teacher
She can speak lots of Languages
She was rapped over her MP expenses (twice)
Divorced and now a lesbian
oh.....
deep deep joy!
Gove N.T.
14th Jan 2019, 15:50
From what I read, i'm not sure there are any decent MPs in the UK. Their referendum in 2016 was clear enough - Leave the EU.
The way the MPs are acting I wonder if anyone would bother to vote again.
She'll know all about LGBs, then, but not the exploding kind.....
Tankertrashnav
14th Jan 2019, 17:16
Who is or is not Defence Secretary in the event of a Labour government is surely completely irrelevant. We will have a Prime Minister who has stated that while he is in favour of keeping the Trident boats, he would not authorise the use of nuclear weapons, thus making their whole raison d'etre completely pointless and at at one stroke removing the UK from the "top table". Some may argue that would be a good thing, and that we no longer need to be a nuclear power, but if that is going to be the case let's scrap the subs and save the country umpty ump billions, not keep them on to appease the unions in the defence industries, which seems to be Corbyn's plan.
Melchett01
14th Jan 2019, 18:14
Well look on the bright side, Corbyn at least has one person doing the job. Unlike the Scottish idiot who thought it might be a useful secondary duty for the Scottish Secretary to pick up. Doesn’t change the fact that when I look at the photo on a Wiki, I think of my grandmother rather than one of the potentially most powerful females in the country, and have an overwhelming urge to sit her down in front of an afternoon show on the Drama channel and bring her a cup of tea rather than asking her to authorise military ops.
Of course, things could all change and by the end of the month Corbyn might be PM and she might be retitled Secretary of State for Peace and we can all go off to be re-trained in how to listen and understand terrorists.
NutLoose
14th Jan 2019, 18:30
I would sack her photographer, that photo makes her look like one of the muppets, she is probably charming, but that picture does her no justice. One of her main political interests is tackling climate change, that does not exactly sit well with having ones finger on the button.
Sloppy Link
14th Jan 2019, 21:11
Who.......?
Asturias56
15th Jan 2019, 07:01
Well look on the bright side, Corbyn at least has one person doing the job. Unlike the Scottish idiot who thought it might be a useful secondary duty for the Scottish Secretary to pick up. Doesn’t change the fact that when I look at the photo on a Wiki, I think of my grandmother rather than one of the potentially most powerful females in the country, and have an overwhelming urge to sit her down in front of an afternoon show on the Drama channel and bring her a cup of tea rather than asking her to authorise military ops.
Of course, things could all change and by the end of the month Corbyn might be PM and she might be retitled Secretary of State for Peace and we can all go off to be re-trained in how to listen and understand terrorists.
Well of course history shows we almost always finish up talking and negotiating with terrorists on a political level so that's a good plan
ShotOne
15th Jan 2019, 08:12
+1 to TTNs post. Having a clueless defence secretary would be the least of our problems.
VinRouge
15th Jan 2019, 08:38
For all of the individuals lack of qualifications, I don't really think that being a lesbian should be pointed out as a reason why the individual can't do the job.
That is unless you live under a rock.
NutLoose
15th Jan 2019, 08:40
For all of the individuals lack of qualifications, I don't really think that being a lesbian should be pointed out as a reason why the individual can't do the job.
That is unless you live under a rock.
What has the regiment to do with this?
:p
Simplythebeast
15th Jan 2019, 08:49
We need Diane Abbott as Defence Secretary that way we could have eleventy hundred squadrons of f35s for £26.
Tankertrashnav
15th Jan 2019, 10:13
Excellent! :D
melmothtw
15th Jan 2019, 10:20
From what I read, i'm not sure there are any decent MPs in the UK. Their referendum in 2016 was clear enough - Leave the EU.
The way the MPs are acting I wonder if anyone would bother to vote again
Thank you for that insight from the Northern Territory.
Melchett01
15th Jan 2019, 11:37
I would sack her photographer, that photo makes her look like one of the muppets, she is probably charming, but that picture does her no justice. One of her main political interests is tackling climate change, that does not exactly sit well with having ones finger on the button.
Its not the only one. For quite a while on entering MOD Main Building, the gallery of senior officials and ministers had a slightly distorted, I think elongated, photo of Mark Lancaster which bore a close resemblance to President Assad.
What are we worried about. Denis Healey, erstwhile defence minister, was a member of the Communist party.....
Pontius Navigator
15th Jan 2019, 15:00
What are we worried about. Denis Healey, erstwhile defence minister, was a member of the Communist party.....
but not at the same time.
He also had something in common with JC, not Jim C, he would not have pressed the tit.
blimey
15th Jan 2019, 20:58
What are we worried about. Denis Healey, erstwhile defence minister, was a member of the Communist party.....
Beachmaster at Anzio.
Speaking at a House of Lords discussion on his career last year, former Labour MP and House of Commons speaker Betty Boothroyd remembered how "intellectual thug" Healey's wartime service left him with a unique position of authority as Defence Secretary.
She recalled how on one occasion he was being "talked down to" by an Admiral who'd never seen wartime service - at which point he warned:
"Look here - if you go on talking to me in those terms, I'll crawl under this table and I'll chew your balls off!"
ShotOne
15th Jan 2019, 21:31
Surprising to hear Healy being eulogised in this forum. He initiated some of the biggest defence cuts in history-for ideological not financial reasons. Admittedly head and shoulders above current Labour candidate.
NutLoose
15th Jan 2019, 22:17
As long as she can stay awake she will have one over Fred Mulley.
FODPlod
15th Jan 2019, 23:09
As long as she can stay awake she will have one over Fred Mulley.
On the other hand:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Mulley"...Mulley attended Warwick School between 1929 and 1936. He served in the Worcestershire Regiment in the Second World War, reaching the rank of sergeant, but was captured in 1940 and spent five years as a prisoner of war in Germany..."
Asturias56
16th Jan 2019, 12:40
Surprising to hear Healy being eulogised in this forum. He initiated some of the biggest defence cuts in history-for ideological not financial reasons. Admittedly head and shoulders above current Labour candidate.
I think most of them were Treasury driven but some were political decisions - such as supporting the pull-out E of Suez. On the other hand he sold Buccaneers to the South Africans, gave the US the Chagos Islands and supported tactical & nuclear weapons
better than Duncan Sandys anyway
ShotOne
17th Jan 2019, 07:18
Sandys is an easy target when his (in)famous review was in fact a response to the, then, shocking realisation that even spending our entire GDP on the latest and best aircraft couldn’t stop our cities being reduced to ash. In which event , under a Corbyn government he has already ruled out any possibility of retaliation
Asturias56
17th Jan 2019, 07:33
Well nothing changed there then................ Sandys was right...
Wensleydale
17th Jan 2019, 08:52
Wasn't Mulley in charge when the UK ordered the Nimrod AEW rather than the Sentry? A "jobs for the boys" waste of £1Bn rather than proven technology.
Cat Techie
19th Jan 2019, 21:37
If Healy is guilty of being the worst Defence Secretary because he chopped the TSR2? History and reading the facts from Kew says differently.
Cat Techie
19th Jan 2019, 22:15
Well I forgot about Healey destrustion of the any plans for CVA01, etc that is likely to get the FAA crowd up in arms. I am of the opinion of Jerry Pook on things mind.