The Uk does need to spend more on defence to modernise and make its forces more effective.It also needs to spend the budget better.
Under the current government we have hit a new low. 6 naval vessels decommissioned before there are any replacements . Most the rest of the fleet undergoing deep maintenance at the same time, or unavailable for duty owing to a shortage of money and bad planning.
The high costs of the Ajax military vehicle programme continue with too few working vehicles delivered. The government reviews the next generation fighter plane programme, delaying this multinational collaboration with lack of enthusiasm and cash.It has the money to hire in a new flotilla of boats to pick up illegal migrants at sea, but not the money for coastal patrol vessels to protect our undersea cables and pipes.
It has the money to pay the salaries of 55,000 civil servants to direct the phantom navy and the tiny army, and to pay 1500 senior officers who command desks in the absence of battalions and squadrons.
Meanwhile the Ukraine and Gulf wars show us how quickly warfare is changing. Where are our drones, ballistic missiles and robots to defend our islands and to intervene when our commerce and interests abroad are harmed? When will we replace all the munitions and weapons we have given Ukraine?
June 15, 2026
“Where are our drones..?”
They are in Ukraine. We have factories here churning them out, just to give £800m worth of them away to be fired at Russia or Russians.
There’s no point in increasing the defence budget until we have a sensible foreign policy for a country of our size, means and (hopefully) realistic ambitions for our people.
June 15, 2026
This government has no need for armed forces, as it believes international law will protect us.
June 15, 2026
The rot started with Cameron and Clegg in 2010 after their defence review which decimated the military. Remember chopping up the ASW planes and burning all the drawings. Reducing procurement of shops for the RN
Giving the contract for Close Support Vessels to South Korea
I could go on.
We have somebody the best brains in the world but successive governments have allowed foreign takeovers thus weakening us. The latest we are being excluded from the latest AI by Trump on security grounds. He doesn’t want an Islamic government using this technology as with the rest of Europe.
June 15, 2026
When will we replace all the munitions and weapons we have given Ukraine
Well I suppose never , but look on the bright side I’m sure we could muster up a dads army headed by Captain Mainwaring and a few stupid boys to defend our island surrounded by water, like every thing else Britishness as very nearly disappeared with the help from Liebour/Tories/Libdems over the decades we are a laughing stock around the globe it’s just hasn’t sunk in to our politicians skulls yet
June 15, 2026
Well at least Dad’s army were on the right side, unlike so much of Starmer’s Government, Reeves, Lammy, Miliband, Hermer…
Jacob Rees-Mogg has a recent videos worth watching A failure of Duty.
June 15, 2026
Many happy returns to John Redwood – The Rt Hon the Lord Redwood – on his 75th birthday today
Pip Pip!!
June 15, 2026
An elected councillor at Oxfordshire County Council in 1973 so 53 years of excellent public service so far. One of the circa 10% of Tory MPs with a working compass. Alas just 10%, Annunziata Rees-Mogg says the party has now changed under Kemi but I see little sign of this. Kemi says the right things but the Dire May still hold the whip many Tory MPs are still Net Zero, climate alarmist, ECHR supporting, open borders, tax to death, LibDems in essence like Hunt, Cleverly, Sunak…
Reply The Shadow cabinet and Parliamentary party are united behind Kemi’s conservative agenda, including big budget cuts, tax cuts, repeal of ECHR, effective policies against illegal migrants etc Baroness May has lost the battle over net zero.
June 15, 2026
If we didn’t know better, we would conclude the ineptitude on display at the highest level of government and institutions of state was by design and orchestrated planning…..
Perhaps we should remember the core principle behind the establishment of the EEC/EU was to remove the capacity of ‘nations’ to wage war. It is unfortunate the founders forgot defence was an important fundamental responsibility of nations. Then again, the EU considered ‘nations’ to be the foundation of conflict and war. Hence their stated objective of removing nation status from EU members, could explain why the most basic defence requirements were abandoned. Military forces were consciously de-constructed across Europe. That could explain why priority for defence has been so low. It is also worth remembering, our obedience to comply with international/EU law under this government knows no limit…..well maybe it is £13billion for pseudo defence?
June 15, 2026
Much guff in the media overnight as Trump has declared Peace in the Middle East. Now that the war is – apparently – over it would seem a good time to review how many of the American objectives have been achieved :-
1) The agreement has failed to address the IRGC ambition to obtain nuclear weapons
2) No agreement on limiting Iranian long range MIRV ICBM development
3) Nothing said about stopping IRGC support for Shia proxies in the region
4) Nothing said about the Ayatollah’s dreadful human rights abuses
5) No regime change
The reasons for starting Trump and Netanyahu’s war have not been achieved. The IRGC have won, simply by surviving the bombardment and closing the Strait of Hormuz. The resulting increase in the price of petrol at the pumps in Texas and the forthcoming mid-term elections have forced Trump to capitulate.
June 15, 2026
brazil has done very well buying ex British royal navy ships, often just after an expensive refit, at bargain basement prices.
I have read a lot of MOD invitations to tender, the quality is dire. I have also done a lot of troubleshooting of defence projects, its amazing how they keep on screwing up repeatedly.
June 15, 2026
Good morning
There was a time when our Navy consumed not just most of the defence budget, but the economy as well. With our decline in status and wealth we are a declining nation militarily.
We have exchanged militarism for welfareism. We have more people on benefits than we have military personnel.
But this did not happen overnight. This has been going on for decades as successive governments have been more keen on buying votes through freebies than fulfilling their primary role of defending the nation.
June 15, 2026
A decent defence force requires a decent economy but Starmer, Labour (and 30+ years of the uni-party) have destroyed that possibility it also needs decent defence procurement but little sign of that either.
Starmer claimed Growth was his number one priority now he claims defence is. Destroying both seems to be his agenda in reality.
June 15, 2026
Now would be a good time to set up a sovereign wealth fund with all the profits from green energy as we missed the boat on oil, spending the money on giving away houses to social tenant and welfare.
Are there any socialised profits from green energy or are there only private subsidised profits.
Welfare needs to be taxed and contributory.
June 15, 2026
Any idea what all the Civil Servants do?