The Prime Minister’s statement yesterday renewed attention to an increase in spending on defence, including the renewal of the deterrent, an expansion of counter action in cyberspace and improved equipment for all three services. He confirmed the reduction of overseas aid spending, called China a challenge and proposed an Indo Pacific tilt to future policy. The UK is joining the South East Asian nations as a dialogue partner and applying to join the trade Agreement called Trans Pacific Partnership.
The policy takes a more realistic view of threats and challenges worldwide, and proposes strengthening the UK’s response. The aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth will lead a carrier force to reinforce the UK commitment to open sea lanes around the world. A cyber force will be available to retaliate against criminal gangs and state actors attacking our systems. UK networks and utilities will be better protected.
There are various ways in which I want this approach to be strengthened. As I have set out before, a country cannot guarantee its own defence unless it controls central technologies and designs that enable it to roll out sufficient defensive weapons should war arise. A country dependent on seaborne trade needs both to able to protect convoys at sea and to reduce its reliance on imported raw materials, food and crucial products to reduce the risk of shortages should we face another attempt to dominate us by strangling our imports. Seapower and more recently its modern air arm have been needed in the past to prevent blockade and invasion.
There remain some unanswered questions that next week should Be clarified when we hear from the Defence Secretary. How many troops will the army retain? How many seagoing warships? How quickly will the role of drones, smart weapons, unmanned aircraft and missiles increase and what numbers will be involved? What if any global defence tasks should we take on, given our presence in Estonia for NATO and our enduring commitments in places like Cyprus and Gibraltar? What more action is going to be taken to strengthen national resilience and self sufficiency?
March 17, 2021
Good Morning,
It is a pleasant change to note that, once again, a new Prime Minister has ‘discovered’ the existence of China, but this one appears to realise that China is not just a cuddly panda looking to invest and trade. A big fat aircraft carrier sailing around the Far-East, a bit 20th Century don’t you think?
The greatest risk facing the UK right now comes from the EU. It is so clear I’m fed up with being beaten around the head with their shenanigans. The EU has made it clear, they cannot allow the UK any degree of success or benefit by leaving their club. Such success would make clear the lie upon which the EU is based. I’d like to hear how we plan to defend against EU belligerence, which will undoubtedly get worse.
March 17, 2021
Love your posts Peter.
March 17, 2021
Peter, the best defense against EU subversion is by our actions, make it overwhelmingly clear to them that we will not tolerate it and that it could cost them greatly. They tamper with our sovereignty in NI , result no protocol and they are forced to create a border within Sourthern Ireland. They mess with fish sales and we ban them from our territorial waters. Unnecessary export paperwork equals an end to Mercedes and BMW sales in the UK. Hit them where it hurts, having given them the chance to row back knowing the penalties they will incur. Bullies have to be hit hard, not to have their egos stroked.
March 17, 2021
+1
March 17, 2021
Had the UK government ever planned to defend against EU belligerence it would have started in late 2017:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ireland-border-brexit-latest-theresa-may-customs-union-phil-hogan-northern-a8076271.html
“Mr Hogan … said Ireland would “play tough to the end” over the border issue … ”
Theresa May’s plan was to pretend to resist a bit and then cave in, and Boris Johnson made it worse.
March 17, 2021
Our enormous new aircraft carriers need to go somewhere other than just sailing around the UK…..
March 17, 2021
The European Union is the most advanced, civilised, enlightened project that this dismal, blood-soaked world has ever seen.
If your identity and self-esteem is from belonging to an historically warfaring race, then of course you hate it.
March 17, 2021
What a naive and stupid remark. The EU is European Central Autocracy revisited, overweight at the top and unaccountable to the bottom. Doomed already! Thank God weâre out!!!
March 17, 2021
Joke of the month not just day. Well done!!!
March 17, 2021
Not posted by me.
March 17, 2021
Are you actually saying that none of the EU countries are historically warfaring? Do you know nothing about the perennial attempts at expanding the French kingdom and empire, from Charlemagne to Napoleon, for example?
March 17, 2021
And you can be sure that your cheese will always be up to the highest standards, even if a company in Northern Ireland can no longer buy it from Great Britain without eight bureaucratic processes:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/europe-irish-sea-brexit-england-mps-b924681.html
“Andrew Lynas, managing director of Coleraine-based Lynas Foodservice, told MPs that buying mozzarella cheese from one of his long-standing suppliers in England now requires eight separate processes under the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Prior to the protocol coming into effect at the end of December, he said there were no checks required.”
Not that I blame the EU for doing what is in its nature, I blame Boris Johnson for agreeing to it.
March 17, 2021
MiC âThe European Union is the most advanced, civilised, enlightened project that this dismal, blood-soaked world has ever seen.â
Within living memory (just) â not 2/300 or more years ago – the Germans, the Italians and half of France (the 3 largest EU countries) were fascist dictatorships intent on conquering through warfare the rest of Europe and beyond, even including the USSR.
Some 75 million people died in World War II, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians, many of whom died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.
So it no surprise to me that the EU is so upset that we have escaped from their grasp that they are now intent on waging an economic and political campaign against the UK.
March 18, 2021
Let’s not forget the dictatorships of Franco and Salazar, in Spain and Portugal respectively, during my lifetime.
March 17, 2021
Blocking AZ vaccine export to the UK is hardly advanced and civilised. Why would any sane company want to do business in the EU?
March 17, 2021
Their Eastern expansionist policies and their meddling in the Ukraine is creating problems and tensions with Russia.
And their attitude towards Catalonia is not creating peace and harmony either.
March 17, 2021
Martin, The EU is the most backward, uncivilised, anti-democratic, dirigiste, over-centralised, corrupt project ever seen in Western civilisation since the early 20th century.
If your identity and self-esteem is from belonging to such an historically artificial illiberal empire, then of course you swoon over it.
March 17, 2021
More assertions from the remoaners. Any other woke drivel you’d like to share, Mic?
March 17, 2021
Good morning
When it comes to defence and defence spending my view, which has never changed, is to ask, what is our national foreign policy? For it is this that tends to dictate what military action we may have to take.
Currently I see three major areas.
1. Our commitment to international peacekeeping and disaster relief . Whether this be through NATO or the UN.
2. Direct threats to HM Realm. E.g. The Falklands.
3. Prevention of Piracy, sanctions busting and maintaining open sea lanes and communications.
A further question we must ask is, can we and are we prepared to do and sufficiently fund all three or, as I suspect, do it peacemeal.
Sadly I fear scant resources will be spread thinly and we will have no defence worthy of the name at all.
March 17, 2021
Mark,
JR misses out UK giving billions to fund EU Horizon, why? Weâre in NATO.
Also JR forgets why his govt/MoD in 2019, when we were leaving EU and would needs jobs and industry here, awarded Germany contracts to make military vehicles for us! Is this part of the dishonest Kit kat policy to hide true costs and ties to EU captured by video?
March 17, 2021
Horizon is a science research project
I hope the MoD buys equipment after a cost / benefit analysis. If that results in a German supplier thats fine with me. So the question is not why the equipment came from a particular country but whether its the best deal available.
March 17, 2021
You will need to make sure that that cost/benefit analysis takes into account the cost of the unemployment benefits you will need to pay those laid off in the British company you have chosen not to buy from, plus the unemployment benefit for all those laid off in their supply chain, plus the loss of their income tax, plus the loss of the VAT they would have paid, plus the loss of the corporation taxes of all the companies throughout the supply chain, plus the loss of all the future employment and profits which would have accrued both from exports of the products you have not chosen to support, plus all the other products which all those companies could have created as a result of the R&D from their profits which will no longer exist.
Alternatively, you can just be a sensible patriot and BUY BRITISH.
March 21, 2021
Security: We need to ensure our supply & technology chains remain under direct UK control and or with proven reliable allies not subject to EU dictats.
March 17, 2021
The concessions Boris made in order to sign up to Horizon are utterly appalling and are beginning to harm, not help, British research. As reported in the FT (see here: http://www.ft.com/content/6a89cafa-079a-41df-9da6-5debe66bf3df) “Universities have urged Boris Johnson to intervene to prevent swingeing cuts to pivotal scientific research, as the main funding body faces pressure to pay a bill worth more than a tenth of its budget to support the UK’s contribution to the European Union’s research programme post-Brexit”. The bill is around ÂŁ1 BILLION. On 8 March Amanda Solloway (Minister for Science) said that the UK “will pay a fair and appropriate share” of the Horizon budget, but this IS NOT TRUE. The rules are completely one-sided.
Here are the FACTS: If the UK’s share of Horizon projects is worth more than 8% above what we pay in for two consecutive years, then we MUST pay a top up. But it doesn’t work the same way if the value of our share is less than we pay in – oh no! Then, the difference must be 12% for us to even ask for a ‘performance review’ (of no financial benefit whatsoever!) and we have to lose out by a whopping – and DOUBLE – 16% or more in order to actually ask for (but not necessarily get!) some changes to the payments. Why, in the name of God, did Boris agree to such a one-sided state of affairs???
But wait – it gets worse!!! The UK is EXCLUDED from one of the most important areas of Horizon Europe: The European Innovation Council Accelerator, a fund which invests in tech start-ups. So we will be funding our competitors! It really could not get any worse. A WTO Brexit, which is what we wanted, would have been far, far better.
In the past the UK was a net beneficiary of Horizon, but the EU did not want that to continue now we are out, so changed the funding rules in order to harm us. And even before we left, as soon as the result of the referendum was clear, the UK’s share of Horizon projects fell by over a third! Our response should, of course, simply have been to walk away and fund our research ourselves, thereby cutting out the EU’s new “administrative and participation fees” loaded on top of a contribution based on our GDP. We would have had more money to put into research, rather than paying for the EU’s bloated administration and exhorbitant blackmail demands. And what has the ERG done about this? Nothing, as usual.
March 17, 2021
Yes, Hope, what we’ve got is BINO, or a Kit-Kat Brexit as you say. I’m still waiting for this, or any government, to actually put this country first. Certainly we need strategic sense for our industries, which has been lacking for decades. Examples: instead of spending ÂŁ100bn on HS2, fund a space endeavour to the same tune; scrap all foreign aid; scrap all green subsidies; scrap the carbon neutral rules; etc.
March 17, 2021
The direction of travel and funding is to increase our number of nuclear weapons and capacity & resources of cyberspace defenceâŠâŠ.either will aid the defence of your 3 priority points but take most of the budget
March 17, 2021
May I add point 4? Wave in anyone from anywhere, to do nothing, while giving them housing, healthcare, cash, kids schooling etc – for evermore. A burden and a danger as more arrive, more will they behave like they did back home.
March 17, 2021
We need energy security too.
We canât rely solely on renewables. Fracking and coal gasification should be part of the supply mix.
March 17, 2021
Correct and we need sufficient ships to keep sea lanes open.
The tories going back years have form for continually cutting our military whilst increasing aid and welfare.
Defence of the country is paramount.
March 17, 2021
How much are we indebted fiscally to China for Hinkley Point and how much influence will they have over the control and operation? The slow creep of Chinese influence and control has commenced in the UK.
March 17, 2021
Indeed, GilesB, energy security and manufacturing – from basic industries to high tech – are the key to prosperity and independence. They are also key to a sensible defence policy.
March 17, 2021
The adequacy of UK security is almost impossible to comment on because the principal threats come within the remit of the security services. Not even MPs have access to the detail, so how can they or we assess the magnitude of the cyber threat that runs from theft of individuals financial assets, through intellectual property theft at our universities and industrial companies to nulifying our military defensive systems. These things are beyond comment as was radar in 1938. For individuals and commercial companies it is an act of faith to assume countermeasures are in place and subject to constant renewel. However behind PMs statements all manner of heresies can take place.
My simplistic approach would make us as self sufficient as possible in basic food needs. I would work towards the elimination of fuel interconnectors. We need to be self sufficient and diverse as to sources. The insane drive for all electric, dependant on a national grid, is strategically inept on top of the limitations of all electric vehicles. Inviting those in the World who would do us harm to take technical part in our communications or power supply systems is crass. Tolerating the activities of protest groups has gone beyond a joke, witness coal for steel from Workington to South Wales. Even worse the ineptness of politicians in the face of it. At the political level it dumps on those who abandoned Labour at the last election.
Involvement in NATO is no bad thing, at least we know where the strengths and weaknesses are. A roaming task force, providing it is militarily complete, is no bad thing either, as it reasures our allies.
Defense, like health care and education can only happen as a result of a successful economy, so ensure that we have one in spite of the open warfare against it being conducted by the EU.
March 17, 2021
I think I’ll spend some of today going through the document and group up the actions into: (1) those that will please Russia and China; and (2) those that will please those interested in the defence of the UK and NATO. I suspect that the former category will win out. The PM’s statement yesterday was lacking in detail and rationale. Next week we will see substantial Defence cuts enacted, again, by a Conservative government.
March 17, 2021
We give them aid, we trade with them, we buy ancillary military equipment from them, we allow them to buy our technology, and we point our nuclear weapons at them â CHINA
I donât see any coherent policy just a lot of cigar smoke
March 17, 2021
Beyond Trident range, I think – but a take the point about inconsistency.
March 17, 2021
Those interested in the defence of the UK and NATO I suspect are those interested in threatening Russia and perhaps China so that they can remain rich in the weapons industry and those politicians who will get lucrative jobs in them. So true for those in the US. Without threats from abroad the US has no economy.
What is the threat from China – that they think they are too rich so want to kill everyone in the USA and UK to eliminate their customers or just to impoverish them?
What is Costa Rica doing to protect themselves from threats from elsewhere – nothing, as they threaten no one so need no army, air force or navy – they have nothing that anyone else wants? What do we have that is so wanted by others – Bojo?
March 17, 2021
“What more action is going to be taken to strengthen national resilience and self sufficiency? ”
Most likely not enough. There isnt the money – at least until Boris grows a pair and recovers covid costs from China.
And you need to reverse the social damage done by Blair. Instead of brainwashing kids with lefty PC shyte teach them how to stand up for themselves, how to keep out of debt, how to grow their own food, how to make and mend things……in other words like it was before liberal-minded namby pambys were given opportunity to dumb this country down.
Simple rule : if you want an example of how much this country has been dumbed-down start watching quiz shows, then go to the local tip and see what people are stupid enough to spend their money on.
March 17, 2021
Agree Steve. The general knowledge part of Mastermind or indeed any quiz show makes me feel like Einstein.
March 17, 2021
steve
Good post.
Add to your list for kids skills that business will always need. Right First Time, cost of non conformance and quality and basic problem solving skills.
March 17, 2021
In an obesity addicted UK, you only need to look at the supermarket conveyor belt in front of you.
March 17, 2021
Steve – Absolutely 100% spot on – and a round of applause for our host for putting it up.
March 17, 2021
It’s a very good thing in capitalism that people are stupid enough to spend their money on tat – it keeps the stupid GDP up and increases jobs in a population that is absurdly over big and increasing. What govt. would stop that?
Self sufficiency in an overpopulated country? Who thought that up?
March 17, 2021
It was Thatcher’s Tories who replaced economic confidence based on Job security with that sustained by lax credit, secured against a deliberately-created residential property bubble, not Blair’s Labour.
Sadly that is not easily reversed once set in train – voters don’t take kindly to negative equity and being unable to borrow to buy, since they were long ago forced to give up saving.
March 17, 2021
MiC at least in Thatchers day mortgages were more difficult to get, based on 3x salary averages and ability to pay plus insurance in case you were out of work, Labour following Americaâs opening up of the mortgage market gave us Northern Rock 100% free for alls with unqualified mortgage arrangers telling people how to get around the evidence requirement of banks.
March 17, 2021
Increasing the number of nuclear warheads we have is an idiotic waste of money – it makes no difference at all whether we have 100 or 200, especially as we would only ever be able to use 1.
March 17, 2021
You either do not use or in extremis you hit with deverstating effect, which means far more than one.
March 17, 2021
Roy Grainger,
Agreed. A complete waste of money. We donât even protect our own borders from unarmed invaders.
It is more hot air from a windbag Prime Minister. It is in a similar vein to his response about bad policing.
March 17, 2021
Fully agree
The money could be better spend on conventional weapons and better resources for our military
Not a weapon to keep the UK politicians as a permanent member of the UN
March 17, 2021
We have just suffered an object lesson on what is the greater threat to our way of life – war or disease, and it is not the former any more.
However, backward-looking political philosophies such as John’s party embraces will always try to use the perhaps instinctive fear of invasion to persuade people that they are needed.
March 17, 2021
You blithely dismiss war/calamitous fighting, MiC, ignoring what is happening across the world: in Eritrea, in Afghanistan, in the Yemen, in Mozambique, in Nigeria, in Columbia… and it all affects the UK and Europe in one way or another.
Recently, a massive cocaine haul was found on a ship in S African waters, coming from South America and due to unload, either in harbour or relatively safe waters, onto another vessel bound for Europe – the smugglers were primarily Bulgarian; the need for defence forces is not just about re-enacting Ypres, Borodino or Blenheim.
March 17, 2021
Ukraine ? The problem is that the backward-looking political philosophies you loftily claim are over are in fact those currently being espoused by Russia and China.
March 17, 2021
Does it not occur to you that disease can be a weapon of war. Witness Covid 19 with confirmed malicious intent.
March 17, 2021
War AND disease may well be one and the same thing.
March 17, 2021
Indeed.
The real threats we face are man made climate change and its impacts, extreme weather, pandemics, crop failure and the like. Sure we will have the odd terror attack to deal with – but an aircraft carrier and nuclear weapons are irrelevant.
Who are we going to nuke and why? Nobody can ever answer that.
March 17, 2021
Andy the answer is staightforward. Anyone who is in the process of nuking us. It is the reality of mutually shared destruction that keeps fingers away from buttons. It is not a perfect system because it cannot allow for the act of an insane Hitler. The trick is to ensure that the Hitlers of this world never get access, but even that is not foolproof. In that respect, remain vigilant and be prepared to act.
March 17, 2021
Paying though the nose for them is a protection racket, plain and simple.
March 17, 2021
Andy, CAGW is a hoax, and you’ve fallen for it. Extreme weather events are just that – extreme weather – and no worse in general than in the recent past. We crop more food than ever – at least partly due to the mild increase in CO2 recently, which has resulted in a noticeable increase to the greening of the planet. Climate has always changed, always will, and we will adapt to it, as we always have.
March 17, 2021
We have just suffered an object lesson on what is the greater threat to our way of life â war or authoritarian politicians, and it is not the former any more.
March 17, 2021
A devastating viral pandemic that has a case fatality rate of <1%, same as seasonal flu and kills those with a mean age greater than average life expectancy. Approximately 40m foetuses are aborted each year.
March 17, 2021
Defence procurement in the UK has been appallingly inefficient for very many years. What is needed above all for strong defence is a strong, competitive and sound economy (& a self sufficient one as far as possible). This is totally incompatible with the insane net zero agenda and the current size of our largely inept and increasingly oppressive government.
March 17, 2021
Skylark, Well said.
March 17, 2021
The government apparently thinks it is possible to control the climate by controlling CO2 emissions and it’s green agenda. It needs to pay more attention to the security of its energy sources and supplies and to its costs here and now. Otherwise all its ambitions are nothing more than hot air.
March 17, 2021
Government might try arranging the Earths orbit somewhat more distant from the Sun. If they could make it adjustable we could cope with the vagaries of Sun activity. The clamour on Earth would rival a large family with a single TV set and three zappers.
March 17, 2021
Agricola, Warmth is life. There has always been more life during interglacials on planet Earth.
March 17, 2021
Yes. Looked positive but as you say the devil is in the detail and as we know from Boris he is somewhat flexible when it comes to the actuality., indeed as is the whole government. Priti Patel on the illegals for instance.
What I donât understand is âwar mongeringâ MPs stance on China. Isolating and ignoring a massive world power makes no sense. After all they have been comfortable doing business in the Middle East where there is zero democracy and human rights nor freedoms for women.
March 17, 2021
It appears Priti Patel can comment an anything BUT the illegals – the very thing she said months ago she was going to stop! Already double arrived this year compared to same period last year – and not a word said. NOTHING – but then again NOTHING is exactly what her word is worth. She should be jailed for financial fraud – i.e. – getting paid for stopping the illegals. which is clearly NOT happening.
March 17, 2021
@bigneil(newercomp); “Already double arrived this year compared to same period last year”
If you really do have such information then perhaps you would do better contacting the UK Border Authorities, or even the Police, direct than constantly bleat on social media. No one, not even you neli, can comment on unknown-unknowns, only known-knowns, so either put up or shu…..
March 17, 2021
We can not protect our seaborne imports unless we also have our own fully equipped navy, and merchant shipping lines plus the means to build and repair. We need to evaluate what raw materials are native to the UK, the quantity and quality of any such reserves along with ease of extraction -and this MUST again include coal, whatever the eco-worriers whisper in to ears, especially at night!… For those raw materials that have to be imported then careful choices need to be considered as to who we trade with, developing alternate technologies, military & economic strategies if nassacary, even if that goes counter to current perceived preferences, such as BEVs.
As for cuts to military personal, I am weary of such cuts, one never knows when ‘boots on the ground’ is the only sensible option and not just in a combat context, as the pandemic has shown. Reliance on reserve forces is an error as that could be akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul, whilst the services gain industry loose.
March 17, 2021
This might be controversial but … the govt also needs to re-evaluate the roll of the (analogue radio) BBC World Service, or for a replacement ‘Voice of Great Britain’ service. Often an important first contact for our ex-pats, but also our first line of soft diplomacy, and defence.
The current service, or at least the English language version available in Europe and Africa, has in my opinion become nothing more than an ego trip for some producers and presenters within the BBC. Allowing the WS to move out of Bush House and be assimilated into the domestic services within Broadcasting House was a grave error even if the fiscal motives were good.
March 17, 2021
Jerry, I agree with all you say here, assuming you mean that BEVs should be dropped in favour of a more robust industrial strategy?
March 18, 2021
@NickC; “assuming you mean that BEVs should be dropped in favour of a more robust industrial strategy”
My comment was simply about resilience of supply, that might be of Uranium, Cobalt, Lithium, Crude-Oil or Coal. Unlike some who post to this site I am not a Luddite nor technophobe!
March 17, 2021
âThe aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth will lead a carrier force to reinforce the UK commitment to open sea lanes around the world.â
One aircraft carrier & without aircraft (last time I looked) to open sea lanes around the World? Seems optimistic to say the least. Will defence be net carbon zero too Boris? Rather large batteries then and worldwide at sea recharging points needed?
This (newish) and vastly expensive aircraft carrier (and sister ship) is not even nuclear powered (gas and diesel) has taken nearly 20 years from inception and has hardly even done anything yet. Another government white elephant or sitting duck âtargetâ as many regard it.
March 17, 2021
A full compliment is 24 F35, the U.K. currently has 21. It is not expected both carriers will be operational at the same time. Initially the BS was that we would acquire approximately 130, now downgraded to 48 by 2024 ish, and the potentially another 48. ÂŁ100 million to buy and very costly to maintain.
Latest type Frigate ÂŁ1.3 billion to build. Probably needs 20 + to include refits, breakdowns etc.
Hardly a substantial presence to keep all lanes open. I remember the hubris about sending a whole 4 aircraft to bomb Syria.
So eye watering costs that we will never be able to afford to be truly effective. I wish our Boy Scout politicians would stop this global presence tosh. And now apparently we will be able to get down to the South Atlantic to defend the Falklands.
Talk about being spread thinly. What are these people âsmokingâ?
March 17, 2021
@Skylark , my observation there – it is an aircraft carrier that can only accept and deploy one particular aircraft the F35. It doesn’t have the ability to work as an aircraft carrier, it cant fly defensive planes, or early warning planes as is tradition – its a contradiction to its purpose.
It would appear that as far as the US(the UK’s supplier) is concerned they have given up on the F35 themselves, due to costs, flaws and so on. I mean among other things the stealth coating falls off if used at speed! They have re-invested in an updated F15(Completely new build) while they develop a completely new plane.
The other problem for the UK aircraft carrier is its lack of range between refueling stops. As China pointed out they can stop it in its tracks by sinking the never ending line of required refueling ships.
The UK Defence procurement at it best ‘How Cheap’ over functionality.
March 17, 2021
At least the Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales will not have a nuclear reactor sitting on the oceans floor if they are sunk by a hypersonic missile or undetsea drone.
March 17, 2021
Skylark, I have never been a fan of Gordon Brown’s aircraft carriers. As you infer, they should have been nuclear powered. And they should have been designed with catapults and arrestors. Now they’re here – though we should have 3 not 2 for operational reasons – we need to make the best of a bad job.
Let us hope the government goes ahead with Tempest, and insists on a carrier version too. India would be an ideal partner for the Tempest project alongside existing team members. Though we must ensure that all aspects of the plane can be manufactured here, including the missiles (presumably MBDA, at the moment).
March 17, 2021
I have no problem with spending more on defence to upgrade our capability to defend ourselves better against todays/tomorrows threats, as long as that spending is a properly allocated spread against cyber attack as well as so called conventional warfare, and as long as we stop wasting money and overspending by chopping and changing specifications all the way through any build programme.
Experience shows all such past spending has been drastically under estimated at the outset, with many projects doubling or tripling in eventual cost.
March 17, 2021
Looks like we are in for more discussion about mixing Politics with Trade once more.
Why is it that Politicians everywhere always want to get involved and make everything they touch more complicated for everyone else.
March 17, 2021
ÂŁ2.7 million might go some way to buying a new boat or a few guns or a few basic supplies for troops ( those not replaced by drones that is!).
My cat could have achieved a better âNewsroomâfor a few quid…and he would have bought new chairs!
So letâs see a breakdown of the bill then!
I still remember the parcels that mothers sent to their soldier sons in Iraq!
March 17, 2021
Apparently the appalling Sturgeon has applied in a footnote submission for permission to have âSNP for Indyref2â instead of just âsnpâ on the ballot paper. Is their any end to the gerrymandering and corruption in Scottish politics? What a dreadful idea Labourâs devolution was. Perhaps if so the Conservatives can have âConservative for prosperity and freedom from the EU vaccine fiascoâ on the ballot paper.
March 17, 2021
More likely to be âConservatives for ever more taxation, borrowing and red tape combined with dire and declining public servicesâ.
March 17, 2021
‘Continuity socialist party’ would be more appropriate for Tory party.
March 17, 2021
Whilst – in common with the majority of Britons – I didnât like Mrs Thatcherâs government, she was at least a stateswoman. You could respect her strength as an individual even when her policies were bad, which most of them were. From Reagan to Gorbachev you knew she had the respect of the leaders of other countries.
Who respects the clown in Number 10 now? He has made Britain a byword for joke. Johnson is shorthand for incompetent fool. Brexit has made our country friendless – laughed at both by our foes and by our former friends.
We are not a big enough country to be a major world power. 68m people and – soon – a couple of aircraft carriers, are of no concern to big militarily powerful countries like China, Russia, the US.
We are an economic irrelevance to the big economic powers – the EU, US, China. The EU, Africa Union and Mercosur show blocs of smaller countries working together are the way to go. We have left one, the Tories repeatedly sticking their fingers up at the EU on the way out.
We are not global Britain. We are friendless Britain. Our military scares nobody. Our economic clout has gone. Our diplomatic clout – often shown through aid – has been diminished. We are an irrelevance.
That is what our pitiful prime minister outlined yesterday. How Mrs Thatcher would have wept.
March 17, 2021
All of what has been announed is exactly what Dom Cummings has been saying in his blog, and elsewhere, for years. None of it has spontaneously come about via the democratic process of MP’s and voters, coming up with ideas.
This is getting funnier and funnier.
Come on John, be honest about this stuff.
March 17, 2021
Iain
Interesting what Dominic Cummings said to the Parliamentary Committee today about bureaucracy having to be swept away in the Department of Health so that imediate decisions could be taken for action with regards to fighting Covid.
My guess is that all Government Departments need the same treatment, hence why he was so unpopular with so many who just prefer a comfortable life at the taxpayers expense.
March 17, 2021
We are short on numbers. There is too much attention given to the latest tech. In WW1 at sea German gunnery systems and ship quality exceeded ours. At Jutland we lost more men and ships but we had the numbers and degraded their smaller Fleet, so they didn’t come out again. There are many more examples of this sort of thing. Buying the latest tech from America doesn’t make us powerful when we only have a handful of their outrageously expensive items. It just leaves us under their control.
We need numbers, built here with our skills and needs and make sure they have lots more guns and missiles. Chasing the latest overseas tech just leads to high cost and delay. Get building here. Stop talking.
‘Boris’, in an answer to an SNP mp yesterday, seems to think having big submarines based in Scotland makes up for there being no surface ships anywhere round the coast.
March 17, 2021
Protect our country and way of life against what, exactly ? The enemy is clearly within.
March 17, 2021
The future of warfare is biological. The victim nation/race is unlikely to even realise they are under attack.
March 17, 2021
Ginty, Certainly biological attacks are likely and serious. But we are currently being attacked in cyber space. Cyber warfare is here and now.
March 17, 2021
I can appreciate the need for nuclear weapons, but I think it a big mistake reducing our standing forces while increasing our nuclear stockpile, for that restricts our response to any threat , and brings the nuclear button into play a great deal more quickly as our threadbare standing forces get swept aside in the first few minutes of a conflict.
As for our carrier , well that seems to me to be a naval vessel built by a committee of politicians, not nuclear powered, no catapult, but a long deck and few aircraft, which the politicians cut back every time they do a review. Flogging our Harriers off for a knockdown price to the US marines was yet another appalling decision. Worst of all we have a carrier but can’t afford a carrier task force to defend it. Come hostilities we have given our enemies a ÂŁ3 billion bit of target practice.
Of course with defence and war about economics our greatest threat is to be found in 10 Downing St , whose green lunacy seeks to cripple what little of our industrial capacity remains, with more green insanity revealed today as Boris decides we are to make steel with zero carbon emissions, which means we won’t be making any steel at all. Looks like we are going back to wooden warships, time to re-float Nelson’s HMS Victory.
March 17, 2021
From the Integrated Review.
Last two paras of PMâs foreword to the document.
âFew nations are better placed to navigate the challenges ahead, but we must be willing to change our approach and adapt to the new world emerging around us. Open and democratic societies like the UK must demonstrate they are match-fit for a more competitive world. We must show that the freedom to speak, think and choose â and therefore to innovate â offers an inherent advantage; and that liberal democracy and free markets remain the best model for the social and economic advancement of humankind.
History has shown that democratic societies are the strongest supporters of an open and resilient international order, in which global institutions prove their ability to protect human rights, manage tensions between great powers, address conflict, instability and climate change, and share prosperity through trade and investment. That open and resilient international order is in turn the best guarantor of security for our own citizensâ.
So where the Hell is he talking about then? He canât mean prison camp UK! Liberal democracy? Open and democratic? Iâm a prisoner…not a citizen. Does he moonlight as PM somewhere else? Like Mars maybe?
March 17, 2021
Sir John
How will our solar powered tanks operate at night?
Roger
March 17, 2021
Theyâll engage the âflux capacitorâ
March 17, 2021
Roger, I only aspire to be towing a glider at night in a hot climate with the aircon on. Never mind lights and the disc player. All electric propulsion is a new religion with no evidence just faith. We are being led into a disaster by incompetent politiciance and their civil service minions. Will the king come out of his trance and get his kit on, its embarassing.
March 17, 2021
” He confirmed the reduction of overseas aid spending…” – whilst also committing to restoring the 0.7% GNI commitment âwhen the fiscal situation allowsâ and allowing it still to run at generous levels meanwhile.
And the Review informs us how this expenditure will be squandered: climate change, girlsâ education, human rights and tackling global poverty. This apparently is so foreigners can see the UK as a generous nation and a âproblem-solverâ. Any scope for generosity and problem-solving at home?
March 17, 2021
Very refreshing to listen to Dominic Cummings this morning, and sad to realise that his level of thinking is no longer involved at Number 10. He had much good sense to offer on how government currently fails the country it serves. I particularly liked the idea of every ministry having its own “Skunk Works”, manned by intellects that could produce solutions to problems that the bureaucratic atrophy of the ministry could not or could not even see. In a sense he likened it to Churchills methods of getting things done 1939/1945. He said with much truth that had Alan Turing arrived on the scene with his creative thinking at any of our ministries he would have been dismissed , ignored, and laughed at because no one person has the intellect or vision to know what he was talking about. He also put a stake through the concept of committees, the death knell of getting anything done. A fact I have been aware of throughout my life for both work and leisure. Dominic Cummings is a joy to listen to, someone should give him an hour on prime time TV. Andrew Neil take note.
March 18, 2021
So you don’t like Dominic Cummings, prefering the girlfriend and the dog.
March 17, 2021
An Indo Pacific tilt? how very aptly named, reminds me of the Don Quixote story tilting at windmills for when it comes to security patrolling the seas off SE Asia it cannot in truth be called defence as it is more correctly offence- as we will see soon enough when China flexes its muscle. Then instead of Aircraft carriers we should be building super steel strengthened vessels because the next war at sea will not be a shooting one but more like the Icelandic cod wars of the past where ships will ram one another? Where are the brains? The think tankers? The lateral thinking military planners- if we think we can just waltz back into the Far East region to protect an imaginary merchant navy which we don’t have anymore- all gone for decades- it’s all a load of old Boris nonsense just like his imaginary tunnel under the irish sea!
March 17, 2021
Peter, You are right that the EU is our greatest immediate threat. The EU is so determined in its antipathy towards the UK that it is engaging in self-harm to do it – witness the EU’s vaccine debacle.
However the de-industrialisation of the last 20 years due to the green fanatics, makes us particularly vulnerable to China – and to the EU again. We must recover strategic industries so we cannot be so easily blackmailed by hostile governments.
March 17, 2021
Stupid stuff NickC the EU have said their Medcines agency will give a definitive answer tomorrow Thursday on the vaccine in question. They had a pause just to check. That’s all
March 17, 2021
Why does the UK need a nuclear deterrent, when Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy and many other countries, seem to manage without one ?
March 17, 2021
they manage without one because the US and the UK (& France up to a point) have one
March 17, 2021
Canada, Denmark and Italy are under the nuclear umbrella of NATO.
March 17, 2021
Never heard of NATO?
March 17, 2021
It also goes by another name – USA
March 17, 2021
Because we had had one for 60+years and it provides us with a Permanent Seat on the UN Security Council. And it might account for thousands of British jobs as well as protect us as an outpost of NATO.
March 17, 2021
They “manage without one ” by being closely allied to countries that do have one.
March 17, 2021
Australia are allied to the USA and UK but point blank refuse to allow any nuclear weapons in their territory ?
March 17, 2021
‘Why does the UK need a nuclear deterrent…? Because we want to be considered an important super power and to be looked up to – so stupid and childish but that’s what our politicians are.
March 17, 2021
Agree
During the cold war our navy, air force and army all had low yield tactical nuclear bombs and missiles. Our military leaders evolved and removed them; leaving just our strategic nuclear missiles in our submarines controlled by our politicians
March 17, 2021
No, not stupid at all. You just have to ask if an American President would always risk a nuclear attack on New York to guard London against a threat of nuclear blackmail by some rogue third country.
March 17, 2021
MWB, We need the nuclear deterrent: to avoid blackmail from rogue nuclear powers such as N.Korea and Iran; to retain our seat on the UN Security Council; and in the event of another world war, ultimately to defend ourselves.
March 18, 2021
Nuclear blackmail is a point but what would the blackmailers demand? money, food, women, govt. takeover, not to interfere in their country…? Any other ideas?
March 17, 2021
Those countries benefit from the nuclear umbrella of like-minded neighbours who do have them.
They are also not easy to develop, since there is a moratorium on testing. We renew Trident for that reason – as fully-tested technology we can build more without any further need for development or becoming embroiled in working around treaty obligations which make it very difficult to develop new nuclear weapons (unless you’re a rogue State of course).
March 17, 2021
Your term ânuclear umbrellaâ suggests that NATO members would have a say of weapon platforms, weapons yield, weapons type, weapon deployment, weapon targeting and weapon engagement instructionâŠ..no NATO country apart from USA gets a say about the nuclear armaments environment â all other countries including the UK are just observers (thatâs why the French arenât full members of NATO)
Being of observer status is different from accepting an âumbrellaâ status
March 18, 2021
They see their shield as the USA & UK. It avoids your displeasure of them having their own.
March 17, 2021
To do all this we can’t afford to be a nuclear power like the USA. In any case we buy the nuc’s from the US so not as if we make them ourselves. Perhaps we could get them from France as they have a nuclear industry and a lot of nuclear power stations. Where money is concerned they won’t worry too much about Brexit đ
Better to be more friendlier to Russia. The cold war ended and Eastern Europe allowed to go their own way.
It was a promise given to the USSR that NATO would not base troops in the East. The Russians were trusting and did not get in writing. The West did not help Russia in any way. At one point it might have joined NATO under Putin. But sorry mate you can’t join our club as we need an enemy to survive and keep the arms business going. So Putin went on to make Russia great again. No wonder he got on well with Trump.
You will note that the USA is back to it’s old world domination ways. No one point’s out that the New President is more of a war monger than Trump, and Boris is aiding him, just Like Toney Blair did. And look were that got us in lives lost and the disaster that is now the Middle East. So now we push Russia towards China. At the end of the day this is all about trade and not democracy. As it has always been.
Not too much of a problem with sailing ships and canon, but now we have Nuc’s
March 17, 2021
Any security review which includes a small increase in spendig will inevitably have some good things in it, and this one obviously does too. But the trecurring heme of this government is that they do not have the courage, or good sense, to take the opportunity of being in government to make the fundamental changes which are needed. A little bit of tinkering at the eges will make a marginal improvement, I don’t deny, but it’s just pepering over the cracks.
The most important weapon missing from our arsenal is UK-designed and built cruise missiles with small tactical nuclear warheads. These are far more likely to be used than ICBMs, and therefore would genuinely improve both our offensive and defensive capabilities and security. Increasing our ICBM stock is just very, very expensive gesture politics which will make no difference in the next Falklands/Iraq/Afghanistan-style conflict. Missiles do not put our servicemen at risk and are most likely to reach their target, and a small, battlefield nuclear warhead would lower the threshold for their use, thus creating a genuine fear and deterrent effect.
March 17, 2021
A recent illustration and demonstrating the misuse of our highly professional Armed Forces. Afghanistan Helmond with the largest force the UK could muster all they could do was protect themselves, they couldn’t project force, contain the local militias. Just a toke The UK eventually had to walk away, not because of the men on the ground as such but because their UK bosses couldn’t find enough to do the job. Embarrassingly the US moved in with the right numbers and got the job done.
Now the UK thinks just 69,000 men is a capable force to project power on the World stage. They forget out of that 69,000 some are in training, some are rationed out in small numbers around the Globe. Then factor in, like most humans working a 24 hour day may be possible as a one off, but eventually they need to sleep. So that is never 69,000 men operating in a conflict that is at best 10,000, meaning they would be hard pushed to contain the average un-armed football match crowd.
Again we are faced with a Government after headlines living up to there commitments to keep the country safe isn’t even considered.
To the Government – stop abusing people for the sake of ego and a headline and get a grip on reality and just do the job we pay you for.
March 17, 2021
The Pentagon is one of the largest GHG emitters in the world, larger than most countries – what does the UK equivalent emit? Funny how the Pentagon in this context is never mentioned, oh, money.
March 17, 2021
Ah, when will money become edible, nutritious – the very wealthy no doubt are working on it – solves many problems for some.
March 17, 2021
The CV19 pandemic and the aggression towards us shown by the EU demonstrates that in addition to our ultimate deterrent of nuclear weapons we need to increase our self-sufficiency and widen our supplier base.
Green energy should be developed not because global warming is caused by anthropological CO2 emissions or that by cutting our pitifully small CO2 contribution that will somehow save the planet but because it gives us energy security and protection from blackmail.
We need to stop countries stealing our IP and taking over our infrastructure and strategic industries.
We need to develop a culture that repairs and mends rather than buys and bins and develop transport and business to cope with further future pandemics (accidental or deliberate).
We also need to stop the importation of 700K new people into the country each year and reduce our population density.
March 17, 2021
I’m all for an increase in defence spending, but the vast majority should be done in the UK using UK resources. No further requirement to force the MoD or other Government departments to place open bids across the EU.
It may not be cheaper, but the majority of the money earned will be spent in the UK by companies and employees alike rather than incurring the cost of supporting those in the UK who would otherwise be unemployed and sending profits abroad.
March 17, 2021
Our PM wants to tilt to Asia and to defend freedom of passage in international waters. The Royal Navy will as always do what it can, but its kit is inadequate, underspecified and of insufficent number to take on with any credibility policing the freedom of the world’s high seas far from home, especially the South China Sea where the USA declined the opportunity to stop China taking control of disputed islands and reefs, increasing their size, militarising them and gaining defacto control of the area.
From what I have read:
The UK’s new aircraft carriers are powered by fossil fuel instead of nuclear and, at least initially, had no aircraft.
The UK’s type-45 destroyers were ordered with the Rolls WR21, which was relatively untested and not used by any other navy, instead of the well-tested, reliable and widely used General Electric LM2500. Who made that choice? A UK politician, who appeared to put UK jobs before operational ability. I understand his problem, but he appears to have put political expediency before operational capability. I would be all for a RR engine that was up to the job, but the WR21 clearly was not and, when all systems were in use in exercise, the diesel generators tripped out leaving the ship defenceless, without electrical power or propulsion.
March 17, 2021
Talking about security, when will the government ensure water treatment chemicals are sourced from the UK? Just in case the EU decides to ban exports of these like it is with vaccines.
I see too that Southern Water are planning a desalination plant on the south coast, which will consume as much electrical power as the entire Isle of Wight. Shows how much development needs to be curtailed.
March 17, 2021
If China is a Challenge, you have to ask why does the UK permit them to use and fund UK research in those elements that secure their superiority in conflict.
Official accounts show China via National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Science and Technology and Chinese Academy of Sciences have provided ÂŁ360million to UK research facilities to enable them to draw on UK technology for their own benefit.
March 17, 2021
It depends on the research. I have been involved in UK research projects with the USSR in the middle of the Cold War. The research was NATO certified to be for peaceful purposes.
March 18, 2021
Probably gunpowder was made for a peaceful purpose, lovely fireworks -who would have thought?
March 17, 2021
I’d feel more confident about this review if it had been developed purely from ideas and proposals presented by our Military experts and costed by an independent body . The MoD does not have the best of reputations in such matters so I trust the input from its Mandarins was minimal.
Nothing more has been mentioned regarding the equipping of the two new Aircraft Carriers with F35B Stealth fighter – the Naval VSTOL version. The original order book has been reduced and to date there are just 18 F35Bs based in the UK but each Carrier can operate in excess of 60 F35Bs. Without a strong compliment of planes a Carrier is a mere floating deck.
At ÂŁ3+B each, the carriers are wasted and very vulnerable without those planes (ÂŁ100+M each). Furthermore, a Carrier requires the formation of a Battle Group to protect it. So each Carrier should be the centrepiece of a flotilla of at least 5 other warship/submarine vessels. We do not have sufficient surface Warships available to create such a battle group probably because there is an acute shortage of manpower within the RN, which probably will be the reason why our new carriers will be without those UK support vessels. Luckily we are a member of NATO so our friends and allies will help us out there. Current events suggest that their theatre of operations will be in South East Asia and beyond where we will join the USA and other allies attempting to halt oriental imperialism. I just hope we have enough funding to fulfil the proposals.
March 17, 2021
I guess there is more than one way to be blockaded. According to the BBC this morning, food service and other retail companies are being reminded by the EU that there are now fewer checks on food entering NI from the EU than entering from the UK, resulting in lower prices.
It shines a different light on EU tactics than the claim that they are only trying to prevent “inferior British products” from entering the Single Market. This is as clear evidence as you could get that the EU is deliberately manipulating border checks for commercial advantage.
March 17, 2021
An Indo Pacific security policy, forsooth. This is simply the old East of Suez policy rebadged. We are a medium sized nation, not a superpower, and the Indo Pacific region is far from home. We will only ever be effective in that region as America’s puppet; that’s not an independent security policy. Pound for pound, military activity close to home is more effective – and it’s not as if our near neighbours are in benevolent mood.
March 17, 2021
These are all key questions, it’s a good job we still have some good MPs who actually know a few things – but a shame that they are not in government.
The coded reference to sea power being needed to avoid anyone “strangling our imports” I assume is a suggestion that we treat the EU as a (potentially) hostile actor. I agree wholeheartedly – I also like to believe that when the PM calls them “our friends” in the EU, he means it in the sense that was meant by Shakespeare when he had Anthony repeatedly state that: “Brutus is an honourable man”. As a classics scholar, Johnson will know that with enough repetition, words become meaningless.
March 17, 2021
I’m sick and tired of Johnson repeating the nauseous pretence ‘friends’ when all the country knows these friends have effectively declared war – all but coming across the channel.
March 17, 2021
Giorgio PalĂč, the president of Italyâs Medicines Agency is today reported as saying, by the NYT, that there is no actual evidence of a connection between the AZ vaccine and blood clots – in fact not even correlation – and that Italy had suspended using the AZ vaccine “because other European countries had decided to do so.” And since he said that just after the news of Germany suspending use of the vaccine, it’s fairly clear who he meant.
If we were still member of the EU and EMA, what would we be doing? Would we be suspending use of the AZ vaccine with zero clinical evidence because other EU countries had done so? That would be a political decision to allow some British people to die of Covid in pursuit of solidarity with the rest of the EU, right?