The coalition of the willing is not needed. If there is no peace to police there is no need. If there is an eventual ceasefire Putin will not accept UK troops in Ukraine.
Instead there is a bigger moral and political choice to be made. Ukraine wants many more weapons and ammunition. The US is wanting to supply less. Should European countries greatly increase their support for Ukraine and for a longer war? Should the UK do more?
Measured as a percentage of GDP the US and UK have led with gifts of military equipment. Germany has been the best of the major EU countries. France and Italy have been the laggards offering under a third of the US/UK levels.
Getting Ukraine to fight on alone means more deaths and destruction but could it bring victory? There is rightly no US/ UK wish to go to war with Russia.
There is a case to say as the EU has strong views on the Russian invasion and has land frontiers with Russia and Ukraine we should expect all these EU countries who have so far contributed little to pick up the challenge. France could lead it as her President makes plenty of warlike speeches.
The struggle is after all between Russia seeking to govern Ukraine after seizing it by violent invasion, and the EU governing Ukraine after helping a Ukraine government that supports EU membership .
The UK should step up defence spend but on home defence.Our needs are better defences against missile and drone attack, and an enhanced navy and airforce to protect our islands and trade routes.
March 20, 2025
Good morning.
President Putin has what he wants. Ukraine and her people have fought well and valiantly against a more powerful foe but now must admit it cannot retake stolen land and must now sue for peace. This war needs to come to an end.
What now concerns me is what conclusions the UK Government will draw from this. Already it is talking of rearmament but for what purpose ? Who is going to attack us and how ? Britain has long been a Sea Power and not a Land Power like France and Germany. We also need to look at what threats there are and what form(s) they will come in ? Again my concern is that this government, for political reasons, will choose to make the wrong conclusions and therefore decisions.
The threats to us come from within and we need to address these first.
March 20, 2025
Involvement in the EU has been a disaster. Taking part in their schemes will bring us nothing but trouble.
March 20, 2025
Stand down the BBC licence fee.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2025/03/20/how-bbc-gave-up-showing-england/
I used to enjoy weekends with The Open & Masters golf when I paid the TV licence. Now there is no sport on the BBC apart from that which is cheap to broadcast.
I have no interest in celebrity dancing, talent contests, quiz shows, soaps, cooking programmes etc. The BBCnews is unreliable and their drama often not to my taste. I am not missing anything but the licence fee stops me watching live commercial TV.
March 20, 2025
‘Live’ Commercial TV, NOT prerecorded
March 20, 2025
What did they achieve from their years of fighting valiantly – 11 years in total?
Portillo the other day said he was one of the first to dismiss “conspiracy theories”. But how does he know which are true and which are not. We now know that Covid lockdowns and covid “vaccines” did vast net harm, the Covid virus was leaked (or worse) from a lab in Wuhan after gain of function experiments with poor bio security.
We also know that net zero is a vastly exaggerated scam. As a rule of thumb if the government are pushing it like the “safe and effective” Covid Vaccines, the wet market, that low skilled immigration is good for the economy, the Reeves budget was one for growth, we do not have two tier justice, heat pumps, net zero, EV cars, road blocking, vast over taxation, vast benefit payments to the feckless… it is usually wrong!
Life expectancy has not recovered since Covid I read – this mainly due to the covid “vaccines”, the NHS shutdowns and the lockdowns rather than Covid itself if you look at the stats. Covid mainly killed very elderly people a few months early and very few young people – so made little different to overall life expectancy. The “vaccines” killed and injured many young people. So will they be lowering the state pension age?
March 20, 2025
LL
As someone recently said; “The difference between conspiracy theories and fact, is time.”
March 20, 2025
Though I do still think they did actually put men on the moon back when I was a child, though space projects beyond earth satellites is rather pointless scientifically and extremely expensive. Far better ways to spend the money. Also human ones given current tech. is even more pointless makes them far more expensive with all the safely, food etc issues and they usually expect to be brought back to earth too.
March 20, 2025
@Mark B +1
The threat to the UK is ‘from within!’ Personal, very personal ego/ideology is crippling the Country and its People – the suspicion that was always the plan,
March 20, 2025
My belief is this – Post 2016 Referendum they ‘higher-up’ concluded that ‘we’ the British people, needed to be replaced.
There can be no other explanation.
March 21, 2025
I think they decided that a lot earlier.
March 20, 2025
Putin doesn’t have what he wants. He didn’t want a bit of Ukraine, he wanted it all, and what he’s got is being contested daily. The only peace acceptable to Putin is the total surrender of Ukraine, then the Russian army can sweep in and take their soldiers’ perks of rape and pillage.
Understandably Ukraine feels it’s worth continuing the conflict.
March 20, 2025
Dave, I really do not know where to begin with people like you. Look at what he has taken ? He has taken land that links Russia to Crimea. Why ? Because the Ukrainians basically prevented any water being piped there. Russia was seriously in danger of quiting Crimea so the attack was launched. Not justifying it, just saying.
If he wanted the whole country he would have to have an even larger army to occupy it. The former Soviet Union could not control Afghanistan so what chances Ukraine ?
As I said, he (Putin) has got what he wants.
March 20, 2025
Putin has NOT got what he wants. He wanted demilitarisation, deNazification, he wanted Russia’s security concerns over the never ending expansion of NATO to its very borders respected and the agreed buffer zone states reinstated. I can only state this because I’m repeating what he has said ad nauseaum, because, unlike you, I don’t have a direct source to the Kremlin who is able to gauge what Putin thinks.
He did NOT want war or land.
March 20, 2025
Clearly Putin is planning to take what he’s got and come back for the rest in a few years. He doesn’t even try to hide it
Why does this page offer to save my details but not do so?
March 20, 2025
Why? In case Putin comes to get them – that’s the way you seem to think.
March 20, 2025
France issues ‘survival manual’ to prepare Citizens for invasion’
Too late, France has been invaded and suffers low scale warfare every day. They ferry as many of the invaders to the U.K. as they can manage on the money w pay them to do the opposite.
March 20, 2025
Seems so and Starmer augments the flow with free boat taxis to Dover, free nice hotels and food, bikes, smart phones, tennis and driving lessons and dental and medical care, English lessons and a bit of spending money.
My son a junior doctor in London working long unsociable hours has virtually no spending money left after rent, commuting, council tax, student loan interest, heat, light, water & food. They even expect him to buy his own £300 stethoscopes (now on his third) and to pay £500 for his extra exams and had he failed perhaps another £500!
March 20, 2025
@Lifelogic – money doesn’t get spent at the clinical delivery end but on the ever growing self important administrators that put DEI before delivery. The situation needs reversing those that do, the clinicians, should be the ones empowered to run the administration for theirs, therefore the customers benefit
March 20, 2025
The ongoing moral support for Ukraine is well meant and provides an outlet for the virtuous desires that hopefully reside in all of us. We want to help.
The more demanding issue is should we create the conditions for the war to continue or should we be focused on bringing about a treaty between Russia and Ukraine that will bring peace and stability in the future relations of those countries.
Our current economic decline and growing social demands thanks to uncontrolled migration here in the UK, makes our position challenging and prevents us from gifting ever larger arms which may prove to be morally and economically the wrong thing to do.
The wider issue of countering a Russian threat to the political arrangements in Europe is rolled out as justification to carry on supporting Ukraine but how real is that threat to Europe including the UK?
The conflict in Eastern Europe is by any definition a civil war. The need to find a route to peace there is three years late, we should concentrate on that and on our own defence, which has been shown to be flaky by those events in Ukraine.
March 20, 2025
We are no longer a world power. We are a small country that lives on credit, makes little and imports much. We are totally irrelevant.
All we need to do is focus on OUR defence. We don’t need a navy to protect our trade routes. We should produce things ourselves. We don’t need much of an airforce. We need nuclear armed subs with missiles that work and land-based, advanced, anti-missile systems.
March 20, 2025
Agreed, but we also have a voice that may help when experience is required in matters of international relationships.
We used to be good at it, maybe Mr Lammy isn’t the best exponent of that skill set? That is another issue for us to consider….
March 20, 2025
Assuming that we arrive at a peace and an agreed border , I maintain that we do not require an international border patrol.
What is needed is effective real time survellance using geo stationary satalites, drones and AWACs. Good intelligence is paramount.
We then need to equip the Ukrainians with the best weaponry to deal with whatever incursions Russia might try. It is useless to suggest that the EU/Europe should supply this if they do not have it. I am not privy to what might be available or from where, but my best guess is the USA, UK, France and Israel as sources of high tech defensive weaponry. Rotating fighter aircraft support can come from outside Ukraine, controlled by AWACs, much what the RAF does from Lossimouth. From the Russian perspective the consequences of knowing they are locked on should be sufficient deterent.
Where the EU/Europe can contribute in a significant way is with a Marshall Plan and the cost of it’s implementation in the rebuilding of Ukraine and its democratic institutions. This would enable hundreds of thousands of refugee Ukrainians to return to their homeland and contribute to it’s rebirth.
It all hangs on one democratically elected businessman being able to reach agreement with a despotic businessman to the advantage an heroic wartime leader of a country under seige.
March 20, 2025
‘We’ won’t arrive at anything, Agricola. As you say, it will all be between one democratically elected businessman and a despotic businessman. Though calling Trump ‘despotic’ is perhaps a bit unkind.
March 20, 2025
I didn’t.
March 20, 2025
I’m glad you want to stand down the (in my view) ridiculous, posturing, dangerous, financially ruinous “coalition of the willing”.
Ukraine has been a proxy war between US neocons and Russia. For the neocons it’s a thrilling game. For the Russians it’s existential. Unsurprisingly, Russia has won.
Now we have the EU seeing this as an opportunity to expand its hegemony, concentrate power amongst its elite, excuse interference in national elections, curtail citizens’ freedoms and spend billions to both continue an unwinnable conflict and continue transfering wealth from the masses to the elite.
In their hearts, I think few sensible EU or British politicians think Russia would even want to invade western Europe. This is not about defence. Britain should stay out, otherwise it will be swallowed up by the tyrannical EU, not by the Russian bogeyman.
March 20, 2025
Yes.It’s the other way round.Putin:”There are still people who want to go back to the times of Napoleon,forgetting how it ended.”
March 20, 2025
Didn’t you know Starmer’s now an international statesman striding across the world’s stage hoping to hijack the Ukraine peace issue for political ends, to detract from his domestic woes?
And someone tell Badenoch she’s about as convincing and formidable as Larry Grayson playing prop for Bradford RLFC
March 20, 2025
@DOM +1, The rot is throughout parliament, we need to start over with a new fresh bunch that understand they are empowered and paid to serve their electorate and the Country. Putting ego and personal esteem on a pedestal for self-gratification is none of these.
It should be simple people elected to serve and work with the people and the country, we haven’t seen any of that this century.
March 20, 2025
@DOM – it is noted by the majority the ‘Lady’ as part of the previous collective responsibility team is now reduced to petty snipping from a script about the situations created that she and her team could have changed, had the power to change, but chose to embed these impediments further into the Country
March 20, 2025
I see Captain Starmer is now out of combat fatigues and wearing a Royal Navy coat while inspecting our nuclear deterrent back after staying away while the others are being repaired. His popularity is recovering a bit with those patriotic citizens that think Putin is going to invade and make Russia stretch from Cornwall to Vladivostoc.
March 20, 2025
@Stred – taking his lead from the Royal Family, then missing the point, they actual served to one degree or another.
The ego is getting so big it could inflate a Zeppelin. Ego should be reserved for achievers, not the ducker divers and skivers.
March 20, 2025
Ah! Farage again. A friend recently said ‘Farage “ inspires, conspires and retires” . I thought that was rather neat.
Then another veteran campaigner wrote “ No. He inspires and conspires, then we retire”.
The process has become rather repetitive!
March 20, 2025
First up, Ukraine is a sovereign democratic state – as is the UK – and it is not the war criminal Putin’s decision whether British or any other troops are deployed there. Putin’s recent rhetoric included threats of nuclear war against ourselves; once the Americans deployed B52 bombers to RAF Fairford last year, they stopped
After a brief pause, Trump has re-started military and intelligence support to Ukraine. As a measure of how important this is, during the intel break Ukraine was unable to repel the Russians on the Kursk salient. Leading the assaults were thousands of troops from North Korea.
Numerous sources are now reporting that Putin has massed hundreds of thousands of fresh troops opposite Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kursk. The war criminal Putin is clearly preparing a spring offensive; this is why he rejected Trump’s ceasefire proposals
Russia is playing a game of brinkmanship. My view is that Trump should recognise this and make Putin an ultimatum – an immediate ceasefire followed by Russian withdrawal to the internationally recognised borders, or else. Flying in 10,000 American troops to their new base in Poland would get Putin’s attention.
March 20, 2025
@ Sakara Gold – And when Putin responds to your ” or else” with “what are you going to do now?” what are you expecting to happen then?
Be alert to the liklihood that any stationing of British troops in Ukraine will see them less as peacekeepers (how exactly?) and more as hostages. Should Putin announce they have placed themselves in harm’s way and he eschews responsibility for their fate if not withdrawn by a certain time, what then? Why risk war with Russia at all, especially over the fate of Ukraine?
March 20, 2025
@formula57 – ‘as hostages’ in more than one way, TwoTierKier and his legal brethren will haul all those sent to the Ukraine before the Courts on their return, for following orders he is responsible for. How else is TwoTierKier’s mates going to earn money?
March 21, 2025
@formula57
“Why risk war with Russia at all, especially over the fate of Ukraine?”
Better we fight the Russians 2000 miles to the east, than on the Kent and Sussex beaches here
March 20, 2025
You really are quite mad.
March 20, 2025
Trump and his electorate do not want to go to war face to face with a nuclear power. Do you?
March 20, 2025
Do you have your private nuclear bunker Sakara?
March 20, 2025
He probably has a hideout in Israel fully stocked with his Egyptian lager and other essentials.
March 20, 2025
You’re wrong on everything as usual, SG. Just to pick up one point, the reason why the Russians went in and smashed the Kursk salient now. It was because with a possible ceasefire looming, it would no longer be the perfect kill box that Zelensky had provided the Russian artillery with, since last August. Surely your well-trained comrades at 77th Brigade understand that, even if you don’t.
March 20, 2025
Duck!!!Incoming Oreshniks!!!
ForeignPolicy.com:”The latest Russian Missile is Bad News for NATO-Oreshnik is a different beast from its predecessors.”17/3/25.
Actually,I don’t think ducking will help you at all.
March 20, 2025
Obviously NATO can deploy in The Ukraine, it is free to do so.
Putin has said that they will be treated as combatants and ground into the earth like the Ukrainians.
Which part of ‘LOST’ don’t you understand?
March 21, 2025
Ultimatums aren’t a good idea ….. unless you enjoy World Wars, that is.
March 20, 2025
Two-Tier’s proposed “Coalition of the Willing” will shortly become the “Coalition of the Not Very Willing” when those currently signalling that they might be inclined to participate find out what it will really involve.
Most of the currently inclined, including the UK, have little more than Toy Town armies and very little munitions. They also have populations who aren’t going to like the sight of body bags being flown back home if (when) the bullets start flying.
Putin isn’t going to agree to a Peace-keeping force patrolling on Russia’s borders and Trump isn’t going to provide American security guarantees to underpin it, because all it would take is for the warmongers in the EU and UK (or possibly Ukrainian nationals) to re-trigger the conflict and America would be dragged directly into it ….. and welcome to World War 3.
Two-Tier’s Premiership in the UK has already failed and I expect he knows it. I think he wants Ukraine to be his legacy, bought with OUR blood and money.
March 20, 2025
@Donna – and he is spending ‘our’ money wanting to risk ‘our’ ill-equipped brave service personnel’s lives all for the sake of personal self-esteem. Who pays, I guess like his very own gold plated pension that is protected by Law it wont be him. ‘Two Tier’ UK
March 20, 2025
There is nothing moral about Ukraine fighting on, with or without the ‘willing’.
The warmongering by our leaders in this group are moving onto another destructive step in the plan for a NWO, having all but destroyed economies and increased debt to unsustainable levels, they now must create theatre to distract from the harsh realities.
If fighting ever does occur, then It seems they will get their wish to continue and increase the slaughter in the killing fields. It will take several years for any new factories to be ready, so in the meantime they keep up the rhetoric against Russia to up the stakes.
Then when armaments are rolling off production lines and too many children are growing up without both parents, no doubt they will continue to throw more debt into the pot to keep their cause going.
The idea of extending the length of this war is unscrupulous and even wicked. If we had leaders of quality they would be fighting to stop this war, but we don’t, and we all know why, what their aims are!
War is insane but what we now face is far far worse.
March 20, 2025
It was never about peace in the Ukraine, it was always deflection and sucking up to our master in the EU.
Our absent PM TTK and his absent Government dropped the ball and lost it in the hedge, and has been thrashing around looking for personal relevance while the Country and its People are left to rot and slide down the drain.
We never empowered and paid the UK Parliament, the absent Government for this, they have forgotten who they serve. We know TwoTierKier personal preference is to serve the EU and his Legal Cabal of what now seems corrupt colleagues that have also got ahead of their-selves – but that is not what the UK Taxpayer is paying for.
March 20, 2025
The good news today concerns the onward march to CBDC and total control of our finances by banks.
Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank:
It’s uncertain how this will affect the UK, but no doubt Starmer will insist that we continue our close association with the EU and follow their lead.
HMG and other governments are going to be short of a few bob/euros what with so much debt piling up. CBDC will make it easy for them to dip into our savings accounts to finance wars and such like. Don’t imagine that couldn’t happen!
March 20, 2025
After years of relagating our Armed Forces to the bottom of the heap, suddenly we are going to save the World from an evil Dictator (again) are we? Unfortunately not. In your dreams Mr Starmer.
We do need to re-arm, learning the lessons of recent years and months. They include the fact the MoD is a bloated, useless organisation unable to manage its budget or its procurement processes – and that the nature of warfare has both evolved and remained the same. Cheap (consumer) technology can be devastating against expensive military hardware and ultimately, to hold ground you still need manpower. We should be able to do ‘cheap’ but we cannot do ‘manpower’ currently (or anytime soon). We still have a large moat however, so let’s make sure we can handle drone & balistic attacks before we build anymore aircraft carriers. Europe will have to make their own hard decisions. Some (like the Polish) have decided charity begins at home. It’s about time we did the same.
I’d very much like to help the Ukrainians but first we have to be able to defend ourselves.
March 20, 2025
Correct Sir John. Starmer’s wasting time and money on futile discussions. Putin will never allow this to happen. The war began because Russia is opposed to Ukraine in NATO. Yet another US proxy war has ended in chaos and failure. Shame on UK and EU leaders by supporting America’s insane ideology. The cynical sacrifice of Ukrainian lives is a shameful stain on UK and EU. Just look at previous US overseas proxy wars? All ended in failure. Why don’t our leaders ever learn?
March 20, 2025
Michael Saxton
Yes absolutely right. Britain should stay well away from this total mess. It can gain nothing by being involved.
March 20, 2025
As time goes on Ukraine gets better at killing Russian soldiers. They are now manufacturing advanced weapons themselves, using drones and robots to spare the lives of their own.
Help from the west is good from their perspective as well. Sanctions on Russia are biting into their economy, with businesses failing, unable to compete with tariff free Chinese imports.
The best chance for peace is for Ukraine’s fighting efficiency to overcome the Russian invasion. Putin won’t allow anything less.
March 20, 2025
So what you are say then, Dave is that the war will be over by Christmas ?
And if you know where that came from then you will know what I mean
March 20, 2025
Maybe, maybe not. It will depend on events. I don’t see any reason why it can’t grind on for years to come. You just have to hope the Russian people will get fed up with it, as they have nothing to lose by giving up the fight and nothing to gain by continuing. It’s not like Ukraine are going to invade Russia in retaliation.
March 20, 2025
Absolutely agree with this post. We should have no part in this foreign war.
What is our prime minister playing at by offering to put our People in harm’s way?
March 21, 2025
I think he sees it as a way to:
(a) posture at being patriotic (b) play at being Churchill/Thatcher (c) try and revive a sense of national unity which they’ve finally realised has been destroyed by mass immigration/multiculturalism (d) distract from the economic shambles he and Rachel from Accounts have cause (e) hug us closer to the EU
He has a get out clause “America must provide security guarantees.”
March 20, 2025
It is a meat grinder and Russia has more meat to grind than Ukraine.
“Peace mongering Trump !”
Why does the Left love war so much ? Zelensky has always accepted UK volunteers if they want to go.
As for Britain – the threats within are far greater than from Russia.
March 20, 2025
As someone else said; “No Russian has ever called me a racist or Far-Right.”
March 20, 2025
When the Iron Curtain fell, the Russians were worried about eastward expansion of NATO and The EU. The west and Russia signed the Minsk Agreement to give Russia the reassurance they wanted to protect their borders.
The EU and NATO have both been encouraging Ukraine to move more towards the west, rather than supporting Moscow. This made Putin and his military very worried.
The USA, got very upset when Russia started to put missiles on Cuba in 1962 and we were on the brink of war back then. Russia backed down and WW3 was averted.
I can’t for the life of me see why Starmer would commit us to Ukraine for the next one hundred years.
I think we should not get involved with the Coalition of The Willing because we could be sucked in to a war on our doorstep. We are not ready to fight for Ukraine nor to defend ourselves, especially if Russia’s allies such as China, North Korea and Iran got involved too.
I read about possible conscription here in Britain and would not relish two of my grandsons being called up to fight for a foreign country. How many of our 18 to 44 year olds would willingly sign up? What would we do with the Russians, Chinese and Iranians living here? During the last war, we put them in camps but now, we’d need a camp the size of Reading to accommodate them all. Starmer and the other posers really haven’t thought this through.
We do need to increase our defence spending, but we don’t need to get involved in other country’s wars unless we have a treaty obligation to do so.
March 20, 2025
The coalition of the willing will move ahead with its agenda and today thirty military chiefs from Europe and around the world will meet to plan defence because that’s how serious it has become – it is not so much about a ceasefire or peace in Ukraine anymore – it’s more about the security of Europe and the free world into the future with or without the US or others as necessary. The coalition of the willing is just that and if any country wants to opt out for instance Hungary then that’s not going to affect the makeup of the rest – am afraid there’s no other way of confronting Russian aggression. This time one hundred and eighty years ago it was Russian aggression in the same way and in the same geo region that brought about the Crimean War the outbreak ov which happened suddenly and which UK was ill prepared for – military planners know this and are not going to be caught out again. Appeasement does not work – Putin is getting older and will not be around for more than another ten years or so and soon there will be others coming to the fore – we had better be prepared.
March 21, 2025
Remind me when in its history Russia invaded Germany, France and the UK ….. as the initial aggressor?
Oh, that’s right …. never.
March 20, 2025
Ukraine should not give up weapons to suit Trump and Putin. They are vulnerable enough. I agree we should up our own defences which are dire with all the unknown entering via boat and other methods. The government should be told to sort out this country first before grandstanding to try to make a name for those looking to get international jobs when they are flung out.
March 20, 2025
Ukraine is beaten. It can’t even negotiate. It can only unilaterally surrender.
That’s why Trump and Putin have agreed to negotiate the settlement between them.
The EU – wedded as it is to the politics of the 1930s and represented by unelected, untalented, seriously limited women, is NOT going to be consulted either.
March 20, 2025
Today from the ONS
A total of 6.14m people worked for the state in December, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), out of a total of 30.4 million payroll employees
That’s 20%(1 in 5) of the workforce and is equal to Labour’s election support – I wonder why?
March 20, 2025
Another coincidence – obviously.
March 20, 2025
Watched the documentary on Thames Water which mirrors the UK – poor management over borrowed and underperforming.
March 20, 2025
@majorfrustration – I would suggest there something morally wrong with company purchases and takeovers when the price paid is reliant on the assets of the company they wish to own being sold and then rented back at high interest. The purchasing company pays nothing, invests nothing – just takes. Its not about the Company or its customers it is about shareholders and dividend, money for nothing. There is no intension to grow or improve the company and its outlook. As with Thames Water all purchasers know it will be the taxpayer that bails them out and not them.
There are a couple of high profile UK Supermarket chains in the same boat.
March 20, 2025
This could be an opportunity for a deal with the EU.
March 20, 2025
It is reported that France is blocking the EU from spending any of their new defence fund on UK-produced arms (or those from USA, Turkey etc.), despite the UK having Europe’s biggest defence industry (France is second) but that this could change if the UK signs a defence pact with the EU and provides more fishing access. So the EU’s main interest is in protectionism rather than speedily improved defence. Based on this position UK should withdraw from all defence initiatives with the EU, let them get on with supporting Ukraine and defending themselves alone, and also not renew any fishing agreements with the EU.
March 21, 2025
Agreed.
The EU seems determined to demonstrate that it isn’t “our friend” ….. whilst the USA under Trump, does.
March 20, 2025
Macron seems to be the big pretender, preening around as though he’s the big military leader in the EU, yet here we find out he’s given lower, why? Meloni has made no secret that her Italy isn’t up for putting boots on the ground or spending money on the Ukraine, so that’s no surprise.
March 20, 2025
Macron is the man that lost Africa,without which France can’t even pretend to be a major power any more.
Reverse shades of Zelensky in the Oval Office:
Le Monde,8/1/25:”Macron’s remarks on the ‘ingratitude’ of African leaders sparks backlash.”
So.A new Grande Armee,a new Second Polish War(as Napoleon called the 1812 invasion of Russia):”Soldiers! The second Polish War has begun……This one will bring just as much glory to French arms but this time the peace we make will last and finally put an end to the arrogant influence which for the past 50 years Russia has exercised on the affairs of Europe.”
March 20, 2025
Peace is peaceful and doesn’t need defence. Only conflict does.
March 20, 2025
Well said!
As for “… Putin will not accept UK troops in Ukraine”, thank goodness – even at the terrible price of clapping a stopper over someone’s grandstanding.
March 20, 2025
Sir John, Completely agree the UK needs to spend more money on defence. Not just weapons, Planes and ships etc. But more importantly soldiers both men and woman. Woman may be better at cyber warfare than men.
Was the case in the WWII operating Radar, which without it, the few would not have stood a chance in the Battle of Britten. Also we may have to pop down to the Falklands again, even Gibraltar and a few other places under the UK’s wing. If Russia is the excuse to get the money from the Tax payer fine. But let’s face it, it is only an excuse really.
The European political children have not been invite to the main party so have decided to make up one of their own. Who needs peace keepers if the warring parties agree to stop fighting. In any case peacekeeping involving soldiers is a UN role and done under it’s flag and uniform. How can peace keeping troops be part of one side in the conflict between the two parties ? Do our politicians think Putin is stupid ? Maybe that’s the problem ?
March 20, 2025
There was no wish to go to war with Germany in 1939
But we did
March 20, 2025
This is my worry.
March 20, 2025
“manufacturing consent”
March 20, 2025
What the EU does is their own business. But I can’t imagine they will be receiving any thanks from the Americans by inserting themselves into the peace negotiations.
Starmer should stay out of it.
He would be better placed, and more widely regarded, by helping to keep trade routes open, like in the Red Sea.
March 20, 2025
Dear Mr. Redwood,
What a bloody mess and as usual our pygmy-like politicians are at the heart of it. An expansionist Europe that spouts about ever-closer union but sees France and Italy leading from the back. A host of other countries, some with Russian borders, unwilling to contribute at all but expecting others to do their dirty work for them. A United Kingdom determined to prove it is still relevant on the world stage but without the capability to do it.
I agree totally with your final paragraph. The United Kingdom should no longer pretend that it can help police the worlds trouble spots. The decision by EU countries (led by France, of course) to exclude UK arms companies from its rearmament fund unless the UK signs a defence pact should be the signal to begin to look after our own defence. Does anyone think the EU would come rushing to our aid if the UK was threatened? Unfortunately, this will not stop Starmer from rushing to put pen to paper as part of his post-Brexit “reset” in EU relations.
With partners like these who needs enemies?
March 20, 2025
They want France and the EU to put up various barriers, much like they did with the RoI over the N.I Border. It is to give the likes of TTK (and previous PM’s) a fig leaf of an excuse to sign, little by little, back into the EU without actually giving the game away.
March 20, 2025
The PM had no authority to involve the UK and its minimal armed forces in any peacekeeping mission. When will Starmer realise he cannot back up his tough words? It is absolute nonsense that the UK, or any coalition of the “willing,” should be policing a ceasefire. For how long? A year, ten years, twenty years, or more?
Off-topic, I note David Gauke, as wet as lettuce, is saying we have to reduce the length of prison sentences, even for serious criminals! This is because we have run out of prison places! It shows how out of touch the elite is because the ordinary person would simply say, build more prisons then!
Is there a glimmer of hope for the Conservatives now that Kemi Badnoch has said we can’t achieve Net Zerto by 2050 without bankrupting the UK and seriously damaging the economy? Net Zero is yet another elite fantasy which is costing us a fortune because of their stupidity and arrogance!
REply David Gauke lost the Conservative whip because of his views.
March 20, 2025
The PM has the authority. In fact, he has the authority of a King.
As for Badnoch – I seem to remember that her party kept saying before EVERY election that they will bring immigration down. We now learn from TTK that they had no intention of keeping said promise. Badenoch can say and promise all she wants, she is in the position of not having top deliver.
Fool me once, and all that
March 20, 2025
Totally agree. This is a nonsensical ruse to get the defence budget increased. This may indeed be needed but only for self defence in today’s world
March 20, 2025
Just as the EU likes to claim that Europe *is* the EU, There is also a deliberate EU confusion between territorial fears and trade ambitions. All the Continental countries that have fulminated about Ukraine so far are EU countries who want to lasso Ukraine into the EU for economically selfish mercantile reasons: just as they lassoed Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, and the Baltic states.
Once they have used our (now residual) military capacity to achieve this aim, Starmer’s usefulness will be exhausted and he will be ignominiously dumped.
I’m reminded of the old joke about the Lone Ranger and his faithful brave Tonto being ‘chased by Indians’. As the Cheyenne close in, the Lone Ranger shouts, ‘Tonto, we’re surrounded’.
To which Tonto replies: ‘Whaddya mean by “we”, white man?’
Brussels can be trusted as little as Moscow – perhaps even less.
March 20, 2025
‘They lassoed … ‘
Slovenia’s referendum on accessing the EU 23/03/2003 88.61% yes
Croatia’s … 22/01/2012 66.67% yes
Poland’s … 2/3 parliamentary majority to start, then referendum 8/06/2003 77.45% yes
Hungary’s … 12/04/2003 84% yes
Estonia’s … 14/09/2003 66.83% yes
Lithuania’s … 11/05/2003 91.07% yes
Latvia’s … 20/09/2003 67.49% yes.
You might want to remember that the UK was a promoter of the enlargement of the EU to the East …
Then may I find incredible when this info is easily available on the web to write such an incredibly uninformed ‘they lassoed’. It says more about you than about the people in those different countries.
Fortunately thanks to Brexit (yes 51.89%) the UK is out … there …
March 21, 2025
People in those countries wanted money from Brussels, Hefner. British people wanted to stop sending money to Brussels. Got it now?
March 20, 2025
Why would we send our taxpayer money to Ukraine when we have a budget deficit? Why would we run down our military supplies further, from already dangerously low levels, so Ukraine can use them (and reportedly sell half of them on the black market)? I knew we’d have idiots in charge after last July, but I didn’t know they’d be this bad.
March 20, 2025
Wow! “Brussels can be trusted as little as Moscow – perhaps even less” Wow! I must write this one down for my collection
March 21, 2025
Today Friday morning Heathrow grounded for 24 hours due to an energy fire sounds like Ikea coincidence.
March 21, 2025
Sounds like Ukraine.
March 21, 2025
I disagree. If the Ukrainians want to continuing fighting for their freedom and their homeland that then why wouldn’t this country support that? We’ve said that we’re not going to send our young people to fight with them (which is a reasonable position to take) but if you believe in freedom and self-determination then you should support continuing to supply the ammunition and weapons that Ukraine’s army needs. The Ukrainian army has proved itself to be shrewd, innovative, brave and determined in the face of a vicious, immoral, implacable and corrupt enemy. To the extent that they want to, they should keep fighting with the resources they need.