I backed a previous Labour government in keeping us out of the Viet Nam war.I could not see how that could have a happy ending.
I failed to persuade the Conservative opposition to oppose UK involvement in the Iraq war. That too did not end well.
I have supported the last four Prime Ministers in their view that we should not go to war with Russia. This has meant not allowing any UK military personnel to help Ukraine in their country.
The UK did lose lives and commit plenty of money and equipment to the fight in Afghanistan, only to see the US pull out without even consulting us. Defeat followed quickly, meaning all our sacrifices had been wasted.
Today the PM tells the world Ukraine must fight on to show Putin the use of force is not rewarded. How does that help when in more than 3 years of war Ukraine has not been able to evict Russian forces and he is not suggesting how this can change. Indeed, the UK cannot afford to offer more military hardware and money and the US wants out from being the major donor.
I am pleased to read that the PM now sees the UK and France cannot muster a sufficient force to guarantee any ceasefire or peace in Ukraine without US help. The UK is not currently equipped to fight and win a war with Russia without NATO and US leadership. The UK is not on a war footing and would need to turn massively to arms production and military recruitment to be so to assist Ukraine. If Europe cannot keep the US onside to help supply and support Ukraine it needs to avoid making promises it cannot keep, leaving Ukraine with insufficient support.
April 26, 2025
Good morning.
UK Forces are involved in other areas such as the defence of Polish airspace. Quite why we are doing this when the Poles can do it themselves is beyond me. Bu then, so too is much of everything else this or that government does.
We are not the worlds or Europe’s policeman, and whenever we get mixed up with the French (eg WWI, WWII, Suez and Libya) it all goes wrong.
All PM’s are trying to follow Mrs.T and her ‘Falklands bounce’. But all fail to understand that that was when we had a military with real independent capability, national pride and a cause worth fighting for. She also never sought a war unlike her successors to boost flagging popularity.
April 26, 2025
We have again in eastern Europe another ‘Dictator’s War’. There is no reasoning with mad dictators, they are driven by a psychopathic ego. So, where do we, a so called freedom loving democracy, who believe wars are senseless and belong in the history books, draw the line and say NO. We fight for an idea, a philosophy, a way of life. Not mere tracts of land or goods. We have half-heartedly supported Ukraine, as have the other western democracies, is that all we will do for Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland? They are European nations too? It seems international treaties and agreements are only good when all parties adhere to them. We need to decide.
April 26, 2025
Yes, it’s time for Zelensky to go.
April 27, 2025
He has put the opposition in prison or driven them abroad and frozen their bank accounts so who can replace him?
April 26, 2025
@Mark B +1 (and our kind host for his stance on this and other conflicts).
The Falklands point is very well made. Unlike 1982 we have a PM who I believe despises his country and people (“Davos, not Westminster “). He hopes that by rattling sabres and dressing in camo he can become popular. Never mind the war casualties or the misallocation of resources. Its obscene that he wants the proxy war to continue when the main players (US, Russia) want out and the parallel civil war has been resolved (ethnic Russian parts of Ukraine reabsorbed into Russia).
Also our rulers want to create an imaginary danger from an external bogeyman (Putin), so we overlook the real damage they themselves are doing to our country every day. They are far more likely to destroy all that’s good here, than President Putin.
April 26, 2025
‘They are far more likely to destroy all that’s good here, ‘
That may well be true living here in UK. However, would you expect to feel the same if living in Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Finland…..even Norway takes maritime threats very seriously – and it ain’t coming from USA!
April 26, 2025
+1
April 27, 2025
The eurocrats of which he is a fanatical member want to keep the war going to justify their autocratic agenda:
Reabsorbing Britain
Establishing a central bank digital currency
Censorship
Further centralisation of power in Brussels
Euro army to replace NATO
Suspension of last remnants of democracy
Euro police force
April 26, 2025
@Mark B +1
To much grandstanding in hope others that have success at home might notice they are there, as they have failed their own people. That is the only fight they seem to be making any head way on’ fighting those that empower and pay them’
April 26, 2025
I agree that we fight too many wars.
While we did not take on Russia ourselves, Boris Johnson encouraged Ukraine not to agree a deal with Russia and subsequently we spent billions supporting Ukraine.
Trump talked a lot about peace but he may yet start a war with Iran. He is spending a fortune on the carnage in Gaza. Trouble could erupt with China at some point too.
Reply The US does not pay for the war in Gaza
April 26, 2025
‘ Since Israel’s founding in 1948, it has received $158 billion in military aid from the United States, making it the greatest recipient in history‘
Source wikipedia
April 26, 2025
Wiki needs to be updated. Ukraine surpassed that figure some time ago.
April 26, 2025
On 25/02/2025 fullfact.org (taking its figures from an analysis from the Kiel Institute) was saying that the US had given €114.2 bn ($119.5 bn) to Ukraine plus €4.84 bn ($5.1 bn) commited at that date.
O/T How are the $2 tn supposed to be saved by DOGE going …? By the end of January, Elon Musk himself had decreased the figure to $1 bn.
cbsnews.com 25/04/2025 ‘DOGE says it has saved $160 billion. Those cuts have cost taxpayers $135 billion, one analysis’.
April 26, 2025
I have to disagree – the US supplies all of the ordnance used to bomb and straffe Gaza – without the US governmebt and military input the IDF would not have been able to continue to slaughter- Israel has always only ever existed with the support of the Americans egged on by the zionist factions in America Britain and worldwide – they have the whole of the western political systems the professional classes and academia by the scruff of the neck
Reply Israel buys the arms from the US and other countries.
April 26, 2025
Reply to reply. Perhaps the US doesn’t pay directly for the Gaza war, but Israel regularly tops the league for US military aid. Recent example is Marco Marco Rubio putting through a $4bn military aid package on 1st March. Some of that must filter through to being used in the Gaza conflict.
April 26, 2025
I have read that the armed forces have a recruitment problem as more personnel have resigned than have signed up.
https://thedefensepost.com/2024/12/26/soldiers-leave-british-military/
Presumably this would mean that, in the event of war, conscription would be needed.
Conspiracy theorists have apparently suggested that many do not wish to fight a war abroad when their families may need them at home ?
April 26, 2025
I think, given all the anti-white male blatant discrimination in the state sector, many people would never apply or would resign from the services for this reason. If they do conscript (but do we not have an anti-modern slavery law?) will they discriminate against white men in this process and in what direction?
April 26, 2025
As well as the likely that our troops would face a phalanx of Starmer’s human rights lawyers after they had faced the enemy , pursuing them through the courts for the rest of their days . Why anybody would fight for King and country when they don’t have their backs is beyond my understanding, and perhaps part of the reason they are struggling to get anybody to join up.
April 26, 2025
Doesn’t sound like a ‘conspiracy theory’ to me. Sounds like common sense. My sons will not be conscripted to fight in overseas theatres. I am sure they would fight to defend their country – if our politicians were stupid enough to make us so weak we could be invaded – but, otherwise, they will not involve themselves in our politicians’ vanity excursions. If any politician feels strongly about Ukraine, let them put on their marching boots and head over to volunteer. Perhaps a certain former Prime Minister could get into his fatigues and head over there. I’m sure they would carry some weight. Still, nothing that 6 weeks of intensive training wouldn’t shift.
April 26, 2025
UK veterans are now expected to be prosecuted for acts they may or may not have done decades ago. No soldier today can be confident that what they are ordered to do won’t at a later date become a criminal case, as lawyers mull over whether they can exploit an MOD compensation claim.
Then the UK servicemen are placed in squalid accommodation that wouldn’t be considered fit for bogus asylum seekers.
If that wasn’t sufficient deterrence to people signing up, popular culture tells us being English is something to be ashamed of.
Finally if you are proud to be English, you scratch your head wondering why you should lay your life on the line for a country that doesn’t hold to your beliefs.
Some oil tanker to turn around.
April 26, 2025
DA
Agree with Much of what you say.
Soldiers now being held to account for actions taken under orders of 40 years ago, when times and circumstances were very, very different.
Same now happening after Afghanistan, the “wait until shot at brigade” of armchair lawyers and Judges, simply do not have a clue.
April 26, 2025
@oldwulf – would you serve the country help defend it if that latter leads to persecution in the courts for doing the job you were trained to do. All the while those that trained you, ordered you, escape for what is their personal bad decisions that put you in bad situations
April 26, 2025
The managed decline in numbers has been government policy of both the last & current governments ….make no mistake, its all part of the plan
April 26, 2025
The Starmer government is struggling at home so he has tried to make an impact elsewhere, the usual tactic of failing administrations.
However none of those efforts are realistic, as is apparent to everyone but the MSM commentators.
April 26, 2025
@mickc +1
April 26, 2025
If anything epitomises Trump’s military weakness and lack of commitment to it’s friends, it is American appeasement of Russian territorial demands over Ukraine. As I have repeatedly posted here, Trump has extracted no concessions whatsoever from Putin, the war criminal. He has repeatedly and falsely blamed Ukraine and particularly Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the war. And now, he is again cutting of American military support, recently refusing to sell defensive Patriot missiles to Ukraine.
So how is this bullying of Europe and particularly Ukraine “Making America Great Again”? Trump is just showing the world how unreliable an ally he, and America, have become
Whole books could be written on who is to blame for Britain’s current military weakness. We are now despatching HMS Prince of Wales to the Indo-Pacific region in a “show the flag” exercise. Only two – yes only two – British escorts will accompany her. HMS PoW will rely on Canadian, Norwegian and Spanish warships for defence of the CSG 25 deployment. And not even a Fleet Solid Stores ship for replenishment. CSG 25 is also demonstrating to the world how weak Britain has become.
April 26, 2025
Trump is dealing with the political realities as best he can. What would be your solution?
I agree that the HMS Prince of Wales (expensive sick joke Aircraft Carrier) is indeed a political show the flag exercise and a very expensive one too. I do hope it does not break down or get sunk – it is rather an expensive sitting duck!
April 26, 2025
His solution is the same. Demand that more Ukrainians lay down their lives in support of his views.
A real ‘Keyboard Warrior’ is our SK 😉
April 26, 2025
As usual SG you get things wrong
American is not weak, it has enormous military capabilities. The whole point of the Carrier task force is to test NATO interoperability, particularly without American assistance.
Trump sees the Indo Pacific region as the most likely theatre of war and he is right to call out the lack of military preparedness of other NATO countries.
Ireland expects the UK to protect its airspace and Spain spends less than 1% of GDP on defense
At least Britain is making an effort even if the shower in government do their best to neutrer it
April 26, 2025
Spain knows Russians have plenty of other preferred locations available for sunning themselves without risk that might be found in Spain, or indeed other places. So why even spend 1% on defence – of what exactly?
April 26, 2025
If Spain put significant investment into their armed forces, they would probably use them to take over Gibraltar.
April 26, 2025
They don’t need to fight for Gib, Starmer will give it to them and pay them billions ….like the Chagos Islands
April 26, 2025
We have repeatedly shown how weak we are in the defence of our ‘homeland’. It is about time we turned to facing down threats to fishing and use of the Channel. Are we happy to use a pathetic Border Force and volunteers for RNLI to patrol the ‘moat’ that stops a threat from the near continent?
April 26, 2025
+1
April 26, 2025
There were 3 anti Russian blimps on GB News yesterday saying that Putin should not be rewarded and Crimea retaken. Tobias Elwood, Peter Tatchell and another unknown commentator. They did not seem to recognise that the war is lost and Ukrainian is devastated already and unless a deal is accepted it could get much worse. They never had a chance and the US did not understand that the civil war against Russian population in Ukrainian oblasts and membership of Nato was going to lead to all out war. And, by the way, British troops were in Ukraine training with Azovs and others when they were shelling Russian parts in the civil war prior to the full invasion. There are still advisors there and the Russian missiles are targeting the control centres. The interviews with the likes of colonel McGregor or the behind the lines American journalist gives a different picture to the one from the controlled media.
April 26, 2025
Ukraine has shown the weakness of Russian threat – easy targets from missiles now countered.
It has also shown the same missile vengence can be exacted on Russia. Land based attacks have taken a massive damage to the so-called dominant forces. A lesson being learned by Putin who hopes his manipulation of Trump will bring this enormous blood letting by both sides to an end that he can signal as his victory.
It just might deter the land grabber from starting hostilities elsewhere.
April 26, 2025
Ukraine is not lost. Their defenders are successfully holding the line and using their resources wisely. Russia on the other hand doesn’t have a clue and their soldiers are only there because they’ve been told to fight.
April 26, 2025
@ Sakara Gold “So how is this bullying of Europe and particularly Ukraine “Making America Great Again”? “ – one would have to ask Trump but probably through showing that the days of squandering over $ 1 trillion (Iraq alone) on foreign wars that do not serve American core interests rather sap its strength and otherwise harm its people are ending.
April 26, 2025
The removal of the US military umbrella for Europe has been a long time coming. We, Europe, have been, at best desultory in providing for our own defence. The fact is, the USA can no longer afford to fight our wars AND confront expansionist China in the western Pacific, look at their budget deficit.
OUR problem is that European nations have, with a couple of occasional exceptions, financially incompetent, socialist leaning, governments; that did not wish to, and now cannot, maintain an adequate defence capability.
We MAY be, just waking up to the problem of having insane dictators with powerful weapons on our continent. We MUST redress the military balance without the support of the USA, or we’ll be lucky to survive the next decade.
April 26, 2025
I disagree. I think we’re waking up to the real problem, of being invaded by thousands of men of military age. And they aren’t Russian. They don’t need nuclear weapons to achieve what they want. They can rely on dim politicians and lazy compliant media.
April 26, 2025
Clough very true, and we may now have an enemy within that is of a substantial size which is growing every day we do not take action to stop the inflow..
April 26, 2025
Correct
April 26, 2025
You suggest that the UK having insufficient ships to project force in the Indo Pacific region is a bad thing ? Why ?
April 26, 2025
Sorry, SG, Trump has recognised reality and you haven’t. Project Ukraine is done. We’ve spent nearly £15billion of sunk costs in a failed policy. Time to move on.
April 26, 2025
It’s not a failed policy. In simply holding the line Ukraine is achieving success. If the line fails, the Russian army will sweep through with rape and pillage. After all, what else do they have to look forward to?
April 26, 2025
But Ukraine is not ‘holding the line’, unless you mean they’re holding a line that’s steadily moving backwards. They’ve lost hundreds of square miles this year, even according to the pro-NATO ISW. In any case, this is a war of attrition, not of territory. Ukraine is running out of troops and is reduced to press-ganging large numbers of unwilling conscripts, their brutal capture shown on hundreds of videos. Russia has plenty of soldiers and large amounts of munitions. Ukraine is heavily disfavoured by a war of attrition and should grab any opportunity to end it.
April 27, 2025
Quite right Hat Man. Trump spells this out clearly but the moronic media don’t hear.
April 26, 2025
It was a bad mistake to not make the PoW nuclear powered.
April 26, 2025
Would be better off putting in defences against the channel invasion, rather than an aircraft carrier that won’t survive the first drone swarm.
April 26, 2025
@ Sakara Gold
The USA is currently in a poor financial position which I understand Trump’s team is in the process of sorting out. Support for Europe would divert financial and other resources away from issues at home. Maybe Trump believes there will be no votes for his party in doing that.
Europe may feel it is currently too weak to deal with Putin, without relying on the USA. This puts a question mark against the wisdom of Boris Johnson allegedly putting the kibosh on a possible peace deal, although a February 2025 article in the Guardian puts forward an alternative view on this.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/12/zelenskyy-rejects-claim-boris-johnson-talked-him-out-of-2022-peace-deal
I have also read about actions of NATO which may have provoked Putin although NATO has published a statement to debunk this.
https://www.nato.int/cps/ra/natohq/115204.htm
Against this background, I believe the Trump administration has been seeking to bring the conflict to a peaceful end as quickly as possible. Some people may support this and some may not.
April 26, 2025
Trump has made it plain that the USA is not the world’s policeman. The only consideration is benefit for the USA.
There is no benefit to the USA in being involved in the Ukraine- Russia chaos. And there is certainly not benefit for the UK in being involved.
April 26, 2025
@Sakara Gold – some of the planes on what you call HMS PoW are supplied and manned by the US Navy. With only 35 ships the UK is in a bad way. HMS PoW only exists thanks to French State owned industry, as will any future ships and boats, the UK having banned any industrial capability especially if it would help defend the Country.
The USA has a build up of 300 plus Chinese Warships on its western side, yet even today 2TK & Macron have found him seeming willing to provide strategic help for thier huff & puff cult of deflection from poor performance at home to defend the Ukraine
April 26, 2025
Consistently correct over the years and now – as usual JR. If only PMs had taken all your wise advise over the years.
So our political and wrong headed King Charles writes a very political and very silly letter to the bonkers Ed Miliband.
“As we all navigate the transition to cleaner energy for our planet and energy security for our citizens, summits such as these are of vital importance in facilitating shared learning between nations.”
Nothing un-clean about CO2 plant, tree and crop food and the net good “gas of life” Charles and we are certainly not “all” going along with this mad transition to very expensive & unreliable wind and solar – especially not the countries what want cheap reliable energy and sound economies. Currently in the UK wind and solar are about 20% of electricity and only about 4% of the total UK energy needs (this even after many high energy industries have been exported). In the US energy cost at 1/3 to 1/5 of ours and they are far better off for it.
I though the dope Charles with his duff A levels (C, D ,D in English, history & politics) said he was “not that stupid” as to be so political? Political and, just like the BBC, totally wrong! Go and study some physics or shut up please. Or at least stop being a “total do as I say not as I do” grade A hypocrite!
April 26, 2025
Sorry, I copied the wrong Prince’s A levels from my search – actually it was only two – A-levels B in history and C in French.
April 26, 2025
I’m sure King Charles lies awake at night thinking I wish I had spent more time studying physics.
April 26, 2025
I do not imagine he would have grasped reality ever had he done so. Some people think and understand reality others just believe in their religions and gut feelings.
April 26, 2025
The King attended a duff school, more interested in ‘character-building’ than academic excellence. Thankfully, with the publication of league tables, these duds have had either to get up to the mark or to close.
Parents can also draw inferences from the failure to disclose academic performance and replace it with a load of waffle about flourishing in a community.
April 26, 2025
The school failed at both then.
April 26, 2025
Funny that. Fettes Old Boys play in the QE II golf tournament at Royal Burgess every year. They seem proper gentlemen to me and pretty good golfers too. They win now and then. Many have been very successful in life. Founded household name companies etc.
April 26, 2025
This is an important point you are making
The U.K. are too helpful to others when we don’t have the means,production capacity, relationship, finances or manpower to help other countries let alone ourselves.
We can no longer rely on the US for support nor be propped up by the so called special relationships we misguidedly think we may have around the world
We must now first live within our means and help others second otherwise we are leaving the U.K. wide open to an invasion and being taken over by those who may now be seeing us as an easy target
April 26, 2025
“Today the PM tells the world Ukraine must fight on to show Putin the use of force is not rewarded”
Maybe Russia has shown the world that if you kill your own citizens because they do not support the illegal overthrowing of the Government they elected you will get invaded and loose parts of the country that do not support you and where you killed their family members.
The above is nearer the truth than the UK Political Class and Media alike would wish to admit.
The UK/ EU /US were not happy that the Elected Government in Kiev was close to Russia over ten years ago now, so supported unrest and even a government that shelled its own people albeit they were ethnic Russians. So I guess that did not matter. They were Russians after all and not true Ukrainians ( where have we heard that reasoning before ?)
April 26, 2025
Off Topic.
Britain’s trade with the US grew 10 times faster than with the EU last year, despite Rachel Reeves’s claims that the bloc is the UK’s most important trading partner.
UK-US trade rose by 3.9pc in 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), compared to the 0.2pc growth in transactions with members of the bloc.
The US accounts for 17.7pc of all UK trade, the highest level on records dating back to 1997. Meanwhile, the EU’s share has slumped to 45.7pc, down from more than 50pc before the financial crisis.
More than two thirds of Britain’s exports to the US are services, which do not attract tariffs. These jumped by more than £10bn last year to a total of £137bn, with consulting, finance, insurance and telecoms all representing significant sales across the Atlantic.
April 26, 2025
The old saying ‘remove the beam from thine own eye before attempting to remove the spec from others’, is appropriate here.
We have a defence crisis here in Blighty. The channel is being crossed by hundreds of unknown young fighting age men every day. Not only are we seemingly powerless to stop them, we actually return the French life vests the incoming hoards were wearing back to the French so they can be used over and over again?
When we have secured our own borders then we may be in a position to help others secure theirs….
April 26, 2025
Its only a ‘crisis’ if it wasn’t the ‘plan’ ….I’d suggest, that its their plan, so no real crisis, thats why our politcians aren’t really bothered
April 26, 2025
Is Starmer relevant at all in this matter of Ukraine’s present and future? I doubt very much that any of the serious actors involved think so.
If he is so keen on denying reward for the use of force, where has he been since 2014 when Russia took Crimea?
April 26, 2025
In 2014 Starmer was denying justice to subpostmasters, wasn’t he?
April 26, 2025
You’re probably right we have to just tell Ukraine they better surrender, unfortunately. Perhaps at least part of the ‘deal’ could be allow the population who don’t want to live under Putin’s dictatorship to get out.
But it would be naive to think Putin won’t come back for another bite, either in Ukraine or even in the Baltics.
We need an urgent programme for procurement of tactical nuclear weapons, perhaps in collaboration with one or more of France Germany, Poland and Japan – all the last 3 are non-nuclear powers under clear and present threat from a hostile nuclear power and need their own usable deterrents.
I was informed on very good authority recently that the U.K. has no defence whatsoever against Russian missiles. In the event of a war all we would be able to do is to station a couple of frigates in the Thames and hope they could do something. I suggest we procure the Israeli Iron Dome system asap.
April 26, 2025
Pray tell me how we could ready ourselves for war or even Defence when we now have such little engineering and manufacturing capacity, we cannot even generate enough power to get through winter in normal times .
Sever/disrupt the power cable’s from Europe, and the internet cables from the USA and we are stranded !
Then we only have enough “Trained” armed forces to fill Wembley Stadium.
Did we learn nothing from the Second World war about being self sufficient.
April 26, 2025
We were almost defeated because we could not feed ourselves. I still clean my plate because it’s a sin to waste food.
Imagine where we would have been if we had depended on Vicky France for energy in 1939!
April 26, 2025
NATO depends on the USA for its strength. Now that the USA is in cut and run mode (Kabul, pulling troops out of Syria) it is painfully obvious that the UK and other European countries must be prepared to look after and pay for their own defence in Europe. It is only a matter of time before there is a run down of US forces in NATO. It is also painfully obvious that the UK army is too small and not well prepared for continental scale warfare or the recent, rapid evolution of drone warfare. The Starmer offer of “peace keeping” forces was gesture politics without substance – a defining characteristic of the Labour government (think “growth”).
April 26, 2025
There was no justification for involving the UK in the Iraq War or in Afghanistan. Neither had attacked us or the USA. There was a reasonably justified suspicion that Bin Laden was hiding in Afghanistan but it turned out that he was actually being sheltered in Pakistan, which appears to have suffered no consequences – presumably because it is a nuclear power and would have fought back rather more effectively than the Afghans could.
A PM who knew a bit of history would have known that military adventures in Afghanistan never succeed and the country cannot be dragged into the 19th century let alone the 21st. So we wasted blood and treasure for nothing.
When it comes to Ukraine Putin has acted rationally and has recovered Crimea and the ethnically “majority Russian” regions. Again, there is no justification for us getting involved. If what remains of Ukraine joins the EU, then the EU should protect it, not us.
What is very concerning is this report in Guido:
“Labour does not deny (that Two-Tier’s) Defence Chief discussed the Chagos Surrender on Secret Visit.”
“The Chief of the Defence Staff met with Gen Liu Zhenli Chief of Staff of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Liberation Army. ”
https://order-order.com/2025/04/25/labour-does-not-deny-defence-chief-discussed-chagos-surrender-on-secret-china-visit/
Two-Tier looks more (untrustworthy ed)with every day that passes.
April 26, 2025
Fighting others people’s wars is always a hiding to nothing.
Being resilient and self-reliant in one’s own capability is however a must. To much of the UK’s defence structures are reliant on the political whims of others to muster even the basics.
We have been hampered with to much Socialist thinking this century that has pulled apart and destroyed our structures, its as if our Parliament has maliciously set out to destroy the very existence of the Nation and its people.
April 26, 2025
Sir John
“the PM now sees the UK and France cannot muster a sufficient force” if you thought that I would suggest you have been drawn into wishful thinking. It was always the PM seeking deflection from his and his governments failures to fulfil their duty and manage the Country.
This team is flitting around the World looking for ‘look-at-me’ opportunities for a media mention.
April 26, 2025
1. Zelensky says the Ukrainian constitution forbids him to alienate territory. If so, peace is not possible on Trump’s terms. 2. Wars are won by the last man standing. As oil crashes the Russian economy follows it down. Putin is said to have funds for just six months’ more war. 3. It is a great wickedness to abandon allies in the face of the enemy. 4. As Churchill said of Suez, “I should never have dared start. But had I started I should never have dared stop.”
April 26, 2025
5. Russian GDP is up 4%, while European GDPs are struggling to avoid recession. 6. The US has given up on Zelensky 7. Starmer and Macron are giving up on ‘boots on the ground’ 8. Ukraine is a lost cause… end of.
April 26, 2025
But Russian GDP is almost totally the production of weapons.
April 26, 2025
Which the EU is now trying to emulate. The difference is that Brussels will have to borrow huge sums of money to rearm, while Russia is a resources-rich economy and does not have to get into debt to anything like that extent. Americans will be doing a lot of profitable business with Russia in future, while Europeans will still be blathering about Munich, Churchill and Chamberlain.
April 26, 2025
Plus energy…
April 26, 2025
There can be no peace all the time the Kremlin wants and has the capability to wage war. Putin must be viewing these attempts at peace with contempt.
April 26, 2025
The Iraq was nothing more than the Blair PM wanting his Falklands moment. There was never any justification – ‘another project fear’ scam. It cost billions and sacrificed many lives of many on the whims of an out-of-control numpty.
Once the dust and the hype settled everything that man said appears to be a falsehood.
Now 2TK is trashing around looking for his moment in the sun without it dawning on him that his ilk has trashed the UK seemingly out of spite. No longer a country able to pull its weight or ‘put-up’ as some would say.
As this traitorous Government and Parliament have chosen to fight the people and the nation instead of working with them, I am surprised that anyone in the World is listening let alone hearing. The example they are setting to others is laughable
April 26, 2025
I think Blair was as interested in associating with influential people as military glory. Look at his wealth today.
April 26, 2025
Veterans facing prosecution for things that happened decades ago in NI, whilst Blair waltzes around a free man.
April 26, 2025
@Dave Andrews – yes +1. Blair as with 2TK are the UK’s legal profession, their imperative is to bait others to do their bidding then when they do hang them out to dry while providing income for mates.
April 26, 2025
Does it follow we should disband our military? If we cant help Ukraine win when they have singly held the Russians back for three years, what does that say about our current capability? Either way, it is a time for a decision about our defense budget.
April 26, 2025
@Michael Dalgleish – defence spending should be able to fund what is needed to provide resilence, self-reliance for our safety and security. Megaphone shouting of a percentage of GDP has nothing to do with with the duty of those we empower and pay have to the country and it’s people. Failure of job has become a common political trait
April 26, 2025
Wow! What a defeatist attitude – we are not stupid we can see that the US cannot be relied on and as always with them it’s America First and their interest lies now in rare earth minerals.
Europe has no choice then but to push ahead with the EU and other outliers and form a military defence league because even if there is a peace settlement in Ukraine they know it’s not going to forever stop the aggression and according to form there will be others in Russia following Putin so they have to be prepared – with or without Britain Hungary et al
Reply We have NATO for our own defence. NATO does not defend Ukraine. Our defence needs US supply and support, as it did in WW2
April 26, 2025
Reply to reply: He probably means defence for European countries because how would it be if we were relying on the US as part of Nato.. but in a case where Estonia was invaded for instance and the president of the US said no no he did not agree it was a Nato matter and sided with the Russians ? Europe needs to build up its own defence independent of the US while the US has these strange presidents in office.
April 26, 2025
Headline in the Telegraph
“Starmer to rent homes for Channel migrants”
If only that was true, 2TK spending his money – not ours
Sums up the state of this Government and Parliament, hate the UK, punish the UK – look for headlines elswhere
April 26, 2025
‘“looking for” landlords, investors and agents with properties in the North West, the Midlands and the east of England to lease for over five years.’
These should all be in London and the Home Counties the large conurbations close to parliament – drowning out struggling small communities is war being declared
April 26, 2025
Of my son’s wedding invitations all of his young friendship group of doctors and and professionals live and work abroad.
The plug is being pulled on Britain.
Good people will not take being treated like shit.
April 26, 2025
Ian B : “Sums up the state of this Government and Parliament, hate the UK, punish the UK – look for headlines elswhere.”
The history of the last century teaches us that the Far Right hate other people and the Far Left hate their own people.
April 26, 2025
The UK needs to increase its defence capability massively and quickly. Finland is a good role model, the UK is ill prepared. History shows that Russia will not wait for an invitation before finding an excuse to invade the UK and much of Europe.
April 26, 2025
‘The UK needs to increase its defence capability’
The UK needs to ”decrease” its defence capability massively and quickly ….thats their plan, and its working
April 26, 2025
It’s the same as our energy security policy, which includes purchasing energy from foreign countries, we buy military jet fighters & nuclear weapons from the USA, armoured personnel carries, uniforms, food, missiles & small arms from various counties around the world ….we’re not ready for any war while we rely upon an international supply chain
April 26, 2025
Just how long did it take for that to become clear…. any layman on the street could have told him that. Our PM is allegedly not a stupid man so the reason for his rhetoric must have been purely to keep the war going, and more importantly to throw a bomb into Trump’s negotiations.
Yes we get involved in too many wars, wars that only benefit certain groups, like arms manufacturers, but knowing something of the USA deep state it is not inconceivable that vested interests create wars for political gain.
One thing is for sure – we have to strip war-making powers from the PM and make it very hard for him to engage in acts of aggression. The same thing should apply to presidents all around the world.
April 26, 2025
Brian, I am not convinced that Starmer is not a stupid man… His actions and failures so far makes his status very clearly in the stupid man camp. The new shorthand for his name will have to include an ‘L’ as in L2TK to represent his lying habits so clearly evidenced this past week following the trans ruling by the supreme court.
April 26, 2025
Duff A levels too and from a good school.
April 26, 2025
I have never heard such a pathetic call to arms as Starmer and his coalition of ‘the willing’. Does he really believe that Germany will accept train loads of troops and munitions moving through to Poland?
Where will he find sufficient troops and who will lead them, do Spanish squaddies speak English? No.
This is an American proxy war instigated by Victoria Nuland in 2014. Do as the author advises Starmer and keep out. The Russian army will kill any foreign boots on the ground in Ukraine.
April 26, 2025
Our current war, is the war against the illegal & over-stayer immigrants, but we just don’t realise that we’re in a war. We’re being invaded, just look at our high street, schools and public bodies – the invaders are winning ….its about time we realised that we’re already in a battle, a battle to which we have no tactic nor strategy
April 26, 2025
– yes – and we are losing!
April 26, 2025
Battles may be won, but the war is over….we lost.
April 26, 2025
Sir, John I agree completely with your assessment of Ukraine. It was ridiculous that our PM should sign a 100 year military and security pact with Ukraine which, as a temporary holder of the office, was well beyond his authority. Especially when he is not prepared to tackle the daily invasion of our own country from illegals across the Channel. The reason for the pact (and continued mass legal and illegal immigraion) of course is to provide another excuse to keep spending high so that taxation can be high thus keeping the people poor and consumption (and hence CO2 emissions) low.
April 26, 2025
Spot on Richard
April 26, 2025
A very sensible view, Sir John. According to the Kyiv Post hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians of conscript age live abroad and many of them left Ukraine illegally to avoid fighting in the War. Ukraine is trying to persuade countrioes, notably Estonia, to force their return to Ukraine. Leaving aside the material cost, resentment is a growing probelm in Ukraine and will scar sociaty for generations. Ukraine will not wiin the war. Furthermore, it will never get the independent sovereignty it believes it is fighting for. Angela Merkel made that clear way back in 2013/2014 when she told it the independence it wanted was not an option, it must choose either the EU or Russia. The EU’s aims are its customary territorial expansion and gaining control of Ukraine’s vast reserves of critical minerals valued at up to US$13 trillion in rare earths and lithium alone. It was to gain control of these that Germany and the EU blackmailed Zelensky on 27 Feb 2022, just three days after Russia invaded, into signing over the future sovereignty of Ukraine in exchange for German armaments. Von Derr Leyen declared late last year that post-war reconstruction is to be directed towards EU Green Energy. This is EU imperialism and it cares not a jot how many Ukrainian lives are lost.
Even if Russia withdrew totally, Ukraine would not get the independent sovereignty it is fighting for. It would instead be ruled and exploited by a bunch of unaccountable foreigners in Brussels with huge profits for EU, mainly German industry, funded by international aid.
This is the most appallingly tragic future for Ukraine. The war must be stopped and Ukraine given ts independence from both Russia and the grasping EU. Trump is right to have taken away the prize sought by the EU by blackmail.
April 26, 2025
PS I forgot to mention also that in addition to expecting to get away with a price of no more than a few armaments, the EU expects the US to underwrite the security of what it hoped to gain by blackmail. These people have no shame and an an infinite sense of entitlement..
April 26, 2025
I agree, Sir John, that UK Prime Ministers are too keen to get involved in other people’s wars. The current PM is a joke who obviously has no idea of what is required to fight a war. It is not just about the front line, but all the backup needed to keep fighting troops supplied.
The problem with Ukraine, and I agree, we should not be involved, is that the USA/UK/EU gave them just enough to fight a defensive war. From day 1, Ukraine should have been supplied with overwhelming firepower and been able to hit Russian cities, towns and villages. You don’t win wars when you fight defensively!
Having said that, the current PM, Chancellor, Home and Foreign Secretaries, plus the Energy Secretary, are the most incompetent individuals to have ever occupied those offices. If you can’t defend your own borders, it’s pompous, arrogant stupidity to think you can defend another country!
April 26, 2025
So you wanted this country to be effectively at war with Russia? How deep is your bomb shelter?
April 26, 2025
We lost the wars in the Middle East and are now paying the price in a full invasion and take over of our country.
April 26, 2025
Agree K
April 26, 2025
The policy to weaken and divide Russia was hatched in the 1990’s by strategists in the US State Department using NATO and EU enlargement with Ukraine the intended battleground. The US backed coup in 2014 when the elected President was ousted resulted in considerable bloodshed and disorder and armed conflict in the Eastern provinces. Although peace agreements were agreed (Minsk 1 & 2) these were violated and unrest within the Eastern provinces continued with thousands of casualties. From 2015 until 2022 when Russia invaded this time was used to provide Ukraine with weapons and military training. Russia’s principal objection, spanning three decades, has been Ukraine joining NATO. This is seen as an existential threat by Russia just as Chinese or Russian troops or weapons in Mexico would be unacceptable to America. Tragically, Ukraine and their people have been sacrificed by America and their vassals proving the original intention of US State Department has failed. As Henry Kissinger wrote ‘if America is your enemy it could be dangerous, but if America is your friend it could be fatal.’
Reply The US denies it acted thus in 2014. The EU very clearly backed the ousting of the President. The main issue used to get rid of him was his resistance to close alignment with the EU
April 27, 2025
Reply to reply: The EU continues to oust European presidents and candidates for that reason.
April 26, 2025
“Today the PM tells the world Ukraine must fight on to show Putin the use of force is not rewarded.”
It’s a diversion tactic to divert the people’s attention way from the invasion taking place across the Channel.
April 26, 2025
The government website has yet to report yesterdays illegal immigration figures for channel crossing, 9pm ……they’ve also been 6 hours late reporting during the past month ???
April 26, 2025
Having pondered this for many years, these days on balance I support the defence policy of Switzerland (‘armed neutrality’). It’s relatively low-cost too, for what it’s worth (around 1% of GDP, not 2-2.5%). Despite an imperial tradition, what damned right do we have to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs? Read Kampfner’s book ‘Blair’s Wars’ on the awful consequences if you take it upon yourself to invade almost any other country you disapprove of, on the implicit grounds that your judgment is superior to anyone else’s.
Keeping out of foreign wars should eventually make a country less vulnerable … who knows, even respected. Just make it very clear that your policy is ‘don’t mess with us’. Ireland is also neutral, and has been since independence, but some might think that its defence budget – 0.2% of GDP – is a bit low, if both Switzerland and Austria have found that they need nearer 1%. (But ultimately it’s got to be up to each country and its own people.)
April 27, 2025
I have just finished S.Kauffmann ‘The Blinded (Les aveugles)’. In particular the chapter on the August 2008 events in Georgia, Abkhasia and South Ossetia looks like a rehearsal of what is happening in Ukraine right now.
Maybe some should remember the words of Polish President Kaczynski on 11/08/2008 ‘Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after the Baltic States and maybe later will come my country, Poland’.