Poor equals weak
HMS Spey, is a RN patrol ship armed with a few machine guns and one 30mm cannon. It is also the Royal Navy’s presence in the Pacific, it is staying there for 5 years. A strong message to China, no doubt, not to upset Global Britain.
The US Pacific fleet, on the other hand, consists of over 200 ships and submarines, 1,200 aircraft and 130,000 people.
The British army is too small, poorly equipped and under funded, the RAF does not have enough planes and not enough pilots for the planes it has and the Navy needs more of everything.
What happened to that 50% increase in defence spending by 2030?
The reality of what a decade of failure, weak growth, low taxes, incompetent economic policies, wishful thinking, Brexit and vicious cuts to spending mean are clear to all: in the state of the NHS, social care, police, courts, well pretty much everywhere and everything.
Brexit alone has cost the government the defence budget, twice over and possibly three times or more.
Yet the UK still postures over China and claims to have a presence in the Pacific.
The UK is too poor to project power, it has been too poor to project power in the Pacific since at least the 1960’s and more honestly since at least the US’s Great White Fleet of 1909.
Isn’t it about time it realised the truth?
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media