Who'd have thought it?
The idea that nothing that is wrong with the country is the result of 14 years of complete misrule and incompetence by the Tories is very strong, in the Tory party.
Apparently they went down to their greatest ever defeat despite the fact that taxes are low, everything works wonderfully, the nation is a Great Power in the world again and Brexit was a triumph.
Imagine how shocked they must be to find that in a few short months the Labour government seems to have undermined and run down our Armed Forces. Mr. Jenrick, no less, now says the RN is in a crisis. It apparently does not have enough ships or even enough people to crew the few ships it has. He might also be shocked to discover that the army doesn’t have a single armoured division and the RAF is short of planes.
That is what 14 years of Tory cuts and austerity gets you, but the chutzpah of the Tory leadership candidates knows no bounds. Now Mr Jenrick claims the only answer is to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP from its current 2%.
How this money will be found is a mystery to me and to him, the simple fact is that we are a lot poorer than we used to be, in relative terms, and we have been living beyond our means for decades now. This shows not just in the front line capability and capacity of our forces, far far worse is the whittling down of the broader capacity upon which any defence spending depends.
Repair, maintenance, logistics, training, mothballing and base facilities are always the first to go, as they are not headline news. But the damage done is still real and very difficult to reverse. Finding money for new ships is an easier sell than a better maintenance system, or more docks, or a new warehouse, but it really matters. Because without that capacity our frontline forces are even weaker than the headlines suggest. More ships and aircraft are rusting while waiting for a dry dock or a spare part, more mothballed tanks will take far longer to return to service, even if they are not hopelessly out of date.
I fear that our armed forces have therefore been cut well beyond the bone, my biggest fear is that politicians know this but think we our fantastic personnel will “muddle through” again.
But that means we are putting them at far more risk and we are riding for a fall. The UK has been boasting for decades that it punches above its weight, when it has been sliding down the weight categories relentlessly and when people who do box bigger opponents eventually get a good shellacking.
We are lightweights in international terms now, and our allies know it, so do our enemies.
Brexit has destroyed much of our soft power, the Tories also spent 14 years undermining our hard power and now look all innocent and surprised while bragging about Global Britain.
They really are shameless.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
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Agree 100% and, in my opinion. Jenrick is among the worst of a very bad bunch.