The one and only legitimate role of Government is Defence of the Realm, not to act as social workers,social engineers or running banks and insurance companies
Today we find out that we have four days supply of Gas in the reserves left in the country, ok it is heading towards Spring in a few week and traditionally stocks are low, but France and Germany have 100 days. Energy security is an issue for all sovereign nations, we have so little storage capacity in this country, and as we have such an over reliance on Gas, that in the event of a ‘National Emergency’ ie somebody blowing up the pipelines today, domestic and business supplies would go off on Tuesday.
These clowns had not learned one lesson from the twentieth century when we were twice nearly strangled by an over reliance on imported food stuffs,energy, and weaponry.
The saga of the eight Chinooks that we bought from our ‘allies’ the Americans is a case in point, but some tosser forgot to ensure that we got the operators manual (software) and after eight years they still have not flown, and it is now costing nearly half a Billion to sort the problems out.Blair promised that our troops would have the lift capacity they needing in Afghanistan and Iraq, meanwhile the MOD under Hoon and Swiss Tony committed troops in support of the Americans to ensure that Blair and Brown could be feted in DC gurning at who ever is in the oval office at the time.
“It is scandalous that while our troops are desperate for helicopters in Afghanistan, eight Chinooks have been left on the tarmac back in Britain. “This is a dismal tale of dithering, bad planning, and the gross waste of public funds. It is incredible that millions can be frittered away on bad decisions and yet penny-pinching on other MoD equipment has cost the lives of service personnel. “The MoD seems to be in a state of meltdown, yet Gordon Brown is offering neither concern nor leadership.”
Nick Hervey MP- The Independent
Since the 2004 Defence White Paper, the Defence of these Islands is now run on an American Strategic Concept called Network Enabled Capability, this appears to be concept once you have gone through the gobbledegook that is Pentagon speak on an over reliance of technology, to ensure that ‘networking’ communications to direct forces to where they are needed most. This has the benefit of the Government being able to cut back on naval ships, helicopters and troops on the ground.
Fine in theory, so instead of throwing weaponry at an enemy you throw the equivalent of half a dozen mobile phones at them and hope than the batteries are fully charged and you can get a signal.
If this theory is so good, please explain why US aircraft seem to have an unerring penchant for bombing or straffing the wrong side, ask the Royal Anglians about this. The recent Ross Kemp series on Afghanistan, shows that the Army is loaded to the gunnels with comms, and can direct mortars and aircraft down on to Taliban positions, but the Officers on the ground have very little confidence that the aircraft are not going to hit them first.
Our incipient NCW plans may suffer defeat by [adversaries] using primitive but cagey techniques, inspired by an ideology we can neither match nor understand; or by an enemy who can knock out our vulnerable Global Positioning System or use electromagnetic pulse weapons on a limited scale, removing intelligence as we have construed it and have come to depend upon. Fighting forces accustomed to relying upon downlinks for information and commands would have little to fall back upon.
—Charles Perrow,
This over reliance on technology being foisted on us by American Strategic Policy, seems to equate with there not being enough boots on the ground, to take and hold ground. I could not understand why our forces do forays out of Bastian, occupy a village for two days, then have to return to Bastian after running out of ammunition or lack of manpower to hold a position. (Perhaps some military readers can explain this to me because I am missing the point)
From the purchasing of cheap Pakistani made ammunition that caused repeated jams in 30 calibre guns, this Government has sought to fight wars on the cheap, with no exit strategy.
The Defence of these Islands should be the sole concern of this Government, and working on the basis of ‘a plan never survives the first contact’ NEC seems a precarious system of defence to me.
Unless we do adopt a Swiss defence strategy, I would argue that we have little strategic reserves , no indigineous defence manufacturing capability and not enough trained forces to defend these islands.
Labour has to all intents and purposes left us defenceless, and would far rather devote resources to tracking its ‘domestic enemies’.
Both Blair and Brown are guilty of the most profound dereliction of duty, the Defence of the Realm