The poverty of thinking within the ConDem government is becoming more apparent by the day.
We learned today that the replacement for Trident is to be delayed. Which is good news. Except that in the meantime we will keep an entirely inappropriate,wholly ineffective, and unnecessary nuclear deterrent at sea at enormous cost when there is absolutely no risk to justify its presence. Why not just get it over with, and scrap it?
Maybe, just maybe, if that decision had been taken the wholly illogical decision to buy two new aircraft carriers, but no planes to fly from them, might not have looked quite so stupid. As it is, these will be the most expensive white elephants ever acquired.
And in the meantime aircraft already in the air - eight squadrons of Tornadoes - one of them flying over my office quite often and indirectly underpinning much of my local economy - are to be scrapped with no obvious reason given.
Anyone, anywhere, who could call this a policy, let alone a defence policy, should not be put in charge of a guardhouse, let alone the Ministry of Defence.
If this is evidence of the disaster that is facing us, it is going to be worse than I could ever have imagined.
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The most bizarre thing about this outcome (the strategy), Richard, is that it is supposed to be based on an actual comprehensive review (the first since 1998 if I remember correctly). Whereas in actual fact it simply looks like the result of the kind of bartering process (if I give you that then let me keep this) that is the usual stuff of rushed spnding reviews such as we are now confronted with.
What we really have is not a strategy at all. That is, a strategy based on thorough assessments of future strengths, weaknesses, opportunities threats, but the outcome of a tit-for-tat battle between interest groups, both within government and outside it (i.e. I wonder what role personnel from BAE Systems and other defence manufacturers have played in the review).
I return again to Rousseau’s adage: ‘Nothing is more dangerous than the influence of private interests on public affairs.’
We’re going to see the results of not paying any attention to that whatsoever (in fact, promoting the reverse) played out endlessly over the coming months and years.
This is about the level of strategic thinking one can expect from Dr Liam Fox, I guess! 👿
Absolutely, Trident should be scrapped immediately. If Al Qaeda managed to detonate a nuclear weapon in the UK, whom would we fire it at? It’s utterly useless.
However, Richard, the Tornado is an absolutely useless fighter – it’s a converted low level bomber with a pathetically low ceiling – so, unfortunately, they should be scrapped. Which is not to say they shouldn’t be replaced, preferably with some cut-price surplus US fighters, rather than the absurdly over-expensive Eurofighter.
The real scandal is scrapping the Harrier jump-jets, which are some of the most useful aircraft Britain has – that’s just mental.
@Fergal O’Shea
You can tell how little interest I take in what is flying over my head
But – the point is that the people of Norfolk did not vote Tory in their hundreds of thousands to see their economy devastated
And that’s what they’re going to get
Trouble is they’ll probably still vote Tory
Michael White of the Guardian has blogged on the defence review – http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2010/oct/19/defence-cuts-us-give-up
This is his put-down of Liam Fox:
“Fox is a lightweight who makes me nervous. I would hesitate to have him as my GP, let alone my defence chief. He has pushed his luck in his much-leaked battle with George Osborne over the strategic defence (cuts) review, which was overdue. As a rightwinger he thinks — wrongly — he is unsackable. Osborne and Cameron will bide their time.”
Good stuff from Mr White.
The review recommends closing St Athan (Wales) and Kinross (Scotland). On top of the closure of the Cardiff passport office – a large local employer – shows that many of these cuts are just politcal. There aren’t many voters left in Scotland or Wales.
Capping housing benefits, slashing the social housing budget and reviewing council tenancies will lead to a greater polarisation in the cities between rich and poor areas. Some strong Labour areas of London will be ‘gentrified’ as the lower ad middle classes move out and the Tory voters move in. Along with the splitting of (mainly Tory) rural constituencies this is nothing short of cynical attempt to gerrymander the voting system.
Expect more pain tomorrow (unless you have daddy’s trust fund to soften the blow).
@Neil
It’s RAF Kinloss, not Kinross.
And it’s being closed because it is only used to base Nimrods. And the Nimrods are all being scrapped. Now I think that scrapping the Nimrods is barmy (although the programme is another BAE Systems cost overrun triumph) but they haven’t scrapped them just to spite Scotland. And if you are scrapping them then Kinloss has no reason to remain. You need to lose that Celtic chip on your shoulder.