Tuesday 20 April 2010

Worn Out Armaments, Outworn Rhetoric

United Kingdom Armed Forces are very badly equipped.  They are badly equipped to fight  low tech war in a seriously under-developed country; heaven knows what their condition would be in taking on a seriously equipped foe.  In Iraq our Forces were effectively confined to the Basra airbase for years.  All the lying Brown years of returning troops, and all the betrayal Brown years when he refused to fund their role in Iraq's south and they died in their inadequate vehicles and under their lack of air cover and without communications equipment from this century.

Brown should never have brought the Ark Royal to our attention.  Cutting steel now for the UK's aircraft carriers is a Brownian period too late.  Just look at other European aircraft carriers, currently at sea, not launched in the mind's eye of liars providing jobs for own-voters rather than effective defence for our country.  And even if the UK's new aircraft carriers are ever finished, there are no planes budgeted for, never mind being built in the UK, once a  distinguished supplier of aircraft innovation, design, engineering and supply.

From New Labour - vainglorious warmongering on the cheap, except for the lives of the troops.   From other countries - hard-headed assessment of what they need for their interests and defence with troops trained, equipped, and supported by their governments, from body armour to conflict negotiation and resolution, from boots to helicopters, and aircraft carriers and aircraft of the 21st century.

5 comments:

Antisthenes said...

I feel nothing but anger for this man Brown, he is a bully, a liar, a cheat and a fraud. He is destroying a people and a nation to further his socialist ideology and his own ambitions, he appears to have no conscience or prepared to back down when wrong.

What makes it worse is that he will never be punished, he may even be rewarded with another term in office. If not he will still receive a generous sinecure and untold wealth.

What is the point of being good when being evil is much more rewarding.

Sod it I am off to rob the poor box down at the church, what is good for our politicians is good enough for me.

hatfield girl said...

We are good for our own satisfactions, A; good cannot be imposed. The imposed is merely obedience. And we all know where 'I was just obeying orders' takes us.

As you know, you will answer to yourself. We have to be steeped in evil, as these people are (I was quite shaken when David Cameron actually said "these are appalling people", quite something for someone of his culture) before we will even begin to act in the way that they have schooled themselves.

Antisthenes said...

"We are good for our own satisfactions"

I am not sure that idea will catch on.

"good cannot be imposed"

No, but it can be fostered and one way is by example.

Bill Quango MP said...

Its a cock up all right. The planes, as you say. The cheapness of the launch system IIRC and another major factor in their eventual non deployment except as emergency ferries for volcano ash victims is the 4,000+ personnel required to man them.
The Navy does not have in its budget a planned 4-5,000 more personnel.
The Army has a difficulty recruiting new soldiers. Now, serving on an Aircraft Carrier is the cream slot so I'm sure they will attract enough recruits. Its paying for them all that will be the issue. Plus all the dockside support personnel. And the support ships. The frigates and destroyers and submarines that must accompany a Fleet Carrier.
And the running costs of two fleet ships? Already costed for out of the defence budget?

As you say..if they had been built in 2001 with just a sliver of the schools or NHS or benefits cash.
But to build them in austerity Britain? Can't see them surviving a defence budget cut.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Bill, I am sure they will be cancelled.

If Cameron cancels them, he'll be called all the so-and-so's for denying jobs to the poor of Govan or Birkenhead, and probably also (such is the shamelessness of NuLab) for leaving the country defenceless.

If Broon cancels them on the orders of the IMF (which seems the likely outcome), then again it will be everyone's fault but his.

I weep for our downfall.