Can it be that Murdoch has joined the rush to support the winning side?
In 2021 Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States began a consultation process to upgrade Canberra’s submarine capability – AUKUS. That now looks highly prescient.
The authors are entitled to their dismal view of Britain’s recent past, but it does not strike one as a conservative view.
Amidst all the sound and fury prompted by Trump on both sides of the Atlantic, the highly inconvenient truth is that he is correct. In the defence context, too many European countries have been delinquent for decades.
Sombre warnings from politicians and generals are entirely at odds with decades of what can be fairly described as a deeply unserious approach to defence.
A remarkable amount has been achieved. Often against the odds and in the face of adversity. And certainly in circumstances far less benign than those faced by New Labour.
The Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, “one of the most critical routes for global trade” according to the International Maritime Organisation.
No decent person can support piracy or missile attacks on peaceful merchant vessels. Someone has to defend the global order. Not for the first time, that someone is the Anglo-American alliance.
They have grown up in a cultural milieu that denigrates Britain’s culture and history to the point that the idea it is even worthy of respect – never mind dying for – is ridiculous.
If we are to keep our nation safe, our adversaries deterred, and our allies reassured, we now urgently require full-scale reform of the way we be buy and support our fighting equipment.
“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.” Dr Johnson’s observation has stood the test of time – but is a poor basis for civilian, parliamentary government.
Her performance at the Coronation won the Leader of the House an adoring public, and indicated that despite her many critics she is still a potential successor to Sunak.
Mounting domestic pressures and tight budgets mean defence is likely doomed to always look like an easy cut when election time draws near.
The Defence Secretary said “the real battle for defence” will come in the Comprehensive Spending Review in 2024-25, and “I’m not sure I’ll be here in two years”.
Labour don’t have a plan for our iconic dockyard – or our country. Both locally and nationally, their only strategy is to dine out on public opinion, rather than to offer a positive vision. People in Plymouth are waking up to this.