Britain is being left increasingly open to attack as a result of successive government’s failure’s to invest in the military. In the meantime foreign aid is perversely being doled out to countries that stand accused of funding terrorism.
This weeks report from the House of Commons Library begins to expose the naivety of the Con-Lab coalition in their failure to deliver the Nato agreed minimum of 2 percent GDP on defence spending. The report juxtaposes the government’s staunch protection of the foreign aid budget and predicts that foreign aid will outstrip defence spending by 2030.
The damning news has come in a week that has seen further Russian air force activity in the sky above the British Isles as well as a warning from Colonel Gaddafi’s cousin that Europe should expect a 9/11 style attack within the next two years. Meanwhile the US army General Raymond Odierno has expressed his great concern about Britain’s future defensive capacity.
The current lack of investment in Britain’s defences has been caused by the Coalition cuts that were imposed in the 2010 strategic Defence and Security Review. These cuts have compounded 24 years of neglect that have seen a 76.6 percent reduction in the number of RAF squadrons. The army has also been cut by 20 percent since 2010 with further cuts planned. Government backed moves to demilitarize have not gone unnoticed by other members of Nato and they seem to have been gleefully observed by Vladimir Putin.
Britain has been a proud member of Nato since its post war inception in 1949. The Europe we know today owes much to the Nato alliance. It is therefore all the more troubling that our government is breaking its pledge with some of our nations oldest friends. Nato’s conditions of membership require associated countries to ring fence 2 percent of national GDP for defence spending. Under David Cameron’s stewardship Britain has failed to keep this promise. This is a potentially dangerous move that could jeopardize Britain’s future involvement in Nato.
Is seems however that Labour will offer no better solution to the Tories. The most likely scenario, should they return to Downing Street is that they too would renege on Nato agreements. This is evident in a recent poll revealed by The New Statesman in which 75 percent of Labour candidates opposed renewing the Trident Nuclear Deterent. Russia and North Korea must be looking on with great interest.
The Westminster Elite are not only ignoring the warnings from fellow Nato members. They are also burying their head in the sand concerning British Foreign aid that is being given to corrupt countries. In December 2014 Transparency International – an esteemed international anti corruption agency published a report revealing that through carelessly administered Foreign aid, British taxpayers’ are funding the ten most corrupt countries in the world. It is incredibly concerning that between 2014-15 David Cameron’s government has pledged £110m of British taxpayers’ money to Somalia – a country with strong links to funding Al Qaeda.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance have also raised serious concerns about the sloppy process of foreign aid distribution. Last year Jonathan Isaby remarked that the Government “does not keep a close enough eye on the way British taxpayers’ money is spent abroad. Too often foreign aid simply disappears into thin air in countries with poor track records on bribery and fraud.”
I am not against foreign aid per se, and I’m glad that Britain has a proud record of helping other nations in their hour of need. What is clear nevertheless is that the process requires greater due diligence and that potential savings could easily be found.
Furthermore, I am not advocating aggression and arming our nation to the teeth. However, I do believe that it is in Britain’s interests to maintain a reasonable and sustainable means of defence that is its own. The route that successive Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative led governments appear to be pursuing is one that will result in a European parliamentary controlled army where unelected technocrats who are beyond reproach are allowed to dictate military strategy. This is something that I strongly oppose
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