It's not like defence has been a notable exception to the general picture. Army cut by a third. Nearly all weapons procurements behind schedule. Navy barely has any seaworthy ships. Concerns about nuclear weapons.

— Sam Freedman (@Samfr) March 29, 2024

About a decade ago I had a conversation with a political adviser who with equal measure of delight and astonishment admitted that since David Cameron became Tory leader the Tories led Labour on the NHS which was something nobody could have predicted saying it was as likely as Labour leading the Tories on defence.

The sad thing for the Tories and even more importantly for the country is that is polling was inevitable, there have been enough warnings that the country’s defence isn’t ready for the threats facing the UK.

In July 1940 future Labour leader Michael Foot co-authored a booked entitled the Guilty Men about the appeasers and the failure when it came to rearmement. I predict a similar book will shred a few reputations going all the way back to Margaret Thatcher who effectively sacrificed spending on conventional forces to pay for Trident.

This became an issue when the UK could only send a two brigade division instead of a three brigade division for the operation to liberate Kuwait. I suspect Sir John Major, along with Thatcher, will also come in for criticism for proposing then enacting the peace dividend which was with done with the best of intentions but with every passing day looks like a massive blunder, the maxim si vis pacem, para bellum seems to have been forgotten.

Major’s successors will also come in for criticism for not preparing the UK fo the growing threats of China and more urgently Putin’s Russia, we’ve had three PMs since the wider invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and not one of them has raised defence spending to where it needs to be, their presumptions and actions have failed the UK.

TSE

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