@chris_sutton73 This was the first time I’ve ever put on a Scottish footy match, so wanted hearts to win and it feels after the dodgy VAR the previous match that it was a fore gone conclusion, Celtic are boring as
Once the UK Govt drank the elixir of drones - a way to do without those expensive Type 26 warships, their seemingly too-hard-to-recruit people and costly weapons - and the Ukrainians 'beat a navy without a navy', it seized upon the 'hybrid navy' as the latest 'silver bullet' to avoid boosting defence properly.
Yes, it is essential to have autonomous systems, but to reinforce the Royal Navy, not as a 'hybrid' means to dodge creating a proper fighting fleet. The Black Sea is not the Atlantic, a vast, mean treacherous ocean, and warships still matter. The Northern Fleet is the apex of Russian naval power, not a confined lesser force like the Black Sea Fleet. It is a tough mother that will eat you alive if it can.
Norway is to get five T26s in some kind of joint operational arrangement with UK, but what if its govt decides one day that it does not agree with our defence and foreign policy? No can play UK...you are on your own! UK govts must stop contracting out sovereign defence needs.
Six not eight RN T26s mean only two at sea at any one time and not until mid to late 2030s, if we are lucky. In war six is too few to sustain an effective presence in the Atlantic or absorb losses. Unless the UK thinks it can prevail with a tiny fleet too precious to deploy?
But, there are the five cheaper Type 31s? Not an ASW ship, no matter its virtues. Australia is buildingng 6 x T26s - plus will have 11 Mogami frigates - and Canada is building 15 x T26s. More than the UK, the nation that created the alleged world's supposed greatest ASW ship, the as yet not in service T26.
Until the UK Govt places an order for more T26s to replace those going to Norway then it is again failing on defence. The UK should actually build at least 12 T26s for the RN. And not just as a means to try and buy votes in Scotland with job creation, but because it is what the UK needs to be secure...and its navy needs a heck of a lot of other stuff too. Pronto.
Stop being so timid and pathetic on defence @GOVUK
I want to know exactly why Axel Rudakubana’s family came to the UK - on what visa, for what reason.
From the BBC report today…
'There was stark criticism particularly for his father Alphonse Rudakubana, who Sir Adrian said had deliberately withheld information about his son amassing a stash of deadly weapons including the biological toxin ricin.
Sir Adrian said if the parents had reported their true level of knowledge to the authorities before the attack, the killer would "undoubtedly have been taken into care or held in custody".'
I have put official questions to the Home Office on the role his parents played, and why they were in our country to begin with.
It is my view that the police should urgently investigate both the mother and the father of that monster, prosecuting/deporting where possible.
@FennellJW@mpwarwick Either way it’s dog shit levels of embarrassing isn’t it. All that’s going on in the world and the government ( and I’ve no doubt red or blue) it’s absolutely absent with solutions and action. There’s been nothing like this in the last 40 years and the level of inaction is mad
@haynesdeborah@RoyalNavy Starmer loves to commit to everything it’s almost as if he doesn’t have a clue about what we actually(don’t) have, total charlatan
Keir Starmer commits to deploying British boots on the ground in Ukraine with a military he doesn’t really have because he’s starving it of funds.
Defence spending in 2024/25 was £60.2billion
In real terms (2024/25 prices) it will be £62billion this year.
In 2026/27 it will be £63.5billion.
At a time of grave geopolitical threats these rises are peanuts — far, far less than the massive rises in welfare spending.
Even our appeasement leaders in the 1930s increased defence spending by far more in the face of a rising Nazi threat.
The projected increases could not sustain a major UK deployment in Ukraine.
I suspect Starmer has agreed only because he thinks the Russians would never accept it and so there will be no peace deal. It is a purely performative gesture.
John Healey, the defence secretary, is a patriot who believes in the defence of the nation. He needs to make his voice heard.
The failure to spend more on our security — and that of our allies — is becoming a national scandal.
@zarahussain999 I actually agree with you, why should he, then again taking part is the fun so it’s a shame he felt like he couldn’t be inclusive but I get it