The Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly asserted its commitment to national security using a wafty measure of defence budget equal to a percentage of Gross Domestic Product ‘GDP’. This has had no effect either on the public’s sense of security or the armed forces’s preparedness for the kind of conflict we are seeing this week.
The continual erosion over the last several decades of our armed forces in favour of woke recruitment targets, absurd vanity projects (the aircraft carriers) and expensive but ineffective procurement policies have made the link between funds made available and capability ridiculously nebulous.
Where the Ukraine war was until recently still seen by many as a far-off conflict that did little to suggest that the peace dividend was not still being paid, for the holidaymakers transiting Dubai (the busiest airport in the world) while the United Arab Emirates was under attack by Iranian drones, the message hit home. Even RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus was hit by Iranian fire.
This turn of events was particularly poignant, since the Iranians seemed to be operating on the basis of a standing order i.e. in the event of the Supreme Leader being killed and the Islamic Republic under attack, there was a prearranged list of targets that would be struck regardless of where the attack came from. In other words, the Ayatollah died, but since his death his default orders have been carried out regardless.
This underlines the point. National defence is the first duty of government – the PM seems to understand that even though he quotes it often out of context, demonstrating the government’s profound lack of intuition on this subject.
So how long will this Labour government wait before equipping the armed forces to defend our interests with appropriate numbers and skills for military personnel and effective defence hardware? Financial promises mean nothing – effective capability is what is required.
And if not now, then when? When ballistic missiles soar over the London skyline? That possibility seems a lot less ridiculous than it did two weeks ago.