Whilst I completely get the sentiment, and did vote for labour when you were in charge, I have to say now is not the time for this. A look out of the window at the world tells me now is not the time to under prepare ourselves for defence. Unfortunately the rest of the world isn’t ready for peace.
You must be worried if you're concern-trolling already.
I’m neither worried, nor a troll. Simply sharing my view that I don’t think the timing is right at the moment. Isn’t that what social media is supposed to be for? Sharing your views?
Why don't you stop being disingenuous and just tell us why you're opposed to this new party?
I’m not opposed to it. At all, which is precisely why I haven’t said so. I just don’t think now is the time. The world around us is to chaotic at present.
"Now is not the time" is what people opposed to something who don't want to admit it typically say. What do you suggest the UK left do instead?
Not so. I would happily vote for it, if the world were at peace. And I am one of the “UK left” myself btw. We just need to be aware that in an evolving and troubled world, we need to allocate funds to defence. It’s the only issue I disagree on.
So the UK left should campaign for more defence spending and vote Labour?
And as a footnote not all defence is about weapons. You need to defend your banks, your national security and your people against hostility. That costs a lot of money when nations are hacking into your systems for your intelligence systems.
Let’s agree to disagree. We have differing views. I’m not changing mine, and you aren’t changing yours.
So you do think the British left should campaign for more defence spending and vote Labour. Do you not realise how daft that sounds?
We don’t need to campaign for anything. We are already doing it btw.
How about you say what you think? You’re asking a lot of questions, but no answers
As a keen cyclist myself...
yes! yes! this! i'm actually a tory arms-dealer but i ALSO want to increase defence spending?! great minds think alike! we can work together to spend money on war! and once we've spent so much money on war that it stops happening, perhaps the time will be right to make the world a better place???
Defence against who?ploughing more UK taxpayer money to American arms producers makes no sense.The UK does not even have control on nuclear weapons based here Trump does!now that is a worry a liar felon and life long friend of a paedophile with our future in his hands
You are aware the Royal Navy carries our nuclear deterrent? We control our own naval fleet.
The US supplies the nuclear weapons systems and it's widely believed that they retain at least some operational control over them. As they do over many of the military systems they sell to allies, to be fair
Our subs are built by BAE systems and Rolls Royce. The missiles are built by Lockheed Martin. The missiles are fired from the sub. I wouldn’t buy a tv from someone who kept the remote in their back pocket.
Yes, I know all that. I used to work on software used in the sub design. What I wrote stands.
If that is true, perhaps we ought to start building our own! Doesn’t sit well with me.
To an extent it's not 100% relevant whether the US maintains technical or operational control anyway. They have total and absolute political control, unless and until the US leaves NATO and declares war on us. There's zero chance of us deploying nuclear weapons without their permission/orders.
I suspect if Trump manages to cling on to power for a full term the world, and NATO may look a bit different. We ought to be preparing for that, and we probably are.
That’s a strange question, we have been aiding Ukraine for a long time now. Because it didn’t have the ability to defend itself with its own defence capabilities. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. At present, we would fail. Nothing wrong with preparedness