Should We Be Spending More On Defence?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38172512
Our forces are so depleted these days, we are a sitting duck, so is it time to spend the WSS budget on defence?

[mikey4444]

Our once world famous Royal Navy is now nothing but a joke. I am far from a hawk on defence matters, but if we had another Falklands emergency, we would be powerless to do anything, other than stand up in the UN and complain.

We now only have 77 commissioned ships in the RN !

How did this happen ?

[andy-hughes]

Sitting duck for whom?

if any of the potentially hostile powers in the world decide on military action, I cannot imagine that Nato and our European and American allies would leave us to it, quite apart from the fact that, as you advise, our forces are a long way from appropriate defence capability.

My argument would be to spend less on defence, since we are below the cut-off point where we can reasonably defend ourselves, and I fail to see the potential for the need for military defence any time in the foreseeable future.

[mikey4444]

Andy........I can't recall Nato coming to our aid over the Falklands, and if I remember correctly, the USA took its time to back us as well.

[Peter Pedant]

// We now only have 77 commissioned ships in the RN !
How did this happen ?//

we ran out of money Mikey

// so is it time to spend the WSS budget on defence?//
well I think we can rely on Trummp to increase spending and drag us into the next war ( conventional I hope)

so we can sit on de fence on the question of defence
sorry essex accent really needed to savour that one....

and remember 3T we have £350m a week going spare from our EU contribution that could go into defence .....

[Peter Pedant]

// Andy........I can't recall Nato coming to our aid over the Falklands, and if I remember correctly, the USA took its time to back us as well. //

"far greater justice against Mrs Kirkpatrick, the US Ambassador to the UN and ..."
Mrs Kirkpatrick took the view las islas malvinas really were argentinas
[ Sozza Nigh another foreign language ref - I know you are English only]

so their support was really slow in coming
yeah yeah I know the other one got knighted as a result of his support

[youngmafbog]

PP still peddling the Myth Trump willstart a war then. I'm afraid it was your beloved Hillary that Mr Putin said would start the war not The Donald.

Should we spend more? No I dont think so. We should start withdrawing from conflicts around the world and build a defence only force and contribute towards Nato (but only if the others cough up correctly).

Our forces are now dragged through the courts by unscrupulous scum lawyers so we should no longer be putting them in that position.

[Gromit]

The WSS budget won't go very far.
Better to cancel Trident and then use ththat money to buy some weapons that we might actually use. An aircraft carrier for instance.

[EDDIE51]

No, and we should immediately cancel Trident!

[youngmafbog]

No, Trident has probably more value than anything else if you have a reduced size home force.

[youngmafbog]

Well I suppose you would prefer a German run EU army Eddie?

[ToraToraTora]

yep spend the on defence by all means PP, also cut all foreign "aid" spend that...etc

[mikey4444]

I agree that we should cancel Trident. Traditionaly, under a Tory regime, defence spending is usually guaranteed.

But in the last 6.5 years, this situation with the RN has gotten worse, much worse. Not really sure why that is ?

[Peter Pedant]

// Well I suppose you would prefer a German run EU army Eddie?//

irrelevant to us - we are on our way out ( of the EU )

[ToraToraTora]

yes I agree eddie/Gromit we should keep whatever nuke system we have now, no need for Trident.

[Gromit]

We are talking about NATO and its members.
So the question should be:

Should we ibe spending more on defence to protect muslim Turkey?

[andy-hughes]

TTT - 0.7% of GDP is spent on foreign aid - I doubt you'd get a catapult for that at today's arms prices.

[Gromit]

WSS budget = £4.9Billion
Defence budget £35Billion.

[ToraToraTora]

0.7 * $2.8Trillion = $19.6billion, Buy a few dinghies for that Andy!

[ToraToraTora]

gromit:
WSS budget = £4.9Billion
Defence budget £35Billion.
ok so lets have WSS budget=£0, Defence Budget £39.9Billion