MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: Find the money to make Britain a respected military ... trends now

View
comments

Because of our mighty past, and because of our victory over global evil in 1945, most British people tend to assume that this country has always been and remains a major military power in the world.

But there are worrying signs that this confidence is misplaced. Of course there are still many fine military units, notably our Special Forces. And there is some outwardly impressive new equipment, such as the Navy’s two new aircraft carriers and the ultra-modern F-35 jets, which fly from them.

But since the end of the Cold War, now 30 years ago, governments of both major parties have taken the opportunity of the so-called ‘Peace Dividend’.

They have felt free to switch spending away from the Armed Forces to education, welfare and health. They have also continued to devote very large parts of the defence budget to maintaining our increasingly costly nuclear deterrent.

Bit by bit, this policy has eaten away our conventional strength. At the end of the Cold War, there was a pledge to maintain ‘about 50’ surface ships, such as destroyers and frigates, in the Navy. That number is now closer to 20. The Army has undergone an even steeper decline, from around 150,000 soldiers in 1990 to 80,000 now.