Keir Starmer planning to cut down British Armed Forces by 20,000

 

Plans announced as part of a Defence Review indicate that the British government led by Keir Starmer is planning to cut down the size of the British Armed Forces by 20,000 (down from present level of 73,000 including all branches). 

It must be said that barely 40,000 are actual trained combattant personnel. Such is the state of the British Armed Forces.

Manpower or lack of it is a very serious issue, but also material resources are critically absent. All of which renders Britain totally incapable in case of a real conflict involving Air Force, Navy and Army and other branches of the services.

Statements made by David Lammy beggar belief. The Foreign Secretary does not have a clue about what is he is actually saying and has no knowledge whatsoever when it comes to military matters. President Trump, during his first mandate as American President, made abondantly clear that each NATO member country should do its part. This is not just about Article 5. It is about Article 3 that commits every NATO member country to be self-reliant when it comes to self-preservation. Changes proposed by the Labour government goes in exactly the opposite direction, weakening Britain even more.

We must look beyond statements made by politicians regarding state of readiness. Britain is only ready to lose and budget constraints are not reassuring. It takes years to recruit and train military personnel. No matter how much money you have got, time is of the essence and time for Britain is running out.

Are monies going where voters want monies to go?

 

What we call Democracy are merely a collection of blank cheques to be used in many ways other than the ways voters want their monies to be used.

In every election, voters are asked to support a given candidate and/or political party and many attend polling stations or use other ways of voting to make a choice. But what choice are they really making? Apart from marking their ballots, what choices are they really making?

In actual fact, they are just giving away their decision making powers to individuals that they hardly know or that they hardly ever meet for the said individuals to do as they please. They are given away the entitlement to make decisions. They are giving away their rights.

Democracy is based on illusions. Democracy is a mirage. Democracy is fiction. And the consequences of maintaining fiction can be and usually have been  catastrophic, because all voters can do is to vote down a political party to replace it with yet another ilusion months or years later. We lie to ourselves pretending that things will be better if so or so gets elected.

Elections are about how monies are used and when it comes to how monies are going to be used we have no choice whatsoever. We have got no choice in terms of where the monies are going to be coming from or how monies are going to be spent. Decisions about where the monies are going to be coming from are arbitrary and decisions about where the monies are going to go are equally arbitrary.

What we call Peace is in actual fact an ongoing War in which those who have little bargaining power are bound to lose.

This is why voters should be able to keep in their pockets as much of their monies as possible and be able to make their own personal decisions. The numbers of those in employment are debatable as they don't tell us the truth about subemploment, the kind of employment leading to even greater poverty. If in spite of working long hours you don't get enough to have decent life then you are not employed and you are actually a slave. This is Modern Slavery. If we were to discriminate between those who earn enough and those who do not earn enough then the numbers of those in real employment would be much lower.  

EURO ERM New Chapter with both France and Germany's budget deficits exceeding the limits set up for the EURO

 

The days of the Exchange Rate Mechanism come back to haunt both France and Germany whose budget deficits have gone beyond the limits set up for the EURO. 

We remember both John Major and Norman Lamont making desperate efforst and selling British gold reserves as it there was no tomorrow to try and keep the value of the Pound that was collapsing. 

Now, the French political crisis is also an economic crisis and the fact that from now on there might be no government or a government kept hostage by a fragmented French Assembly says a lot. 

Only in July 2025 could President Emmanuel Macron dissolve the French Assembly and call new Parliamentary Elections. Although on a speech made the day after the vote that defeated the government and marked the end of Michel Barnier as Prime Minister the President promised to stay for the whole duration of his mandate that ends in 2027, doubts remain about what will happen in France until 2027 in terms of real governance. The question is 'who will actually rule France?' The country should not until 2027 be run by decree because of the President's lack of support in the French Assembly. And what does this mean for the European Union?

In January 2025 there should be a vote in the German Parliament to decide the fate of Olaf Scholz, followed by a Federal Election in February 2025. Once again, what happens to German budgets? Rule by decree? Germany represents 24 per cent of the European Union economy.

Both Germany and France need stable governance and the EU itself will be in great difficulty when two major players face such uncertainty.

On January 20th 2024, new challenges to the European Union economy could rise. Who will then be the negotiators. The Axe Berlin/Paris is in trouble.  

Michel Barnier on the way out? What next for France?

 

Michel Barnier was chosen as Prime Minister with a Parliament in which there is no Constitutional Majority to choose a Prime Minister.

Emannuel Macron appointed Michel Barnier as a pair of safe hands to guide France at a difficult time after Parliamentary Elections that generated more chaos than order.

Now, Michel Barnier could be outsted in a vote of confidence. After the Parliamentary Elections, the French government became hostage of adverse circumstances.

The next Presidential Election is due to take place in 2027 or wherever the French President resigns. If Emmanuel Macron were to resign, he could not stand again as Presidential Candidate. Such are the rules. Could the rules be broken to allow Emmanuel Macron to take part in yet another Presidential Election? While this is happening in France, in Germany Olaf Scholz faces a vote of confidence in January 2025 and possible Federal Elections in February 2025.

The two major players of the European Union are on the brink of a major upheaval in European politics and geopolitics.