We have enormous obstacles to overcome both nationally and internationally. A Prime Minister must inspire respect and confidence. Financially, politically and militarily, Britain is in the eye of the storm. The world looks at who is the British Prime Minister, almost in the same manner the world looks at who is the President of the USA.
More than ever before we need reassurance and the biggest problem for all concerned is that at the moment no British Prime Minister and no potential British Prime Minister inspires confidence and respect. Short-termism, hesitation, no sense of direction with decisions made today replaced the following day with decisions that go in exactly the opposite direction does not inspire confidence. Ordinary people are asking what those who represent them and those who stand to represent actually stand for and we don't get any credible information about the state of the parties.
It is usually said that we get what we vote for, but at this point in time we not even know what we are voting for. When you ask all the logical questions and either you don't get answers or get soundbites or fabrications instead of proper answers, when you are given a description that is totally at odds with reality, you have every reason to be concerned.
For more than a year we have heard talk about all kinds of very serious potential confrontations but when we look at the state of preparedness to deal with the said confrontations, what do we see? Total British military manpower: 73,000. There is talk of reducing the British Armed Forces by ten percent. How can anybody trust that what we are told is the truth, all the truth and nothing but the truth? In plain language, we cannot trust and we instinctively know that speeches and reality do not fit in. You cannot expect any serious participation in any military conflict given the size of British Armed Forces. We are not fit to fight in any external conflict and we are not even fit to defend the realm. When you are forced to use big ships to patrol British coastal waters and you are failing to keep Britain safe, you are not fit to fight any kind of war. Protecting borders is a sine qua non requirement for any country and Britain is failing to protect its own borders.
Thousands upon thousands of undocumented men in fighting age are entering Britain every year and what do the powers that are do about it? In fact, the numbers of those entering the country illegally vastly surpass the total numbers of the British Armed Forces that for many years have been suffering recruitment difficulties. When you look at recent announcement in terms of working conditions for members of the Armed Forces with the smallest salary adjustments when compared to other branches of the adminstration and of the private sector, you can immediately understand that this leads to widespread demolization. To start with, you can only have accommodation as long as you are a serving member of the Armed Forces, accommodation that you will no longer have once your leave the British Armed Forces. Then you will have to procure your own accommodation at market prices and you will not be able to save enough to do so because a private, for example, earns less than half the monies earned by a bus driver. When leaving the Armed Forces you will be poorer and force to leave in much worse conditions.
Neither the government nor the Opposition seem to care about the state of the British Armed Forces. Ben Wallace MP, the now leaving Secretary State of Defense, talks about quality being more important than quantity as justification for a ten per cent reduction of manpower. Well, in an international conflict you will need both quality and quantity and the British Armed Forces are getting neither.
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