Defense of the Realm

By Lex, on October 19, 2010

The decision to scrap HMS Ark Royal has even alarmed contributors to the left wing Guardian in the UK:

Today the Royal Navy is in danger of losing its main capability: that of being able to project such national power and authority that we have left to us – which is still considerable – wherever and whenever we chose to do so. “Talk softly, but have a big stick.” For centuries the navy has been the “big stick” that won us the greatest empire the world has ever seen – or ever will see again. This country is avowedly the seventh richest in the world, and is still greatly respected by many nations. However, we have sat on our laurels and for half a century since the end of the second world war we have been steadily disarming. By its end this country was spending 60% of its gross national product on the war which, Winston Churchill always maintained, could have been avoided had he been listened to in the early 1930s – the time of the great depression. We are now in almost precisely the same situation, and we should learn from history. For more than 20 years we have cut the budget for our armed forces year on year and poured the savings into the now bloated budgets of health, education and welfare that have seen increases of anything from 150% to 400%. At the same time the defence budget has been the sacrificial cow reduced by the same amount. We now invest barely 2p in every £1 of the nation’s GNP. We have a massive deficit (depression) yet we are still disarming. Our plea is stop it before we are weakened beyond redemption.

Even the Deity is invoked, for Gaia’s sake!