Defence forces: Our policy of neglect is reckless
Whether the commissioning of such an intimidating weapon is an anachronistic doffing of a threadbare cap to older ideas or a practical determination, as prime minister Theresa May insisted, by Britain to maintain its position as a “great global maritime nation” is a political question brought into sharp focus by the conflict between US president Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. One way or another, the project represents an extraordinary commitment of national resources to defence.
That accusation cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be levelled at our Government. A litany of defence force representatives and retired officers — or those lured to the private sector — have warned that our faith in today’s defence forces is misplaced. Those voices speak as one and warn that services undermined for so very long are not capable of delivering an appropriate response to atrocities like yesterday’s in Barcelona. That those warnings were current long before Brexit became a very real issue shows how serious the situation has become. Like many State services, our defence forces are chronically understaffed and underfunded. We have seen how this can have disastrous consequences.
