| By johnredwood on March 28, 2026 | There was meant to be a debate on Thursday in the Lords on national security and civil preparedness for war. I put in to speak. It was cancelled as votes delayed the progress of business and the government decided to defer the debate. As it is topical let me make some of the points here. Our country is not properly defended if we rely too heavily on imports for our food and civilian necessities, and for the raw materials, components and whole systems for weapons. The bitter experiences of the last two big wars reminds us that our more modest reliance on imports then was a dangerous vulnerability leading to atrocious losses of commercial shipping under fire from submarines and aircraft. Our long years in the Common Agricultural Policy, stopped us producing enough milk and butter by restricted quotas, crippled our beef industry following disease, paid us to grub up our orchards and grabbed market share for imports in vegetables. Our industry now only delivers 62% of our food, compared to 78% in 1984 and higher in 1972. In 1939 there was plenty of capacity to produce the steel and chemicals we needed for weapons. Factories were turned over to making planes, guns and ships as we had the know how and skills. Today there are just two steel blast furnaces left. The government will probably close them after paying a fortune for losses in the meantime. The government’s refusal to get more of our own oil and gas out is helping a collapse in our petro chemical industry. 2 of our 6 refineries have closed under this government, an olefins plant, a bioethanol plant, a big fibreglass plant and others. Ineos has announced withdrawal from UK investment. Huntsman has threatened closure of its chemicals business. Modern weapons systems also require plenty of computing power. The UK does not have the capacity to make more complex semi conductors, and the UK is very reliant on US technology in general. Farming grants policy needs to be reoriented away from wilding and solar farms to rewarding and fostering more food production. There needs to be a big change of energy policy, and a removal of emissions trading and carbon tax schemes, to rebuild are high energy using and gas feedstock industries. We need to restore our abilities to feed ourselves, to supply our energy, and to have the ability to make a lot of weapons in a hurry if our islands come under threat again. | By johnredwood on March 27, 2026 | The Defence Secretary yesterday was unable to tell an interviewer how many frigates he has in the Royal Navy. After embarrassing stumbles he said there are 17 frigates and destroyers combined. The Wikipedia answer is to list 7 named frigates and 6 destroyers. You would have thought he would know these figures as he should have been puzzling for the last month on how to find one destroyer for Cyprus and a destroyer or frigate to lead a NATO exercise. Surely he asked how many there were and asked why they could only free one when he needed two. You would expect he had enough interest in his 13 main surface vessels plus the two aircraft carriers to have talked to officials long before about where they were and what they were doing. I have asked before how come only one of our fifteen main surface ships could put to sea, and that after a delay. I have had people respond defending the idea that most of the ships most of the time should be undergoing maintenance at home. I disagree. More must be available and more should be on. missions flying the flag and offering reassurance to our allies and bases abroad by turning up. This government has withdrawn the last mineseeker from the Middle East. It decommissioned a frigate stationed in Bahrain shortly before the Iran war. It failed to supervise the maintenance and deployment of ships , allowing too many to undergo leisurely repair. The Defence Secretary has failed comprehensively. The UK gets far too little force for its substantial spend. The MOD whilst pressing for a bigger budget needs to get a lot sharper at buying equipment, and needs to sort out the excessive numbers of senior officers relative to the numbers of troops and sailors. | By johnredwood on March 26, 2026 | Not content with giving our sovereignty away to the EU in the reset and our money away to many foreign governments, EU students and migrants, the government is busily undermining our defences. They want to give away the freehold of our important base at Diego Garcia to a non nuclear state friendly with China. This naval base is crucial to defending trade routes in the Middle East and Indian ocean. They failed to defend our base in Cyprus leading to demands from Cyprus and the EU that we reconsider that base, crucial to our interests in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. They have negotiated a Treaty with the EU giving them powers over the Gibraltar border and airport, a crucial part of our air and naval base there. They have watched as Ukraine has shown the importance of drones to modern warfare without putting in UK capacity to build and use drones in our own armed forces. They have seen the growing potency of fast ballistic missiles in the Middle East without strengthening our home defences against these. Why is there no plan and no urgency to defend these islands against drone and missile attack? When need arose to provide air defence cover for shipping and bases in the Middle East they had no naval vessel available to do the job. Most of our frigates and destroyers were undergoing slow maintenance at the same time with no thought for the need to have any of our 13 frigates and destroyers available to defend us. Our two carriers also stayed at home. Why? What ‘s the point of a navy with plenty of admirals and no ships at sea? Two recent wars show the need to rearm . Our Nato commitments require us to rearm. Where is the defence plan? Where is the money? Where above all is the sovereign will even to defend our islands? TAP – Westminster wants England destroyed in whatever way they can achieve this outcome. The best way to avoid war is to stop supporting Israel, and negotaite with Russia, Iran et al as equals entitled to their own countries and lives. The problem is the UK has become a Zionist state as has the USA and this is clearly the problem with the EU. England should exit the UK and reject Zionist control. If the US can find its way out of control by Israel and Zionist power, or some of its states can, England can also. Support The English Democrats as Reform UK is clearly also another Zionist infiltrated entity. Restore Britain needs to move to independence for the component countries of Britain, and is on a better track. | By johnredwood on March 25, 2026 | The Chancellor yesterday underwhelmed with her limited package of measures and he assurance she had plans for the cost of living too secret to reveal. She announced action by the Competition authorities against price gouging. That will require proof that it is happening first.Tax and world prices are the main reasons oil and oil products are so dear. She will fail to cut fuel duty, VAT or energy taxes. She did say she will look at removing some tariffs on food which could be helpful. There was nothing on high interest rates, high spending or high borrowing.These could cause serious problems ahead. There was one good idea, some cuts in tariffs on food from outside the EU. Why has she not thought through which ones. When will she tell us and actually cut some food prices ? | | | |
