Why

[victor]

Is Starmer so intent on a war with Russia.
If it happens does he think Putin will wait till the submarines etc are operational?
Starmer won't even be in office by then or is it to deflect from his failure " to smash the gangs" bri ging the illegals over.

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[Kaz]

Of you mean the increased spending on defence, it's absolutely 100% necessary in the current climate.

[victor]

But my point is Kaz if Putin decides to attack UK he won't wait until all this stuff has been built and operational.
Should have been built years ago

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[Workingman]

Should have been built years ago.

But it wasn't, Vic, and that is the real point.

UK governments of all colours, and the West / NATO in general, were sucked in by Gorbachev and perestroika / glasnost, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the apparent end of the Cold War. We were going to be able to spend on things other than the military - hooray!

What got lost was the fact that militaries have to always be battle-ready otherwise there is no point to them. They are not there for parades and civil celebrations. The war in Ukraine and the actions of Iran and N. Korea have finally woken us up to that.

There is a meeting of all the NATO leaders in Den Haag later this month where there will be a call for military spending - forces, hardware and intelligence - to be raised to 5% of GDP by 2033 or thereabouts. It is not just a Starmer thing.

[cruiser2]

Why did Starmer anounce that new submarines are going to be built. He has given Russia advanced warning of what equipment we will have. They can now build
similar units and other defense equipment which will not be broadcast.

Starmer has done it for his own publicity which is falling fast

[medsec222]

The Defence Minister, John Healey, was unable to say exactly how many will be built and what the cost would be. It is a Government's first duty to defend the realm so we can only hope that they make a start. We have become too complacent as a Nation.

[Workingman]

I did try to explain why the whole of NATO became complacent when Gorbachev took over the old Soviet Union and moved it from Marxist / Leninism to Social Democracy. They all thought that would be the new order and set in stone, it was not only the UK. What they did not count on was Mad Vlad and it has now come back to bite us; hence the NATO meeting later this month.

As for announcing new hardware: why not? It is not as though we can build ships and submarines under a tarpaulin in a secret port on a quiet coast somewhere. Nor can we build modern aircraft without hangars and a runway for test flights. And as for aircraft carriers....

That also goes for Russia, China, Iran, N. Korea, in fact everyone. Everybody knows what everyone else is doing, up to a point, these things cannot be kept secret. Their capabilities will be top secret but their production is an open book.

[victor]

My point was ,is Putin gonna wait until all these new armaments are operational?
Starmer will be ancient history before then.
Where's the money coming from?
While the accountant robber reeves announces billions to be spent transport for the North.
Where's the money coming from?

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[Workingman]

So we should never build anything then, because Starmer will be history before completion? Well get this, if the 'always absent' St Nigel of Clacton was, by some miracle, to become PM even he would be history long before the work was completed, that goes for any PM.

And let's not forget that he and the members of his broom cupboard - he won't have enough MPs to form a cabinet - will also need to find the money from somewhere.

[Kaz]

I think it's good that "potential enemies" of whatever ilk are aware that this is being done. A show of strength.