Ukraine

I had to laugh at the shocking new revelation delivered by a high up military officer. He said quite solemly that the UK are depleting their capabilities by sending arms to Ukraine. I reckon a 12 year old could have worked that one out.

Two things spring to mind -

- Russia are also weaker through fighting Ukraine,
- the UK have 29 other nato members ready to defend us.

Another slow news day.

I reckon best to send kit to Ukraine and fight the battle there - to stop it coming over here.

The factory that made Challenger 2 tanks has shut down. A foreign company is upgrading the current Challenger 2 to make them 3. They will not be all new tanks. Rishi needs to shake a leg and get his act together for uk made munitions and kit.

Putin will not be happy that the eu's 10th package of sanctions is rolling up on the 24th. Closing the loopholes that he has used to bypass the existing tech sanctions.

 

Really? Who?

The good old US of A are quick enough to ask for our help when they start one of their wars, but they were nowhere to be seen when the Falklands got invaded.

The next most credible NATO force I'd say is France. Britain has always had an interesting relationship with them. Germany has lost its backbone. In the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine they effectively said 'nought to do with me mate' and even refused permission for Britain and allies to fly equipment over it's airspace in case they got told off by Putin. Turkey is a NATO member on paper only, unable to decide who to side with, with strong ties to Russia. I think I'd trust Poland, especially in the context of threats from Russia. They're a tough bunch but as I understand it they're not well equipped.

Bottom line is I'm not entirely sure that our NATO membership offers us that much protection and I certainly hope our esteemed leaders aren't counting on it when making their decisions.

 

Sounds like you are suggesting another Dunkirk.

 

Nah; we don't have the boats left to do that.

 

We didn't have enough boats then. Well not actual military ones anyway. From the history as I understand it, a lot of the boats involved in the initial assault were barely more than barges, and in the evacuation there was everything from pleasure cruisers down to little fishing cobbles involved.

 

Quite right, but these days the barges and lighters are no more, most of the small fishing boats, the larger fishing boats went decades ago, most of the ferries have gone and certainly no longer UK owned. Most small pleasure boats barely move from the marinas.
Then throw in the cost of fuel, lack of insurance cover and having to be back for the start of the big match.
Nah still holds.
We could probably put together a flotilla of wind surfers and body boarders

 

The thing was they needed small boats to get the troops off the actual beaches as I believe there was only one possibly two berths for large ships and they were being bombed all the time.

 

Actually thinking about it given the much reduced size of the Army, we'd probably only need to rescue about 5000, probably less.

 

Very interesting John, an amazing escape, you must be very proud.

 

Did I hear the PM just say we will be training Ukrainian pilots in the use of modern warplanes?
Sounds like we are going to let them have some of out planes now.