WHATEVER readers may be thinking about the Government’s performance over Brexit, and let’s face it, they just don’t seem to have a plan at all. I was horrified to hear this week what the Conservative government are now proposing for the Royal Navy’s ships.
The ‘Harpoon’ ship to ship missiles, which give our frigates and destroyers a defensive range of 80 miles, are to be taken off next year, leaving them with just their deck guns, which have a maximum range of around 17 miles and nothing like the fire power. The helicopter missiles are also going to be retired in two years. With no plans for replacements until 2020 or beyond, that leaves the Royal Navy effectively disarmed for at least the next four years.
What are the government thinking? With even relatively small nations in possession of the Exocet that did so much damage to British ships in the Falklands 34 years ago, who is to say what danger our brave sailors will be sailing into in the years ahead?
If the Lib Dems had decided to do this they would have been branded traitors, or stupid, or both. How can the Tory government be allowed to play fast and loose with our security? Especially at a time when tensions around the world are on the rise? Couple this with the two new aircraft carriers without aircraft and the new frigates with dud engines, and Nelson would be weeping.
James Gray MP as a former defence spokesperson for his party should be ashamed of his Government’s incompetence.
A past American President Theodore Roosevelt said: “If you want peace, speak softly and carry a big stick”. With Boris Johnson making undiplomatic pronouncements from the Foreign Office and seemingly no-one in charge at the MoD, we are doing neither.
DR BRIAN MATHEW
Prospective Liberal Democrat MP for North Wiltshire