Alex Candlin – Forces.net Apr 23, 2024
The Prime Minister has announced that the UK will spend 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence by 2030.
Rishi Sunak pledged that an extra £75bn would be spent on defence as a continuation of a commitment made by the Conservative Party under former PM Boris Johnson.
Mr Sunak said: “In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent.
“As our adversaries align, we must do more to defend our country, our interests, and our values,” said Mr Sunak.
“That is why today I am announcing the biggest strengthening of our national defence for a generation.
“We will increase defence spending to a new baseline of 2.5% of GDP by 2030 – a plan that delivers an additional £75bn for defence by the end of the decade and secures our place as by far the largest defence power in Europe.”
Mr Sunak, who set out the plan during his visit to Warsaw, Poland, alongside Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, went on: “Today is a turning point for European security and a landmark moment in the defence of the United Kingdom.
“It is a generational investment in British security and British prosperity, which makes us safer at home and stronger abroad.”
The Chancellor has joined Prime Minister @RishiSunak & Defence Secretary @grantshapps in Poland as the UK announces a plan to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
It’s with an improving economy, that we're able to make this commitment to peace & security in Europe. pic.twitter.com/tAhggIGAiT
— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) April 23, 2024
Despite the commitment, some in the Conservative party have called for GDP to be increased to 3%, including Defence Secretary Grant Shapps.
Following the announcement, shadow defence secretary John Healey said: “As Keir Starmer recently set out, Labour wants to see a fully funded plan to reach 2.5%, but the Tories have shown time and time again that they cannot be trusted on defence and we will examine the detail of their announcement closely.
“The British public will judge ministers by what they do not what they say. Since 2010, the Conservatives have wasted more than £15bn mismanaging defence procurement, shrunk the Army to its smallest size since Napoleon, missed their recruitment targets every year, and allowed morale to fall to record lows.”
Under the new spending plan, the UK defence budget will increase immediately and then rise steadily to reach £87bn at the end of the decade.
The UK has also pledged to spend a record £500m on Ukrainian aid, taking the amount spent this financial year up to £3bn.
🚨🇬🇧 BREAKING: @RishiSunak announces the UK will increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP.
In a world of increasing threats, the Conservatives will ensure this country always stands up for British interests, deters our enemies and defends our values. pic.twitter.com/om5rOH6nSg
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) April 23, 2024
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “It speaks to Britain’s global role that, with an improving economy, we are able to make this commitment to peace and security in Europe.
“It also sends the clearest possible message to Putin that as other Nato European countries match this commitment, which they will, he will never be able to outspend countries that believe in freedom and democracy.”
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said: “As I argued in my Lancaster House speech earlier this year, we are living in a much more dangerous world.
“Between Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Iran and its proxies seeking to escalate deadly conflict, and China flexing its muscles, there can be no doubt that the era of the peace dividend is clearly over.
“The mounting threats we face mean we must invest in defence if we are to continue to defend our values, freedoms and prosperity.
“Today’s announcement marks the single greatest strengthening of our defence since the Cold War, which will support jobs, boost growth, and strengthen our incredible Armed Forces as a modern fighting force.”
A different perspective. In the context of the realities at that time.
(I think this fella did say he’d be proved right eventually)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QgXIFzQi0Y
Meanwhile local governments in the UK are going bankrupt, so that local taxes will rise inevitably, and the road infrastructure, which is the responsibility of local governement, is neglected beyond belief, as well as other local facilities. If Russia was offered the UK as a free gift, it would kindly refuse it, as indeed it would do so to a declining EU. But meanwhile the US weapons corporations will gladly take UK money in exchange for their new wonder weapons that will keep out an enemy that has no interest in conflict with a depressed UK.
This spending increase won’t even touch UK capabilities.
We are about to get the new Challanger 3 tank. They’ll probably order around 100 tanks, and 75 will be immediately mothballed, as they did with C2 tanks.
The devastating Sea Viper missile was found to be useless, so the Nazi regime found £408 million, to upgrade the warheads, and improve the software, and save 350 job. We have nearly £8 billions worth of aircraft carrier, and they aren’t reliable, or even useable, given that the UK would need to build around 30 new ships and 4 submarines, just to operate these carriers, but the truth, Nazi UK can’t afford to run them. Old data, but a US carrier strike group costs around $12 million per day to run. Let’s say tight arsed UK can run a carrier strike group for £9 million per day. That’s over £6.5 billion to run both CSGs. Actual combat costs takes this through the roof. One destroyer in the Middle East can burn through £80 million in missiles in just one day, and they head to a friendly port who has the missiles to reload the ships, so one round trip with shipping missiles to the port, we’re talking about £230 million. To set this in context, we are talking cheap, because the RN aren’t engaging with the Houties, we can’t afford it, neither can the Nazi Yanks. It has been revealed that Israel spent over $3 billion defending the country from one Iranian attack. Iran probably spent $100 million.
The MIC be that in Amerika, or the UK, is a toxic pile of shit. This increased military spend should be seen a pure QE.
If it drives us into the ground quicker maybe it’s for the best.
Britain presently spends fifty billion a year on the military (please don’t call it ‘defence’ – its for warmaking, it doesn’t defend anything.) which is around two thousand pounds per taxpayer per year on average. If
“Under the new spending plan, the UK defence budget will increase immediately and then rise steadily to reach £87bn at the end of the decade,”
that is an extra 37 billion pa – not “an extra £75bn. “
“UK Leading in a more Dangerouis World”…
sending “the clearest possible message to Putin… that he will never be able to outspend countries that believe in freedom and democracy”
..defending “our freedom and values”
– Sh!tsak.. C*nt.. Schnapps… Farmer
——————
Oh dear…. even judging by ZOGUK’s typical “standards” of “Sucking-Up to The Synagogue Of Satan”… these jokers are plumbing previously-unexplored ‘Depths Of Delusion’….
all wrapped up, of course, in a nice patriotic saccharine-coated poison-pill to get THICK Brits pounding their chests & saluting the flag… even as their country is being overun by the Third World… courtesy of the SAME duplicitous dipshits above warning about Russia!
LMFAO!!!😅😂🤓
The British government will run out of money even quicker if they ban smoking. Perhaps Sunak thinks if the Tories will be out of office a long time he can cause funding problems for whichever government has to deal with the huge drop in duty when his ban comes in, because no government cares about the health of those who can’t afford to go private. There has to be other reasons.
I read 30 years ago when I was still a smoker the duty levied on tobacco was 380%, meaning for every £1.00 spent on tobacco it cost £4.80 after duty. That’s why there’s already a black market for tobacco and prohibition will just make gangland richer. It’s because nicotine is so addictive the government can mark it up like that, making it the biggest drug dealer in the country. No way can it replace such a lucrative income stream, and crime organised around tobacco will rise just as government income crashes.
Hehe…
Defence spending…. presumably to refit some of the antiques in the war museum (MOD)..which is what they always do..of course the new stuff never actually works anyway…so they sell it to Arabs…along with a lot of the old stuff too… that way they can avoid another Dunkirk..
An acquaintance was actually a machine code monkey for the MOD a good few years ago…
That was when they ran the supposed nuclear deterrent on a flavour of XP..even now I still have a chuckle when you hear that the Fraggles of Westmonster are spending 500 million on new computer systems…
perhaps you remember the new systems for the NHS death machine that were all ‘ransome-wared’ some years back… ..all of em sporting bright RED script…coff up cunts… and a DELL badge…
….yup all XP..with an upgrade to Seven… if you can call it an upgrade…Still Bill was smiling..he’s always messed around with virii…
I think western governments, particularly the English-speaking ones, will want to help themselves to our money by using AI to delve deeply into everybody’s financial affairs. They can’t start out saying this so they say they want to investigate those on benefits for fraud etc, and the idiots out there say, “Yeah, I’m okay with that!” They’re too dumb or vindictive to realise benefit claimants don’t have any money to go after; they’re just the tip of the wedge. It’s those WITH money the government will want to go in and skim.
After they can go after benefit claimants which includes wage tops-ups, child benefit, pensions etc, then they’re in. It’s just one small step to go after everybody else then for taxes due, unpaid fines and so forth.
There is no need to “spend” anything if you have your own country, you make the things you need on your own territory
Sunak: “In a world that is the most dangerous it has been since the end of the Cold War, we cannot be complacent.”
Well, who exactly has made the world so “dangerous” that everyone is spending billions and billions on the MIC?
Coincidentally, it the US & UK led NATO nations behind most of the terrorist organizations and instigating most of the wars.