As a retired Naval Officer who has watched the Tories destroy the UK Armed Forces, starting with John Knott's infamous cuts in the 1980 Defence Review; a review which directly lead to the Argentinian invasion of the Falkland Isles which in turn lead to friends being killed and maimed as we brought about their return on a shoestring. A conflict where we were almost down to our last round, with boots that maimed more Marines than the Argentinians with non freezing, cold injuries such as trench foot; I find it ignorant of the current Tory Defence minister to use the Torygraph newspaper to run down the proposed EU Joint Defence Agreement being pushed by France and Germany.
The UK's Brexit coupled with Trump's fascist ramblings and US trade attacks against Europe (whether the EU or Russia) makes it imperative the EU countries develop an effective replacement for NATO. The USA of Trump is an isolationist bully while the UK of Brexit will be reduced to the USA's lickspittle. The current UK armed forces can not meet thier NATO commitments and have to rely on Norway to fill the gap caused by the Tory Party's ending of the next uprating of the Nimrod marine patrol aircraft.
Nor is the RAF in a position to meet its commitment in Germany to provide close ground support to UK military elements posted in Germany in the case of any Russian or other incursion into EU / NATO alliance countries. The UK armoured division, which is in effect the current British Army in total, will be reliant on a handful of Apache helicopters operated by their own air corps for close ground support and this UK armoured division can only supply itself in combat for two weeks, thanks to Tory cuts.
As for the Royal Navy it does not have enough surface ships or submarines to protect its new aircraft carriers (even if they had servicable aircraft) which combined with the run down of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary severely limits the range of any cobbled together UK carrier task group and their effectiveness.
If I was a military adviser within the EU I would also be pushing hard for an EU alternative to the US dominated NATO and laugh my head off at the blustering, baloney and bruhaha coming from a Tory defence minister at Westminster speaking for the Pentagon. The proposed independent EU force reduces the Pentagon's ability to influence EU Government's to toe the USA's line over Syria, Isreal, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general, as just one example.
The self same Tory Minister's predecessor has instructed the MoD to create a scheme to attract back the very NCO's in all the services they recently binned because of the massive personnel holes created by theTory Treasury attempt to 'save' on military pensions by getting NCO's booted just before they reached their full pensionable entitlement. As an alternative they are offering sizable bounties to members of the reserve forces to go 'full time'. The problem for the Tories is simple, according to insider information, no one is buying it, the ex-NCOs and reserve personnel are not that stupid. The last time they tried this was when they realised post Falklands they had binned too many personnel or had seen them walk because of their treatment of returnees. The evidence is clear in the period since 1982, the Tories have singularly failed to learn their lesson that the members of the military these days are not the 'Tommy Atkins' of Kipling but due to the nature of modern combat are intelligent and have skills outside industry is happy to have. Even your average UK 'foot slogger' is more multi-skilled, able to multi-task and technologically savvy than his equivalent of even ten years ago.
The Tory Party is clearly unable to see past the idea it is the 'officer class', created on the playing fields of Eton, which count. As long as these chaps are onside all is well in the UK armed forces. Yet it is one of these very gentlemen who spoke to reporters from the UK media to tell them the UK can not afford both a conventional armed force and Trident. So where does this leave 'Man of the CND' Corbyn's claim to keep the Trident replacement program if he ever becomes UK Prime Minister.
At the same time as the UK Armed Forces spokespersons are pointing out the Tory fallacy on defense, US Bloombergs economic assessment is the UK economy is it has shrunk by 2.1% in the last year, the IMF is predicting the exodus of financial banks and companies from the City of London while Airbus and BMW have now joined Honda and Nissan in telling the Tory Government Brexit means the closure of their UK plants, the loss of jobs and further destruction of the UK economy.
Apparently the UK Foreign Secretary's response to all these warnings was, "Fuck business". This leaves the obvious comment of who is going to fund all the Tory's grandiose plans for yet another Heathrow runway, HS2 or funding Trident wide open. The Tories, after Brexit, will have to go cap in hand to either Wall Street or Frankfurt to get their funding, as the City of London will be skint and empty of the very commercial banks needed to raise the finance, after all who in their right mind is going to buy Bank of England Government Bonds? I can not envisage all those Tory Party funders reaching into their British Virgin tax avoidance accounts to cover the costs, can you?
Do we see any of the usual unionist media in Scotland asking these key questions of the Westminster Tories?
Nope, the BBC in Scotland are too busy peddling the Scotch Labour pish about NHS Scotland being in melt down. Yet I do not see any Scottish GP's clamouring to start charging patients just to see them, as is now common in parts of England where the likes of Virgin Care are running GP services.
The answer and only answer to the problem of the Tories impending fiscal difficulties versus its spending plans post Brexit will be to suck even more from its Scottish cash cow, give even less back and hike taxes to all but their bestest pals in British Virgin Islands hedge funds and the likes of the boss of INEOS or bosses of Capita; a company which is increasingly likely to go the same way as Carillion, for much the same reason. The Capita bosses are milking the company for all they can get plus there are the same big holes in the company's pension fund, just like Carillion.
So while the group that is basically a white supremacy for Scotland group, covered up in a fancy Gaelic cognomen, should be part of "Yes2" or "All under one banner" grips the independence movement in a fervent becomes very small beer in comparison to the shafting that is to come for Scotland post Brexit, from the Tories and their avaricious pals. The reality is the sentiment of the group's banner is pretty accurate with regards to what is and will happen under any future Tory Government and if Scottish Tories, who support independence, are offended by the banner maybe it is to themselves they should be looking.
Dealing with "Soiling the Gaeltach" is for afterwards, once we have gained Scottish Independence. They have little real traction within the independence movement, and need starved of the oxygen of publicity rather than the amount of airing their odious views are presently getting within the Indy Movement. They are a mere midgy bite compared to the neo-fascist, Trumpian state the Tory party intends to create in the UK and consume Scotland's resources within.
Focus on what is important; not on what annoys you or you think may annoy someone else.
All that is important is by 2020 Scotland is once again an independent nation.
The UK's Brexit coupled with Trump's fascist ramblings and US trade attacks against Europe (whether the EU or Russia) makes it imperative the EU countries develop an effective replacement for NATO. The USA of Trump is an isolationist bully while the UK of Brexit will be reduced to the USA's lickspittle. The current UK armed forces can not meet thier NATO commitments and have to rely on Norway to fill the gap caused by the Tory Party's ending of the next uprating of the Nimrod marine patrol aircraft.
Nor is the RAF in a position to meet its commitment in Germany to provide close ground support to UK military elements posted in Germany in the case of any Russian or other incursion into EU / NATO alliance countries. The UK armoured division, which is in effect the current British Army in total, will be reliant on a handful of Apache helicopters operated by their own air corps for close ground support and this UK armoured division can only supply itself in combat for two weeks, thanks to Tory cuts.
As for the Royal Navy it does not have enough surface ships or submarines to protect its new aircraft carriers (even if they had servicable aircraft) which combined with the run down of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary severely limits the range of any cobbled together UK carrier task group and their effectiveness.
If I was a military adviser within the EU I would also be pushing hard for an EU alternative to the US dominated NATO and laugh my head off at the blustering, baloney and bruhaha coming from a Tory defence minister at Westminster speaking for the Pentagon. The proposed independent EU force reduces the Pentagon's ability to influence EU Government's to toe the USA's line over Syria, Isreal, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East in general, as just one example.
The self same Tory Minister's predecessor has instructed the MoD to create a scheme to attract back the very NCO's in all the services they recently binned because of the massive personnel holes created by theTory Treasury attempt to 'save' on military pensions by getting NCO's booted just before they reached their full pensionable entitlement. As an alternative they are offering sizable bounties to members of the reserve forces to go 'full time'. The problem for the Tories is simple, according to insider information, no one is buying it, the ex-NCOs and reserve personnel are not that stupid. The last time they tried this was when they realised post Falklands they had binned too many personnel or had seen them walk because of their treatment of returnees. The evidence is clear in the period since 1982, the Tories have singularly failed to learn their lesson that the members of the military these days are not the 'Tommy Atkins' of Kipling but due to the nature of modern combat are intelligent and have skills outside industry is happy to have. Even your average UK 'foot slogger' is more multi-skilled, able to multi-task and technologically savvy than his equivalent of even ten years ago.
The Tory Party is clearly unable to see past the idea it is the 'officer class', created on the playing fields of Eton, which count. As long as these chaps are onside all is well in the UK armed forces. Yet it is one of these very gentlemen who spoke to reporters from the UK media to tell them the UK can not afford both a conventional armed force and Trident. So where does this leave 'Man of the CND' Corbyn's claim to keep the Trident replacement program if he ever becomes UK Prime Minister.
At the same time as the UK Armed Forces spokespersons are pointing out the Tory fallacy on defense, US Bloombergs economic assessment is the UK economy is it has shrunk by 2.1% in the last year, the IMF is predicting the exodus of financial banks and companies from the City of London while Airbus and BMW have now joined Honda and Nissan in telling the Tory Government Brexit means the closure of their UK plants, the loss of jobs and further destruction of the UK economy.
Apparently the UK Foreign Secretary's response to all these warnings was, "Fuck business". This leaves the obvious comment of who is going to fund all the Tory's grandiose plans for yet another Heathrow runway, HS2 or funding Trident wide open. The Tories, after Brexit, will have to go cap in hand to either Wall Street or Frankfurt to get their funding, as the City of London will be skint and empty of the very commercial banks needed to raise the finance, after all who in their right mind is going to buy Bank of England Government Bonds? I can not envisage all those Tory Party funders reaching into their British Virgin tax avoidance accounts to cover the costs, can you?
Do we see any of the usual unionist media in Scotland asking these key questions of the Westminster Tories?
Nope, the BBC in Scotland are too busy peddling the Scotch Labour pish about NHS Scotland being in melt down. Yet I do not see any Scottish GP's clamouring to start charging patients just to see them, as is now common in parts of England where the likes of Virgin Care are running GP services.
The answer and only answer to the problem of the Tories impending fiscal difficulties versus its spending plans post Brexit will be to suck even more from its Scottish cash cow, give even less back and hike taxes to all but their bestest pals in British Virgin Islands hedge funds and the likes of the boss of INEOS or bosses of Capita; a company which is increasingly likely to go the same way as Carillion, for much the same reason. The Capita bosses are milking the company for all they can get plus there are the same big holes in the company's pension fund, just like Carillion.
So while the group that is basically a white supremacy for Scotland group, covered up in a fancy Gaelic cognomen, should be part of "Yes2" or "All under one banner" grips the independence movement in a fervent becomes very small beer in comparison to the shafting that is to come for Scotland post Brexit, from the Tories and their avaricious pals. The reality is the sentiment of the group's banner is pretty accurate with regards to what is and will happen under any future Tory Government and if Scottish Tories, who support independence, are offended by the banner maybe it is to themselves they should be looking.
Dealing with "Soiling the Gaeltach" is for afterwards, once we have gained Scottish Independence. They have little real traction within the independence movement, and need starved of the oxygen of publicity rather than the amount of airing their odious views are presently getting within the Indy Movement. They are a mere midgy bite compared to the neo-fascist, Trumpian state the Tory party intends to create in the UK and consume Scotland's resources within.
Focus on what is important; not on what annoys you or you think may annoy someone else.
All that is important is by 2020 Scotland is once again an independent nation.
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