Every few years, one wonders how our stupid political leaders managed to get elected. After Rachel Reeves actions to depress the economy by raising NI and other taxes, we have Keir Starmer saying that the UK was willing to put “boots on the ground and planes in the air” to defend any future Ukraine peace deal.
The PM said the UK and other European countries were willing to defend Ukraine militarily if a peace deal with Russia is agreed – that sounds like a defence agreement like Britain made with Poland before World War II which the UK had neither the resources nor geographic capability to uphold. An enormously expensive war was the result.
The PM might be trying to impress his fellow European leaders and they are probably quite happy to let the UK take the lead on spending money and killing soldiers in a war for Ukraine but it makes no sense to me. This tub-thumping rhetoric is plain daft to my mind. It will be a red rag to a bull so far as Putin is concerned.
The only positive is that shares of defence companies have soared on the prospect of more revenues and profits (for example, I hold QinetiQ – up 8% this morning). Taking the funding out of the AID budget makes sense but I would still prefer peace to war.
I shall write to my Member of Parliament on this subject and encourage him to change the approach of his leader. I suggest you do the same. See https://www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson )
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