Whatever would Lord Nelson say?
Britain's Labour Government is in the process of doing what the Spanish, Napoleon,the Kaiser, Hitler and the Japanese found impossible.... sinking the British Fleet.
Britains' Telegraph has a sad, sad story on Labour's secret plans to slash the Navy to the bone:
"The Ministry of Defence has produced a plan to decommission five warships from next April, which would reduce the Navy's capability to the level where it could carry out only "one small-scale operation".
Separate documentation from inside the department suggests that the total number of ships in the Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary could fall from the present level of 103 to 76 in 2017 and only 50 in 2027 — a reduction of more than half.
The information has been supplied in an email from a whistleblowing official inside the MoD, who has given details of a row between senior officials in the department and Andy Burnham, the Treasury Chief Secretary, over the allocation of money to the MoD over the next three years.
The deal, sealed under the Comprehensive Spending Review and announced in July, gave the MoD an annual increase of 1.5 per cent above inflation for the years 2008-11.
However, it also contained a commitment to buy two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers, at a cost of £4 billion — meaning savings had to be found elsewhere if the MoD were to meet its "operational commitments."
The email reads: "The Chief Sec directed that no further money from the CSR would be allocated to Defence and to maintain force levels the Dept must find the savings/cuts.
"For the RN [Royal Navy], the poor CSR deal and the commitment to 2 carriers is such that a proposal for the immediate decommissioning of 5 ships (frigates and destroyers) from April next year has been considered.
"This would reduce the RN's capabilities to just one small scale operation and that is it."
Sources said that under the plan the Navy, once the pride of the Armed Forces, would be unable to provide anything like the 1982 Falklands task force."
I'd written a bit on this previously, around the time the British Navy pulled out of the Persian Gulf and apologized after after Iran took 15 of their sailors hostage.
Britain's Labour PM Gordon Brown has, like most of his party been historically anti-military. But since he attained office, he's been making noises as though he were a strong supporter of Britain's armed forces.
Obviously, he's running true to type, as Britain continues its historic retreat.
hat tip to Bookworm Room
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