British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday (9 July) said he would fulfil a campaign commitment to increase UK defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, but underlined he would only do so when the country could afford it and after a review of defence strategy.
  • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    143·
    3 months ago

    Good. The UK’s military (just like seemingly everything else lol) saw a major hit under the Conservatives.

    The world is, unfortunately, becoming more hostile and Europe needs to be prepared for this.

              • 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                2·
                3 months ago

                Are you against military spending in general or against the oppurtunity costs of military spending for something specific?

                • meep_launcher@lemm.eeEnglish
                  4·
                  3 months ago

                  I think this guy is a revisionist Tankie. Russia and China have a history of expansionism and conduct provocative military exercises near NATO and Southeast Asian country borders.

                  Best to ignore them and they can sit in the mud of downvotes for others to read and realize they are full of beans.

          • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            You’re joking, right? Russia regularly threatens to nuke the UK, has done several misinformation campaigns in our political system, and even carried out an assassination using fucking chemical weapons on British soil. Sounds pretty hostile to me.

            China has spoken at length about intending to take back Taiwan, an ally, and the west can’t let that happen, it would be disastrous. They also had a violent crackdown on Hong Kong which the UK has a unique vested interest in for obvious reasons, state-sponsored Chinese hackers have on multiple occasions targeted UK institutions, including hospitals and the Ministry of Defence.

            And yes, various other countries. What, you think nowhere is hostile? There’s active battle against Houthis who are attacking merchant and military vessels right now, for example.

            If you think countries don’t need defensive capabilities, you are wrong. You’d think that would be plainly obvious right now, considering a country in Europe is being fucking invaded right now.