Proud to be British?

[klondike]

[JBR]

When I worked in the Middle East, along with Europeans and Americans, I held my head high, proudly in the knowledge that Britons were highly respected... yes, even by Americans.

Today, I'm grateful that I don't work, or even live, near to such people from other lands, as I'm afraid to say that I'd feel somewhat embarrassed.
I'm the same person.  Unfortunately, my country is certainly not what it once was.

[GrannyMac]

I used to feel lucky to be British.  I think we were a fortunate generation, perhaps not in every way, but in our values.  We were aware of the sacrifices and hardships of previous generations, and expected to play our part in contributing to the future.  

I don't know what is the future, as the proportions of work to benefits declines, and the something for nothing cohort increases daily.  Also we, the majority, are expected to accept the values and beliefs of people who don't like ours yet choose to settle here. 

[Ashy]

I appreciate that the state of the navy is worrying, but in the specific situation of Cyprus, the risk of attack is from the air, not the sea. Do they carry some defence system that can stop an aerial attack that isn't found in one of the air bases on Cyprus?

[klondike]

It's a frigate. They are used along with others in the protection force that accompanies aircraft carriers and as such will have sophisticated air defence capabilities - probably better than any base on Cyprus which wouldn't normally be expected to be in a war zone. We'll be shooting missiles worth £250k upwards to well over a £million at cheap drones powered by glorified lawnmower engines costing less than a quarter of the low end missiles. Apparently Iran has huge stockpiles of those along with ballistic missiles which do require expensive defenses knock down.

If the Yanks can destroy the all Iranian military then HMS Trotter will not be required  but it's a big ask - Iran is huge and those drones are pretty much big model aeroplanes which aren't hard to launch by people who know how and that is going to be a lot of the Iranians.

[Alex]

It's humiliating that France and even Greece were there to protect Cyprus before us.   Starmer must have known weeks ago when the US started moving their big boys towards the middle east.  The fact he didn't think about the threat to our base in Cyprus is just incompetence.

[JBR]

It's humiliating that France and even Greece were there to protect Cyprus before us.  Starmer must have known weeks ago when the US started moving their big boys towards the middle east.  The fact he didn't think about the threat to our base in Cyprus is just incompetence.

Of course he knew.  Like the coward he is, he chose not to get involved.  In fact, he chose not to involve us, which is pretty disgusting because I'm sure that most sensible British people would want to help defend our overseas territories.

What coward Starmer has done, and continues to do, may well encourage the Argies to attempt to take the Falklands again.  Unfortunately, with our present lack of armed forces and equipment, especially in the RN, I very much doubt us being able to retake them this time.

[klondike]

It's easy to blame Starmer but the main failings here must be the Navy and MoD. It's the job of the Navy to maintain their ships and surely the MoD should be advising him on situations affecting national security.  It would be up to him to authorise the actions they advise but as the thing wasn't even seaworthy when it was needed can't be down to just him.

[Alex]

But he's the PM, the buck stops here etc....

[klondike]

Oh I have no objection to him getting the blame but the other useless sods need some comeback too.