Bashing the Liberal Democrat defence and security position is not confined to Think Defence.
Jedibeeftrix makes some excellent points on why a Liberal Democrat government would be very very bad for the country.
Based on the enthusiasm for EU integration this blog believes that the Lib-Dems would opt for the Contributory doctrine lite, based on the principle that strategic power projection is no longer desirable, and maintaining sovereign force will be unnecessary under EU defence.
Have a read of the piece, here
I’m beginning to get a hint of an anti lib dem agenda here. Not that I favour their position on defence or the EU but I would like to see the same amount of affort put into investigating the Labour and conservative defence plans.
Aaron, I was concerned about seeming anti one party or another but we can only go on what is put in front of the electorate, so far the Lib Dems seem to be the only party at least putting any ideas forward.
As for analysis of the others, have a look here
http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/tag/election-2010/
and some of the earlier posts in the FDR section that looked at the precursors to their policy statements, green papers and think tank publications
http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/category/fdr/
Yes, the earlier, broad brush approach to the parties did avoid singling anyone out as more, or less, worthy of support than the others. Mind you, it does look like the Lib Dems would have done better to have just kept their mouth shut.
I think (and my opinion is worth very little . . .) that Think Defence would do well to avoid criticism of individual parties and to stay as neutral as possible. Lobbying by informed members of the armed forces and the public, as seem to be found at Think Defence, is more effective if it’s not seen to be motivated by a party political agenda.
Aaron, I don’t have a party political agenda but they all seem equally lacking to me
Hi Aaron,
I have covered pretty much every participant in the FDR debate, have a look here:
http://jedibeeftrix.wordpress.com/category/military/
I am less anti-Lib-Dem than I am anti-the-disaster-that-is-there-policy.
I set out to be impartial, but I admit to annoyance that the document is so empty and vacuous, these people could be leading us shortly.
Regards
Jedibeeftrix, may I suggest that you send your critique to Lib Dem headquarters? Can’t do any harm and maybe, just maybe, it could do a lot of good.
oh, and do a similar job on the Scottish Nationalists too, please!
lol, i didn’t realise the SNP had a defence policy, but i’ll certainly give it a look.
The SNP have a defence policy beyond the usual rubbish about trident and the odd grumble? That is indeed news to me. All I’ve seen is them have a moan about a so called defence under spend in Scotland and the moan about how insecure Kinloss and Lossie are in regards to their long term future.
As for the Lib Dems I don’t trust them in foreign affairs including defence and immigration domestically some of their stuff is pretty good and I would support it. However none of the three main parties want to give us a proper EU referendum or simply withdraw from the EU which is what I would like to see. Oh and Labour and the Lib Dems who don’t agree with people of the same opinion as me or even the tough but still in conservatives decide to label us as isolationists and other rubbish. What planet do they live on?
The main problem is none of them are telling us the truth especially not Labour who know the true state of the balance sheet each of them still need to enact massive cuts to public spending. Apparently the Lib Dem plans are slightly better than either the Conservatives or Labour and I can honestly see a hung parliament and possibly another general election within a couple of months to a year.
@ Euan –
“Apparently the Lib Dem plans are slightly better than either the Conservatives or Labour”
Their have revealed slightly more of how their deficit reduction is going to be funded, whether their plan is better is a matter for some debate.
Labour are 2:1 cuts/taxes
Lib-Dems are 2.5:1 cuts/taxes
Cons are 4:1 cuts/taxes
When you consider that Britian is heading towards a national debt of 400% of GDP I personally want cuts:
Page 8 onwards:
http://www.bis.org/publ/work300.pdf
Jedi yeah sorry I could have put that a bit better they have been a bit more transparent about what they would do than the other parties but then again they have nothing to lose or not as much to lose. They are all massively short something like 80% short of where they need to be according to something I glimpsed at on the BBC news website which is both frustrating and depressing at the same time.
I’m really worried about what is coming after the election because a hung parliament would be good if the economy is solid and we were not hanging by a thread over bankruptcy and calling in the IMF etc. If Labour get re-elected with the help of all their current electioneering spin then frankly the country is going down the shitter but hey ho history shows us what happens when labour gets into power for a while. The Liberal Democrats as I mentioned before I don’t trust as far as I can throw them in some aspects but some of their plans are better and clearer than the other big two however they have no experience. That leaves the Tories which I have some problems with not least the whole cult of David Cameron thing they are also not being open and honest enough for my liking in certain things. Although to be fair to them they don’t have access from my understanding to see the true horrific mess that they could be inheriting from Labour to try and then form a plan of action if they get in. We in Scotland have cop out by voting for the SNP however they truly live in Cloud cuckoo land in my opinion.
With government spending at something like 52% of GDP or about £700 Billion then frankly I would just say to every department your getting your budget cut by 10% and it won’t start going back up for a while. I would even try and hold it below inflation for the same length of time most likely a parliament of 5 years although I can see detrimental effects to this, pay would also be capped and held for those earning over £25-30k. Couple that with some tax rises in places and closing tax loopholes trotting out the usual efficiency savings and waste cutting although what some see as waste others won’t. How much that would cut I have no idea but I hope around £100bln in total per year and across a parliament that’s £500bln or near enough not bad but still not really enough in the scheme of things. Maybe that with selling off the shares in the bank’s the government owns if they hold onto them long enough and the share price goes up enough to get a profit we should be making headway.
Ramble ramble ramble……:| I’m not going to be voting as I live in a more or less solid labour seat and unfortunately or fortunately depends how you see it my MP is a nice bloke if he loses I’ll be a bit surprised.