How To Tell If You Are A British General: Part Four

 

 

Picture: John Trumbull

 

You heard the people had voted to leave the European Union,but you thought they wanted to join the rebel colonies.

 

Member Of Parliament Opens His Eyes

This blog is not about politics.

But as European integration is the driving force behind the British Government's defence policy it is difficult to ignore it.

It is also difficult to ignore the fact that many in the British political and military establishment seem to have little idea that British defence policy is largely driven by the European Union.

Conservative Member of Parliament Douglas Carswell has been mentioned on this blog in an earlier post.

Mr.Carswell appears to be under the misapprehension that the British government follows a "buy British" defence procurement policy.

Even though it has for many years been following an avowedly "buy European" policy in line with European Union policy and at the cost of thousands of British jobs.

He also seems to think that the planned sharing of British and French aircraft carriers is the result of this "buy British" policy rather than a deliberate decision by the British government to participate in the creation of a pan-European naval force.

Military independence and political independence are indivisible.

Which is why independent nations try to buy domestically wherever it is practical.

Having surrendered the largest empire the World had ever seen as a result of inadequate security of supply,the British government should understand this better than most.

Without security of supply Britain does not have military independence.

Without military independence Britain does not have political independence.


Without political independence the British government cannot further the interests of the British people.

Which is why the European Union wants to replace national security of supply with European security of supply.

Even if Douglass Carswell does not understand the political importance of security of supply,the European Union certainly does.

However,if Mr.Carswell is not up to speed on defence procurement he does seem to have finally realised that the British government is following a policy of European integration.

Which he should have been able to work out from the tacit support of the Lisbon Treaty from Britain's Europeanist Prime Minister David Cameron.


The leader of Douglas Carswell's own Conservative party.

The United Kingdom,A Sovereign Nation?

A sovereign nation is one which makes it's own laws.

Most people in the United Kingdom,including most politicians,regard their country as a sovereign nation.

Most believe they are ruled by the laws made by the parliament which they elect.

Unfortunately,that is not the case.

This is made clear in the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Lisbon Treaty:

"Declaration concerning primacy

The Conference recalls that, in accordance with well settled case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union,the Treaties and the law adopted by the Union on the basis of the Treaties have primacy over the law of Member States,under the conditions laid down by the said case law.

The Conference has also decided to attach as an Annex to this Final Act the Opinion of the Council Legal Service on the primacy of EC law as set out in 11197/07 (JUR 260):

"Opinion of the Council Legal Service of 22 June 2007

It results from the case-law of the Court of Justice that primacy of EC law is a cornerstone principle of Community law.

 According to the Court, this principle is inherent to the specific nature of the European Community.

 At the time of the first judgment of this established case law (Costa/ENEL,15 July 1964, Case 6/641*) there was no mention of primacy in the treaty.

 It is still the case today.

 The fact that the principle of primacy will not be included in the future treaty shall not in any way change the existence of the principle and the existing case-law of the Court of Justice."

*“It follows… that the law stemming from the treaty,an independent source of law,could not,because of its special and original nature,be overridden by domestic legal provisions,however framed,without being deprived of its character as Community law and without the legal basis of the Community itself being called into question.”

Republic Of Ireland:Bailout Or Serfdom?

The Republic of Ireland is currently negotiating a financial "bailout" with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

The loan package includes a total of £85,000 Million Euros.

The interest rate to be paid on this loan has not been disclosed.

Some reports have suggested it could be as high as 6.7%.

At that rate the annual interest alone would come to 5,695 Million Euros a year.

The Republic of Ireland has only 1,859,500 workers in employment to pay that bill.

Each worker will have to pay 3,063 Euros a year just to pay the interest on the loan.

In addition they will have to pay back the loan it's self and repay any other debts the nation owes.

The magnitude of that debt will result in the Irish people being effectively reduced to serfdom for the forseeable future.

David Cameron's Defence Policy?

To those who believed the recent Strategic Defence and Security Review was a question of how Britain might apply military power cost effectively in it's national interest,the end result was something of a surprise.

It appeared to have little to do with cost effectiveness or strategy.

There is no logical military or economic case for retaining the entire £12,000 Million Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft fleet for example.

The same can be said of the £60,000 Million Future Rapid Effects System.

The decision to eliminate the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier capability for the first time since Britain invented the aircraft carrier during the First World War is an absurdity in the context of an independent British foreign policy.

However,there is one context in which all of these decisions and others make sense.

That context is laid out in this document.

It may be regarded as the inspiration of the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

This document is in effect David Cameron's defence policy.


Everything in it is in accordance with the Anglo French Declaration on Defence and Security Co-operation which David Cameron recently signed. 

Herve Morin On Anglo French Joint Forces

The following extracts from an interview with the French Defence Minister Herve Morin were published on the website of the French embassy in the United Kingdom.

Herve Morin said: 

"Because of their meagre defence budgets, the Europeans are sliding gently and comfortably towards an eventual Sino-American condominium.

We are in the process of giving up being a player on the international stage where we will carry less and less weight without a European political construction.

The absence of will and so of efforts in defence, inadequate cooperation and lack of ambition are creating all the conditions for a weakening of Europe."

This appears to be the motive behind the drive for European political and military integration.

European politicians can not play an important part in World events as their countries are no longer economically or militarily dominant.

Their solution is to merge their nations into a larger "super nation" which allows them to play a major part on the global stage.

Unfortunately the global insignificance of European nations owes more to their economic inefficiency rather than their small size.

This inefficiency is in large part due to European integration.

Herve Morin said: 

"And yet the strengthening of our bilateral relationship with the British, which is the fruit of a genuine political will,shows what we should be capable of doing on a European scale!"

The question must be asked whether this approach is supported by the will of the people of the countries of Europe rather than just the will of the politicians of Europe.

After all,the people are the ones who pay the bill.

Herve Morin said: 

 "In the naval sphere we are thinking about how to make our aircraft carriers more interoperable.

 Going beyond joint exercises,we are in favour of sharing the escort of aircraft carriers in naval strike groups.

A British frigate could perfectly well help protect the Charles-de-Gaulle just as a French frigate could help protect a British aircraft carrier.

Since the British have announced their wish to equip their operational aircraft carrier with catapults I’ve asked the armed forces staff to think about the feasibility of using British planes on our own aircraft carrier and vice-versa: except, obviously in the event of conflict or crisis where our respective interests were different.

This would allow us to ensure a continuous at-sea presence."

We have already discussed the government's desire for a single carrier in this post.

The obvious problem is that if both nations lack the resources to maintain a carrier group then neither nation can use that force in the national interest.

This is not a problem for those who wish for greater European political integration.

Herve Morin said:

"We are in the process of assessing these areas:it would be a major strong symbol."

This certainly would be a major symbol of the current British government's desire for European integration.

Herve Morin said:

"Maritime patrol aircraft and oil tankers can also be pooled."

We assume the minister is referring to tanker ships here.

French capacity in this regard is limited and consequently this is likely to have limited impact on the need for new British replenishment ships.

The French Atlantique patrol aircraft are presumably part of the French contribution to the joint force which would explain the cancellation of the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft.

Herve Morin said: 

"Maintenance in operational condition (MOC) and training of A400M crews could be pooled as could the launch in the medium term of a joint “future UAV programme”."

This appears to suggest that training of Royal Air Force crews as well as maintenance of British A400Ms will in future take place on the continent.

The Unmanned Air Vehicle mentioned may refer to an Anglo French development of the B.A.E.Systems Taranis.

Unfortunately joint European aircraft development has little history of success.

Such development often leads to aircraft delivered late and over budget,one would have hoped that lessons would have been learnt from past mistakes.

Herve Morin said:

"We are also thinking about other areas such as that of tanker aircraft.

We could take advantage of British overcapacity once a way of fairly sharing costs has been found."

It was very interesting that the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft project was not reduced in scale during the recent Strategic Defence and Security Review despite it's cost and obvious over capacity.

It appears to have been retained to form part of the British contribution to future Anglo French joint forces.

Herve Morin said:

"Finally, there’s the whole question of streamlining the construction of the European missile system in a single ONE-MBDA.

Budgetary constraints are forcing us today to take joint decisions particularly on cruise missiles and the light anti-ship missile."

This will have unfortunate effects on the British armed forces.

In recent years frontline units have been cut while large sums of money have been spent on development of an unnecessarily large number of missile projects.

These include Meteor,Storm Shadow,Brimstone,Aster,C.A.A.M.M. and F.A.S.G.W.(H).

These projects have cost approximately £8,000 Million.

In the past funding for national missile projects was justified on the basis of security of supply and economic claw back.

Yet the above projects involve British taxpayers funding the product development for foreign owned missile manufacturers with little tax claw back and no security of supply.

There is no military or economic justification for such expenditure.

It can be explained only in the context of European integration.

This appears to be the main theme of the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Not one of the major European defence projects was cut despite financial difficulties.


F.S.T.A.,ASCOD,F.A.S.G.W.(H),C.A.A.M.M.,A400M and Eurofighter Typhoon all emerged unscathed.


National and Anglo American projects such as Harrier,F35, and Nimrod were all cut while the Anglo American Trident replacement was delayed.


Given discussion of British warheads being serviced in France it seems likely that a joint Anglo French strategic nuclear deterrent based on French M51 missiles is in prospect.




This is all in line with provisions of the Lisbon Treaty which all major British political parties have refused to hold a referendum on.


The following is taken from Article 2 of the Protocol on Permanent Structured Cooperation established by Article 42 of the Treaty on European Union:


"Article 2

To achieve the objectives laid down in Article 1, Member States participating in permanent structured cooperation shall undertake to:

(a) cooperate, as from the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, with a view to achieving approved objectives concerning the level of investment expenditure on defence equipment, and regularly review these objectives, in the light of the security environment and of the Union’s international responsibilities;

(b) bring their defence apparatus into line with each other as far as possible, particularly by harmonising the identification of their military needs, by pooling and, where appropriate, specialising their defence means and capabilities, and by encouraging cooperation in the fields of training and logistics;

(c) take concrete measures to enhance the availability, interoperability, flexibility and deployability of their forces, in particular by identifying common objectives regarding the commitment of forces, including possibly reviewing their national decision-making procedures;

(d) work together to ensure that they take the necessary measures to make good, including through multinational approaches, and without prejudice to undertakings in this regard within the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the shortfalls perceived in the framework of the ’Capability Development Mechanism’;

(e) take part, where appropriate, in the development of major joint or European equipment programmes in the framework of the European Defence Agency."