Friday, January 23, 2015
UK headed toward irrelevancy? Cuts nuclear stockpile.
I don't know what to think.
If you don't have strong conventional forces then you better have exceptional nuclear capability.
Seems like the UK is giving up on both.
Is the UK headed toward irrelevancy or is it still as strong? Personally I don't care. The future for them as far as the US is concerned (IMO) is the same as its always been. They're gonna be good allies among many. They will do what they can with what they have with the interests of their own country first and foremost in mind.
I can live with that.
What becomes jeopardized? Talking points....and perhaps national prestige. I don't think many of the elites realize how powerful a detterent the idea of a strong military really is. For all the complaints about the US (and I get an earful on a daily basis by readers from all over the planet) one thing that can't be said is that we're weak militarily. That makes a difference.
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Don't worry the UK has more than enough warheads to fill its subs
ReplyDeleteActually no the number of deployable warheads and missiles is substantially lower then what is possible for the fleet to carry, and has been for some time now.
DeleteIt's all just a RAF plot to sink the RN and get England's nukes back in the sky, where they belong. ;)
ReplyDeleteHa! I think we should have silos in the garden at Chequers.
DeleteGB, if I’m correct, has about 200 tons of plutonium (at that I don’t mind about how enriched the material is but as I know GB has enriching plant, so measure of current enriching is not crucial) it their stockpiles – so they reserve “for the rainy day”.
ReplyDeleteThe SNP, Greens and Free Wales are very unlikely to "hold the balance of power" for long enough to kill trident, regardless of what they think.
ReplyDeleteThe UK maintains a CASD of 48 weapons.
More than enough to destroy any country on the planet, even the US, which would fall in to anarchy if some mix of 48 biggest cities and/or state capitals were hit.
Conventional Forces
Worlds second best carrier fleet
Worlds second most advanced attack submarine
Possibly the best ASW capability?
Very capable air defences, probably behind the ABs and the Kirovs, but otherwise?
Worlds most complete natural fortress?
Sure, we've had our failures, our conceited demand that the world behave as we expect, not to mention "the borrowers".
But we can sail anywhere in the world and give someone in the world a bloody nose, and not that many people can say that, fewer still can rock up on our doorstep for a scrap,
The UK might "only" be able to deploy a heavy Brigade to Iraq, but if we exclude the US, and people with a land border with Iraq, who else can?
finally! someone stated facts instead of talking points. i can't dispute any of it. i do wonder about ASW capability with the Nimrod retired but why quibble. nicely done.
DeleteSol keep this in mind, the UK's financial issues are much more serious than those of the US. Their deficit in 2014 was 5 percent of gdp. Ours was 2.8. Expectations for 2015 are 5 percent again for them and 2.4 for the US. The main problem the UK has is that they are a much more export oriented economy than the US is, and their largest export market (Euro area) is a disaster. They have no shale revolution like we do, no biotech boom, no silicon valley boom.
DeleteWilliam
DeleteThe UK has issues of that there is no doubt, but we are also the fastest growing economy in the G7, Government spending remains wildly out of control, but a significant portion of it is covered by printing, and we have a significant trade gap, we WANT sterling to drop further.
No shale boom, but we use a **** load of gas, so we do benefit from the collapse of world prices, we kinda do have our own biotech boom too, the second and fourth best universities in the world are in the UK, the US has 1, 3, and 5-9, switch that to Pharma and the UK owns 2-6, only 4 and 7 in Computers.
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2014/pharmacy#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=
The US leads the world in research, thats why it dominates the world economy and will continue to do so, but the UK is punching well above its weight in second place, not China, or Brazil, or India, or Russia.
The UK has issues, but dont write us off quite yet
I didn't mean to write you off, merely meant to say your biggest problem is out of your hands (lunacy in the ECB, idiots in charge of France, ect ect), and your financial situation is poorer than ours. I am shocked at how anti-fracking people there are. Just this week the environmentalists stopped a UK company from trying to frack a test well to see how good the shale in the UK is. How the environmentalists think it is better to import gas from Qatar rather than getting it from Northern England is beyond my comprehension.
DeleteUk land army will ne almost as larger as what France deploy in Street if they continue to cut it... But always as good hopefully..
DeleteRaf ? Stuck between typhoon nightmare and f35 Turkey...
Rn, aging, no carrier nowadays, please avoir the 2nd carrier group of world if no catobar, and even with that china will take the place soin.subs ? The test of the navy don t know, i ve Just heard about new subs problems...
Second best carrier fleet? on paper maybe and that too for about another decade or so. But you are overlooking the fact that one of the QE Class will be mothballed almost immediately on completion and the other will have to make do with the troubled F-35B.
DeleteWhen both India and China are working on CATOBAR carriers, how long will the UK have the "second best carrier fleet"?
Best ASW with no fixed wing maritime patrol aircraft? Are you have a laugh mate?
That's depressing news TrT, if UK's nuke arsenal can devastate a country like USA and turned it into chaose and anarcy , then what can a nuke arsenal the size of russia's do to USA ? sink it ?
Deleteare you fucking serious? the UK's nuclear arsenal couldn't wipe out the northeast of the US (a portion i wouldn't mind losing). even better once they launched the entire island of Great Britain wouldn't be inhabitable for over 1000 years due to radiation and we would still have enough left over to blast Malaysia, Indonesia, most of China and a good portion of Russia.
DeleteNuking Malaysia and Indonesia ? WTF?
Deleteeven without a direct him from nukes, other nation will also suffered from the after effect of a nuclear exchange between superpowers.. basically a nuclear war is like an apartment tenant burning the whole apartment because he have a fight with next door neighbour lol..
DeleteSol, as for TrT's comment on how UK's nuke arsenal , it think he dont mean wiping out USA, but creating ararchy on US cities because of massive breakdown in public services and infrastructures.. i menaan one didnt have to destroy a city to create chaos, one just have to disable the power grid and there you go, instant chaos...
Buntalanluca
Delete"Sol, as for TrT's comment on how UK's nuke arsenal , it think he dont mean wiping out USA, but creating ararchy on US cities because of massive breakdown in public services and infrastructures."
Yep, primary death toll would be fairly low, but secondary effects, who knows.
William# Not to worry britain still has its opportunity as a 51st state.
Delete@KSingh
DeleteCan you not grasp that the story about one of the QE's being moth balled is out of date? Cameron and the Royal
Navy have confirmed that both QE & PoW will enter service.
And yes the RN does have the best ASW platform in any fleet with the Type 23 frigate and Merlin HM2 combination,
the AB's are the most capable/powerful escorts overall, but the T23s are the best specializing at ASW, that was the RN's main task during the Cold War after all. The RN can also deploy HMS Ocean in the role of ASW carrier with a full squadron of 9 Merlin Mk2s aboard, as the RN's did during Exercise Deep Blue with Lusty last year.
Article on the large Royal Navy ASW Exercise Deep Blue (Now that HMS Illustrious has decommissioned,
Deletethe Merlin ASW squadron will be deployed with HMS Ocean, and in the future as part of the QEC carrier's TAG).
https://navynews.co.uk/archive/news/item/10655
@Fabsather
DeleteFew points to note:
Even after the 2010 SDSR cuts the UK's maximum effort is still twice that of France eg
30,000 troops for a one off operation compared to the French maximum effort of 15,000 as per their
2013 defence white paper.
Typhoon is becoming a more capable platform, and Storm Shadow and Brimstone are being integrated.
The RN will have two new 65,000 tonne carriers that will be in service for 40 years plus, while the Marie Nationale
has one ageing (though capable) 40,000 t carrier, with not much prospect of a replacement, never mind a second carrier.
The Type 26 frigate will have 24 Mk 41 strike length cells (TLAM,LRASM,ASROC) and 48 Sea Ceptor canisters, so it will be larger, more heavily armed and more capable than the FREMM.
eg FREMM just 16 Aster 15 missiles (similar capability to Sea Ceptor) & 16 SCALP.
RN has six modern AAW destroyers (T45s), the MN only has two (the Horizon class)
There is obviously no comparison between the Astute and French Rubis class SSNs, but the Astutes will also
be larger and have a much greater weapons stowage capacity that the new Barracuda class.
The French Navy does not have an auxiliary support fleet like the RFA.
Also worth adding, that the RAF has carried out five times as many strikes and missions over Iraq during the air
campaign against ISIL as the Armee de L'Air has. eg
RAF - over 110 Tornado GR4 and Reaper strikes and 500 plus missions.
compared to (as of Dec) 120 French missions/sorties.
All RAF strikes are listed on the Operation Shader wiki page with links to the MoD website.
30,000 troops for a one off operation compared to the French maximum effort of 15,000 as per their
Delete-> We are present on 5 different theater at the same time : we are currently reaching our 30k deployment ( 30000 soldiers is the white book goal )
Type 26 frigate -> FREMM can double VLS capacity if needed, but we didn't buy it yet.
Typhoon -> fine if you finally buy some of last batch, not the old ones.. and enough of them.
2 * 65,000 ton carrier -> non nuclear carrier, only stobar ( don't compare load of rafaleM and F35 B )
Please compare astute to baracuda....
Irak, okey, we still are deployed less concentrated. Interresting too too see how much typhoon are efficient over irak...
My point with the AB was as an air defence platform rather than ASW, The T45s sound very good, but even if its as good as advertised, its got a pretty poor missile loadout for anything not low flying,.
Delete@57316746-a223-11e4-9823-4b3ed4148e01
DeleteEven if the PoW won't be mothballed on completion the RN/RAF will not have enough F-35s to ensure two fully loaded carriers at any one time. I've heard the PoW could be used as a LHD, a 65,000 ton LHD what a joke! On top of that what will the QE be flying? That's right the most troubled variant of the most troubled and least capable "5th gen" fighter around with SRVL (not even STOBAR) . How does this one carrier stack up to the CATOBAR carrier in France (CDG)- I'd take the Rafale M any day of the week, or the CATOBAR carriers the Indians and Chinese are building? These prestige projects have cost the UK taxpayer countless billions and sucked the life out of many, more required, projects that make sense to the UK the Nimrod being the most obvious one.
You claim to have the best ASW capability in the world but no sane person would say that about a nation without fixed wing MPAs! You really think the Type 23/Merlin combo beats the US Navy's P-8A/Triton combo or the Indian Navy's P-8I (has a MAD)/Heron combo? You are seriously deluded if you think so.
How are you expected to cover vast distances quickly with a slow moving helicopter and a slower moving frigate?
Keep dreaming about the UK's prestige, us in the rest of the world can see the UK for what it really is- a has been.
@fabsther
DeleteAstute class SSN
7,400 tonnes
loadout 38 TLAM & Spearfish
Barracuda
5,300 tonnes
loadout 20-24 SCALP & F21 torpedoes
Still better two large STOVL carriers, than one CATOBAR, as the RN will have one carrier available all the time.
CdG will be in refit from later this year until 2018.
The RAF has 125 Typhoons in service, including the first five of 40 Tranche 3As.
@TrT
The Type 45/Horizons are light on missiles because the Aster 15 can't be quad-packed, but the MoD have
said Sea Ceptor (which can be quad-packed ) will compliment the Aster missiles on the 45s, which
will remedy that problem.
@KSingh
Ok, you obviously have issues with the UK, hence all the trolling, however it would be better it you
did a bit of proper research rather than just quoting silly tabloid articles.
If you think that the Indian Navy has a greater ASW capability than the RN, you are delusional, are you even
aware that only around a fifth of helo slots are filled on Indian Navy escorts, because they only have a dozen
clapped out old Sea Kings and four operational Ka-28s with 1980s tech, compare that to the RN's Type 23
with it's cutting edge 2087 sonar, Indian escorts don't even have an ATAS!
The Fleet Air Arm also has 38 Merlin Mk2s, probably the best ASW helo in any fleet, even the Wildcat
is more capable at ASW than anything the IN has inservice.
FFS read the articles on Defence Industry Daily on the state of the Indian Navy.
Also worth adding that India cannot even build SSNs and just leases one from Russia, whilst the experimental
Indian SSBN is the technological equivalent of boomers being built by the UK in the 1970s!
As for vanity/prestige projects, it's India that is wasting money on a space programme, carriers and trying to
build nuclear subs, whilst hundreds of millions of Indians live in squalor, filth and poverty, talk about priorities!
And by the way, on the UK MPA capability gap which you keep harping on about, the Sentinel R1s are being upgraded, and it is almost certain that a new MPA will be ordered after the next SDSR.
Long Number
DeleteIve just checked, I thought the A30 topped out at 20,000ft, its 20km
My concern was an aggressor could simply hit from on high.
Sol, don't worry. The UK will have the F-35, which according to LM is worth their whole military.
ReplyDeleteIn price or in capability? lol
DeleteGreat Britain is the U.S. on steroids with 1/40th the landmass (94,525 vs. 3.8 million square miles) and the exact same 'Social Welfare State without Border Control' problem as they are the destination of choice for all of Eastern Europe and a good percentage of the MENA as well.
ReplyDeleteAs such, it is a real race to determine who will have the first Islamic State, France or Britain, and with Britain already sending something like 2.5 BILLION pounds to Pakistan 'for educational purposes' every year (hello madrassas) I am less than convinced that The English are indeed, 'still with us'. Or that we should cry at the thought of an Islamic majority state in 2060 not having Nuclear Weapons.
On a rather shorter time frame basis, what the British refusal to fund a post Trident force (which is what both parties said, note the Defense Minister's emphasis on _Trident_ 'for as long as we need it'...) means is that all real power in the EU will go Continental and thus if Germany and France, hand in hand with their Franco German RDF, were to make the Urals there goal in a major NATO war for the Ukraine (1941 here we come again), the UK would essentially have to sit and spin.
It is my opinion that Europe once more has (supra)nationalist goals to be a major power in the Mediterranean (Checking or linking up with the Islamic states) and in Eurasia.
Just as the U.S. is committed to 'adopting' Mexico as the NAU, if need be, one illegal alien at a time.
I am totally against this if for no other reason than disparities in birth rates requiring a 'privileged status' for the minority white populations which will be created if this idiocy of open borders welfare statehood continues.
Anytime your government has to have special powers to protect you from a threat they invite in, you are in danger of losing Democracy. And the shifting of nuclear power away from Nation State ethnic control to Nation Group multi-party ownership is a part of this 'Owned by none, controlled by few, far away' policy.
Nuclear Arsenals are better off a burden carried only by the population whose ultimate creation and storage as well as use they are both capable of and solely responsible for. As soon as it becomes a group decision, not only do you have to convince others of the need but targeted retaliation for indirect use becomes impossible to assign without massive regional SOI overkill.
Britain will not be Britain in 2060 is a given. But the real question is what the EU will look like without countervailing opinion backed by the force to use it.
Democracy is overrated, people's opinions can shift like the winds. Hell, even worse, you can predict the winds with fair certainty, you'll never know when a good demagog will turn up to champion a totally stupid cause.
DeleteThink it through, Communism actually came about through a form of Democracy, it was a wonderful political theoretical construction, share and share alike, which sounded very ideal to a vast majority of people in the lower and lower middle income group, which was why many supported it. But just because many people support it does not mean it works. It just means that it sounds good in soundbites.
More Britons are taking social benefits in EU than other way around .
Deletehttp://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/19/-sp-thousands-britons-claim-benefits-eu
Getting rid of your German overlords Saxe-Coburg-Gothas aka Windsors would pay for those tidents in a jiffy and would be good for the democracy as well as you might have to draft a constitution sometime.
Britain is about as likely to become an Islamic state as Texas is, do not make the mistake of assuming that a loud voice represents a majority.
DeleteDemographically Britain is 87% ethic White British compared to 4% combined for all the ethnicites with Muslim leanings. For this to even approach parity with the non Islamic population by 2060 would take some sort of plague that doesn't effect people who pray towards Mecca.
So barring intervention by the hand of god, Britain will remain much as it is for the foreseeable future.
As to Trident replacement the anti-trident group will have at most about as much power as the Lib Dems did in the current government so perhaps you should ask Clegg about all the wondrous things he has achieved while part of the coalition.
The real argument (the one taking place in the halls of power not the front page of tabloid rags) is about how exactly to go about paying for Trident successor and to what extent a continuous deterrent is required, what with the imminent threat of thermonuclear annihilation being for the most part non existent.
The funding of places like Pakistan however has nothing to do with any of this, its a misguided policy on the part of the current government who thinks that we can exert power through foreign aid. Its a dumb idea that doesn't work and has never worked, but since when has that ever stopped any government from doing anything.
Muslims won't need parity, not when they have 4 kids to your 1.5. They will have a huge, young population sooner rather than later, while the British will have larger older population. Same thing in the rest of western Europe.
DeleteTR covered the population angle for me.
DeleteWhat he didn't mention is that MENA populations start having kids at 19 whereas 'liberated' (only so long as it takes for Patriarchal R-Breeding cultures to displace their effeminized men with a different social order) Western Women wait until 30-35 to discover that birth with a fused pelvis and drooping liver/heart/kidney function _really hurts_.
Even as it comes with increased risk of congenital defects from a lifetime of cumulative toxins as cellular decay. Further to which, putting your generational interval at 30+30 = 60 with, 2-4 grand kids creates ENORMOUS economic and population cohort stress as entire generations are lost for decades before their replacements are ready and you get enormous up and downswings in job classes and workers.
Whereas a woman from an R-Breeding culture will have 4-begets-16-begets-64 in the same 60 year interval. And the nature of that 'have many so a few live and you can hold down what you own' lack of investment, over centuries, will have dictated the nature of her own as her kids resource invested intelligence. Low intelligence = high susceptibility to 'informed' instruction in such manic and deadly social constructs as Islam.
Taken together, this is why London is no longer a British city. And why England will no longer be a British nation in 2060. Because the nature of the society reflects the needs and abilities of it's majority class rankings. Specifically, when your capital looks like someplace in Southwest Asia, you do not own your demographic destiny, as a fragmented populace living in the wilderness has no rule over their social outcomes, long before they become a literal minority in their nation.
>>
Think it through, Communism actually came about through a form of Democracy, it was a wonderful political theoretical construction, share and share alike, which sounded very ideal to a vast majority of people in the lower and lower middle income group, which was why many supported it. But just because many people support it does not mean it works. It just means that it sounds good in soundbites.
>>
Sir, I have spent my life thinking this through.
Democracy is not an economic system nor what the U.S. or England has. Which is a shame because it should be both. Republican (i.e. Representative) Democracy is the gift of an elite class providing us with preselected (Promises made, irrespective of douible-speak campaign speeches = funded victories where both sides are only increments of each other's common opinions and needs) Candidates.
This was practical in the 1700-1800 period when most people had, at best, a 6th grade education and were anything up to a couple months out on current events effecting the nation because they read the bible rather than a newspaper, at night.
It is not needed today where it is being used to disenfranchise entire populations whose 'popular opinion' is that of SANITY in the face of unwanted immigration, unwanted economic strain, unwanted social welfare taxation and unwanted participation in profiteering wars.
DeleteI would suggest that the average, college educated person has at least the same IQ as this-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgbBP9Em00A
What we need is _real_ democracy whereby, in trade for weekly or monthly participation in a context driven (written not bubble = expert system graded) knowledge test on the subject they register to vote for, people who maintained their cable or internet 'attendance' on given subject briefings could indeed _vote_ to empower a national agenda that would include anything relevant to the country's needs (returning state needs to state politics)
Importantly, this would be on subjects _as argued_ by real experts in the field. i.e. Scientists, Engineers, Doctors.
A little known fact is that most politicians as leaders are not that smart. They straddle the IQ line between the average man and the real genius idea makers and, at one time, were as much the translators of a priestly class (and war leaders of a strife ridden state) as the creators of secular rule.
Where simply being college educated is something a lot of Americans now share, it is not enough to lay claim to the right to lead or represent a group because you have XYZ 'dreams' as potential buyoff of population segments or political interests (PAC/SIG). Nor does piling on the hypermoralist/anti-corruption bandwagon mean anything when you cannot be recalled/impeached for incompetent as much as corrupt rule except by extreme circumstances or end of term. Whereafter you are simply replaced by another of the same mold.
We don't need people claiming to be better persons or more dedicated to 'change' or 'recovery' in the existing form of government. We need people with _concrete ideas_ able to exposit their vision in a manner whose shortcomings and consequences can be debated and offset with developmental pathways to achievement in those areas where they are weakest.
Start with this: There is no god. There is no afterlife. Christianity is an immoral amalgalm of prior religious frauds.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84503534&v=ljRKhZ81aqY&x-yt-ts=1421914688
There is only what you do now. Enjoy now. Fear now. As a future beyond your control because you are not an agent of your people's destiny so much as a bought slave to someone else's superior SES lifestyle.
In this, we have a dependent population of perhaps as many as 80 million aged, indolent or disabled people (1/4 of our country) in a society whose best effectors are rapidly aging out (average age: 41) vs. those who form the dependent classes under them (average age: 24-27).
WHY should anyone want to coparticipate in a nation that is not for them, offers them no privileges in trade for dedicating their ONE life to enslavement to other's benefit?
We are about to spend 1.5 trillion dollars on a jet that will do NOTHING USEFUL in the 40 years of it's service life, 2020-2060. And yet we will not invest in robotics as 'free labor' which allows a common man to own 5-10 workers whose sole subsistence is that of parts and energy with which to build his own wealth status and recondition the infrastructure and economy of our country.
Changing the nature of our society from one of forced menialism as a dependence upon physical labor slaves, towards one of enlightenment by which we /might/, some day, be able to find a better way out of our current Industrial Age vision of materialism and productivity as the sole source vectors of can't-take-it-with-you fulfillment.
Immortals do not take encumbrance's as baggage with them because property is perishable and tied to a fixed living condition. But nor do they allow the nature of the environment in which they live to decay past a point where they are comfortable living in it.
Marx got his ideal of a Communist society wrong because he failed to account for the exploitative piracy of his philosophy by men like Lenin. Marx was brilliant and didn't know the socialized dominance and exploitation behavioral reality of others less than him. Lenin was meh, but still got it wrong because the only place where his extremist vision worked was in a backward society less than a century away from Kulaks and Smerds as a feudalist city state, lost in modernity. A multicultural nation ripe for destruction was also a nation of stupid, lazy, regionally and ethnically insular people who had -no way- of contributing 'as equals' in a proletariat society. Having been ground down by centuries of Czarist dependency and zero social mobility, there was no way for Sudden Greatness to be thrust upon them by Lysenkoist ideals.
Genetics and particularly epigenetics builds neurosynaptic densities on a generational handme-down basis of improvement by healthcare, nutrition, education and _opportunity_ to stress the mind to new levels of performance. That basic brain function is what gives rise to the potential of societies like The West.
DeleteSoviet Socialism was just another form of krepostnoi krestyanin enslavement. A step backwards that brought the facade of modernity as infrastructure by whipping a nation of low 80s IQs to a frenzy of stupid labor which did not benefit them or their children as being largely primitive in it's outlook. Then and now.
As we do not live by that standard, so we should not allow the state of the world to keep us from recreating for ourselves the next-step means to take a baseline 120 college IQ and use it to create, not rule by mob 'democracy' but a _meritocratic_ construct of true educated rule by those wise enough to see the spark of brilliance in some ideas and the risks of others.
Democracy as demo + kratos: the People's Rule is dependent upon the quality of the People to generate the nature of their self governance.
We would NOT be any worse off than we are under the auspices of a bought, inept, and fools-quest driven idealist government as is now inflicted upon us.
We even have the mechanism by which to make it work. You're reading my text on it.
For Britain, it is too late. Only by acknowledging that IQ correlates with region more closely than temperature, _in the 1970s_, could she have adopted the conservative, regulated, post manufacturing economic and social modeled (technology emphasis) status which would have begun to buy off her population with "Live, learn, become better, so that you have delight and satisfaction in this life and your children have your example with which to begin to live better in their own."
Instead, there was gross betrayal of a successful people inherent to projected (economic, not moral) 'guilt of Empire' upon those who had no choice but to accept it by those elite class whose fathers had instigated it, as the justification to begin a reversal of social uplift to control wealth class entry, via immigration of a Horde whose primitiveness has forever fragmented the English people across a chasm of fear and resentment.
And short of massive racial warfare, that condition will persist as the whites pull away from social commitment as urban living and the immigrant invaders slowly metastasize to large enough population masses to move outwards from the wrecked cities, into the countryside. Again, long before they become a literal majority in their nation, they will be it's economic drivers and the quality of the state they create will reflect their homelands as their culture norms, which will be utterly incompatible with the indigene peoples of Northern Europe.
We are no better. No less doomed. We simply have more land as time in which to contemplate the ethnic, class demographic, and social IQ deconstruction of our society into what will look like Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador as illustrations of what is to come for our own people.
Don't tell me that Democracy is 'a good idea in theory' because I see what oligarchy under the pretense of elective, representative, rule by the few has brought us to.
Some good points, some off key premises. Mixed bag of ideas M&S.
DeleteJust a point about the genetics angle, that one, I'm more leaning towards society and values than "neuron density through nutrition" which is not a proven concept yet or at all. IQ tests in the 70s put Asian Mongoloids at a higher IQ level than US Caucasians, back in a time when nutrition still produced little midgets of them while the US was producing giants of people. More likely than not, it is the results orientated intellectual drive of the Asian society which puts a premium on "exams and tests", the same "tests" that are part of any IQ test.
Intellectually, most Asians are "lean and hungry" because of their society and values, not because of their nutrition. I suspect, deep down, they are still motivated by their historical memories of "Imperial Exams" being a passport to a better life.
"Imperial Exams"
DeleteWasnt it the ancient Chinese who first introduced the concept of a national "civil services" exam?
The UK has issues of that there is no doubt, but we are also the fastest growing economy in the G7, Government spending remains wildly out of control, but a significant portion of it is covered by printing, and we have a significant trade gap, we WANT sterling to drop further.
ReplyDeleteNo shale boom, but we use a **** load of gas, so we do benefit from the collapse of world prices, we kinda do have our own biotech boom too, the second and fourth best universities in the world are in the UK, the US has 1, 3, and 5-9, switch that to Pharma and the UK owns 2-6, only 4 and 7 in Computers.
And how many of these corporations actually pay their taxes? Governments worldwide are running out of cash because they can't collect enough taxes to cover their spending. Take Australia as an example, the current government has resigned to the fact that the Australian Tax Office will NOT be chasing after big corporation who don't pay the correct amount of taxes. So who do you think the Australian government going to get taxes from? From ordinary people, of course.
In 2014, the G7 held a summit here in Brisbane, Australia to tackle the so-called "Double Dutch Irish Sandwich" scheme. By the time Australia started to look into enforcing this (some time late 2014), the big accounting firms have a new set of scheme and new tax havens set up.
UK can cut their armed forces down to a few battalions but all it takes is one nutcase. I remembered the last time this happened and Argentina invaded Falklands. Had Argentina waited a year after the HMS Invincible was decommissioned, Falklands could be flying an Argentinian flag now.
Argentina may be an economic whack-job but no one don't know what can happen next, especially when Argentina getting cozy with China. China is churning out fleets of ships/submarines at a tremendous pace. China is/maybe willing to give anyone the early versions of their Type 52A/52B (two examples each) if you know how to barter. Now, I am not going to underestimate China's "technology" or "build quality" but a squadron on China's Type 54A FFG or Type 52C (with adequate training and China's support for continuous training) in the hands of Argentinians with an axe to grind ... can give RN/RAF nightmares. And we're not yet even talking about subs.
All that talk about "muslims taking over the UK"........and who do you think is taking over their lands? The last time I checked, the figures were 7+ million Indiand in the Middle East and growing fast(this should be taken in with the fact that most Arab countries are not that populated except Iran...and Iran is not an Arab country). We have also brushed aside the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (Bangladeshis being Indians who just dont know it........yet) as the number 1 provider of manpower- Skilled, un-skilled and semi-skilled for almost all the Middle East countries out there. This despite all the terror and chaos in the Middle East. You want to talk about "demographics".......Dubai is the best run "Indian" city in the world...if I can call it that.
ReplyDeleteAs for the UK, I can only wish for a stronger and more prosperous UK. Way too many Indians there deriving a ton of prosperity and providing the Indian sub-Continent another window to the world. We would like such window's to only grow and remain stable. This is also a shout out to Singapore, USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Fiji, West Indies, Malaysia, Indonesia and even New Zealand. All nice windows. Now all that they need are nice strong Pillars of support.
Damn Solomon, its been a while since one of your blog posts turned into a "who's got the biggest dick" conversation. Though juvenile, these posts do put a smile on your face every now and then.
ReplyDeleteyep. dick measuring is back in vogue on this blog. weird though. its kinda irrelevant but its fun to start the battles.
DeleteIn my humble opinion as long as one other nation has one nuke, you better have some to not be at their mercy, however.. the amount you need is the question.
DeleteIt depends a lot on how well protected and deploy-able your stockpile is. I think you should have the highest quality subs possible, and enough of them to always have a number of them 'hidden'. For the UK that number is less then for the USA or USSR, maybe as low as one or two. Or instead have dual purpose subs with less missiles per. The problem there is that you need to design smaller missiles, or enlarge the hull a lot.
The number of hulls can not be reduced, but if you want to save money, you can have less then the 16 missiles Vanguard carries. It really does not matter if 128 warheads hit the enemy or if 64 do.
If saving some money that way can keep some conventional stuff from being axed.. I'd say go for it, but don't reduce the number of hulls!
Ps... if you are Dutch, like me and in to military 'dick-measuring'.. you are S O L also... as in Sh** Out of Luck...
DeleteIts a sad state of affairs for a military with such a great history, former ( short term) superpower, better designed and build frigates and conventional subs then anyone.. but only a few of them.. and a long history of providing aid to allies, from the first 'peacekeeping mission' ever ( Albania), via Korea, Lebanon and Iraq to now Mali.
A 'glorious' past with a future that is mainly made up out of 35 of these planes that we on this blog all 'love' so much.. ok I exaggerate a little, there will be a few frigates, amphibious warfare ships and subs also.. if they don't cut those also..
It certainly does, keep in mind the UK already has very few nuclear warheads, maybe only a third or quarter will be in range, and there is a very real possibilty that many will be intercepted by ABM systems. furthermore many cities will require several warheads to destroy. So both a large number of delivery systems and warheads (real and decoys) are needed.
DeleteAnd that is before considering potential loses, and second-strike capabilities. How many would be left if one SSBN was destroyed in port, and another in sea?
I understand what you are saying, but frankly I would very much hope it is not about destroying a city, it is about the potential to do so and moreover about the enemy not being able to guarantee you can not.
DeleteBecause so much capability would be lost if a SSBN would be lost I do not think one should save on hulls. The ones in port are likely lost anyway, so there always needs to be capability at sea.
If all subs get destroyed it does not matter how many missiles there were on there anyway, wile if one survives enemy destruction on massive scale is certain. Even if you reduce the number of warheads, and half get intercepted.. although I do not think very highly of Russian and Chinese ABM capability.
I do understand what you are saying about the UK already having very few warheads, I can not tell, but if that is true the limit might already be reached..
In the end, what I am saying is: I think conventional military capability matters more in the wars that we can expect to see, but you have to also maintain enough nukes to keep using them a no-win situation!
Jacobite
DeleteThe UK has 48 warheads and 80 decoys at sea all of the time, double that during changeover.
No ABM shield is blocking that.
You also dont need to "destroy" a city, in the conventional sense.
Drop a nuke on Manahtten, how many apartment blocks fall down? For everyone who dies, how many are made homeless, how many are injured, how many dont turn up for work the next day? FEMA kicks in to gear and builds a tent city and gets refugees on emergency rations.
But can it do that for 48 cities? Can it do it when FEMA headquarters was levelled? When FEMA staff are some of the homeless?