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Defence

Conservative & Labour

Liberal Democrats
The world has changed immensely since 1989, but the previous Conservative government had no plan of action to deal with these changes. The Tories:
  • Cut defence capacity according to Treasury dictate, not security needs
  • Failed to instigate a proper review of the UK's overall security needs.
  • Refused to consider new strategic arms control talks, despite their own conditions for such talks being met.
  • They criticised the European Union for its inaction but prevented it from developing a common foreign and security policy which would have enabled Europe to deal more effectively with problems like Bosnia.
  • In 1979 Britain began to supply Argentina with £80 million of arms; in The Falklands conflict British troops were killed by equipment made by British companies, sold by the British government

Labour has on clear vision for our defence commitments or of how Britain should act together in Europe. They always call for a "Defence Review" to postpone difficult decisions.

 

 Liberal Democrats would act accordingly to security needs. We would:
  • Keep a minimum nuclear deterrent as long as other countries do.
  • Place more emphasis on mobile forces which can reach crises quickly.
  • Develop a common European defence policy and arrange for other European Union countries to share Britain's large defence costs.
  • Make the UN more effective, with its own rapid reaction troops to tackle problems before they get out of hand; and a military planning staff to provide advice to oversee operations.
  • Propose new disarmament talks covering all categories of conventional and nuclear weapons.
  • Instigate a comprehensive review of UK defence policy.
  • Take action on the arms trade and establish an Arms Conversion Agency.

 

Facts & Figures.

  • If a trident submarine launched its entire weaponry on Russia, virtually the whole country would effectively be destroyed by just a touch of a button. The resulting radioactive dust cloud could possibly move across the whole of Europe.
  • A nuclear dust cloud would poison water supplies, damage the environment, contaminate the food chain and would kill thousands of people from leukaemia and other diseases. The damage that followed Chernobyl was on a much smaller scale.
  • Trident submarines carry over 400 warheads each, over 1000 times the explosive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima in Japan. One 40 megaton bomb would be equal to twenty times the explosives used in the Second World War..
  • £600,000 is spent every minute on arms world-wide, £315 billion a year. While this is happening some 15 million people die from starvation and a further 5 million children die from diseases that could have been prevented by a programme of immunisation.
  • During the 1980's West Germany spent far less on Defence, yet during NATO exercises the British forces were beaten on a frequent basis.

Questions & Answers.

Q.
Did you propose a 50% cut in our armed forces?.
A.
No, we did not. In 1990 we said that NATO nations could halve their defence spending by 200 if various negotiations succeeded. the world has since become more dangerous, and the need for UN peacekeeping has increased. We could keep defence spending at it's current real level.

Q.
Why should we surrender our foreign policy to Europe?.
A.
It is the opposite of surrender. NATO has been very successful because it rests on collective security but the US increasingly possesses a different agenda and expects Europe to take greater responsibility for its own defence. Europe needs to work together to tackle growing nationalism and instability, in emerging democracies on our borders.

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