The mighty MoD – presiding over our empty armament cupboards
Why do the MSM, why does Johnson’s PR team keep inflicting those dreadful photos on us, showing him dressed up in yet another costume or ‘performing’ another ceremony which is meant to depict him as ‘cultured’ and ‘world-wise’, to the admiration of us peasants (link)?
Don’t these news editors, doesn’t Johnson himself know about ‘cultural appropriation’ and that this is ‘a bad thing’? Are “we” to be entertained by this stuff rather than being told of some frightening statements made in regard to the defence of the realm? More on that below.
Still, the papers all report that Johnson will now have to face an inquiry by MPs, about the question if he lied to Parliament. Tory ‘rebels’ allegedly rebelled because they ‘fear a backlash’ at the local elections next week, writes the DT (paywalled link). ‘Tis a bit late for that, my dears – you should’ve acted at the beginning of the year. And no – except for the headlines I didn’t read any of the ‘reports’ – I am shunning our MSM because reading their propaganda stuff is beyond sickening.
On his plane to India – Johnson is in India, dontcha know, thus the photos – he spoke to the press flying with him. He indulged in one of his oh-so colourful comparisons: “Russian President Vladimir Putin is like a crocodile chewing on Ukraine’s leg” (link) – that’s feeble, Johnson, feeble! He said:
“It’s very hard to see how the Ukrainians can negotiate with Putin, given his manifest lack of good faith and his strategy, which is evident, to try to engulf and capture as much of Ukraine as he can and then perhaps to have some sort of negotiation from a position of strength – or even launch another assault on Kiev,” Johnson said. “I really don’t see how the Ukrainians can easily sit down and come to some kind of accommodation. How can you negotiate with a crocodile when it’s got your leg in its jaws? That is the difficulty that the Ukrainians face.” (link)
Of course, ‘negotiating from a position of strength’ is heinous, crocodile-like and totally unacceptable, right, Johnson? ‘Tis far better to ‘negotiate’ from a position of weakness, or so Mr ‘e and his military commanders seem to think, abusing the remaining Azov brigade soldiers and whoever else is there with them in the Azovstal industrial complex.
They’re the ‘actors’ permitted to wail to the world’s press about how inhumane Putin is. He should let them all go, he should allow ‘Teh World’ to safeguard them because “We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers”, as one of those soldiers told some hack in the Ukraine who told the BBC (link). Yes, well – these things happen in war …
What our MSM didn’t mention is that the Russian Army has repeatedly appealed to those Azov Troops to surrender, instituting ceasefires and with reassurances that they’d be treated according to international rules. Every time Kiev told those troops to stay where they are, that those who do surrender would be shot. One unfortunate soldier was found, clutching one of the Russian leaflets – shot through the back of his head by one of his ‘comrades’. Ah – I forgot: that must be a Russian propaganda lie.
Of course, our MSM and benighted politicians still swallow whole the utterly amazing propaganda productions ‘made in Kiev’. For example, we’re told that there are women, children and old people in that Azovstal bunker. Why civilians would ‘flee’ into a war bunker – well, who knows!
One Italian has taken a closer look at such an Ukrainian video, allegedly made inside that bunker, and found that one of the gentle men in there, clutching a baby, was the same actor who ‘played’ the Russian soldier beheaded in that gruesome video by an Ukrainian actress. Go here and use your machine translator, the tweet is in Italian. And our Westminster cabal demands “we” march in, based on such blatant propaganda videos? How insane is that?
And so we come to the order Putin gave Gen Shoigu yesterday. Here is the whole text, from the official Russian site. Again you’ll need your machine translator if you want to read the whole thing. This is the relevant part:
“Vladimir Putin: I consider the proposed assault on the industrial zone inexpedient. I order to cancel. – S.Shuigu: Yes. – Vladimir Putin: This is the case when we have to think – that is, we should always think, but in this case even more so – about preserving the life and health of our soldiers officers. There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground on these industrial facilities. Block this industrial zone so that the fly does not fly. – S.Shuigu: Yes. – Vladimir Putin: Invite once again to everyone who has not yet laid down their weapons to do it. The Russian side guarantees them life and decent treatment in accordance with the relevant international legal acts. All those injured will be provided with qualified medical care.” (link, in Russian, machine translated)
Yes – the bunkered-up troops and whoever else is in there with them only need to surrender, else they’ll have to stew in the mess of their own making. Putin isn’t going to sacrifice his troops in that bunker-to-bunker fight in those tunnels, something apparently Mr ‘e and his western allies so desperately desire.
And what does the former Chief of Staff, General Dannatt, had to say about this? That this is ‘one of the darkest chapters in European history’ because ‘Putin wants to strangle them’ by not letting them out! He said that in a video interview with ‘Times Radio’ – you can watch it here, the pertinent quote is at around 2min into the video.
Dannatt sort-of acknowledges that these are Neonazis – but apparently is totally unaware of the several offers the Russians made, to surrender. Nor is he aware of the despicable order from Kiev that these troops should fight and die where they are. A good thing he’s retired …
There’s another former General who made a truly scary statement a couple of days ago. This was General Sir Richard Barrons, head of the NATO Joint Forces Command in 2013-16, speaking during a hearing of the HoC Defence Committee on 19th April 2022. You can watch the whole thing at the Parliamentlive.tv channel here.
At about 15.40 min, Gen Barrons explains to the stunned MPs that he’d be surprised if ‘our stockpile’ was sufficient to sustain a ‘high-intensity conflict’ for more than a week. Someone else made a transcript of a few relevant statements from which I quote, me not having watched the whole thing. I’m sure you can find these quotes in that video:
“The general said: “I am generally concerned that the main reason we are trying to avoid a war between Russia and NATO is that NATO is not ready. And we should be ashamed of it.” Richard Barrons acknowledged Britain’s near-total lack of missile defence: “I don’t think many people in the UK have given much thought to the implications of Russian cruise missiles coming to London…they exist and we simply don’t have the means to deal with them in any way except for tiny amounts.”
I hope that our belligerent MPs and news editors will now stop screeching for ‘us’ to go in and ‘support’ the neonazis in Kiev who want their own troops to die rather than surrender. I also hope that the MoD minister Mr Wallace and the PM who so blithely hand out our meagre resources will stop ‘donating’ what we might need ourselves. I wonder why it is that all our Ukraine-supporting war mongers don’t ask how we’ll replace those arms, how we’ll re-arm in the face of energy shortages and shortages of the necessary raw materials.
If the current situation has shown us one thing it is that our MPs of all ‘persuasions’, not being the brightest lights anyway, are so woefully ignorant of the realities of life that it is truly frightening. We might have coped, after a fashion, with their shameful scientific illiteracy and innumeracy during covid.
However – how can we survive as a nation when that lot is clearly incapable of securing the defence of the realm? Should we give up already and just wave rainbow flags?
Yes, who advised our chump of a prime minister that it would be a good idea to be photographed whilst someone else tried to tie a turban over his blond and unkempt mop. The photograph is a total embarrassment, but the man wearing this half tied turban has no shame, and what’s more zero common sense. There were a number of people in the background with smirks on their faces, and I would just love to know what they were thinking at the peculiar spectacle. And then Johnson allowed himself to be filmed spinning wool, or was it cotton on what looked like a spinning wheel, only he wasn’t holding anything but a lady sitting to his left appeared to be holding his hand. If that wasn’t enough Johnson had a childish grin on his face and looked more like a big baby waiting for his feed. And this man is supposed to be our prime minister and is on the international stage making a complete fool of himself. Maybe not for long and we live in hope that the local elections results for the woeful Conservative Party or should I say the New Green Party, will be so dire that it will cause an avalanche of letters of no confidence in Johnson and his inept premiership to land on the desk of Sir Graham Brady which will cause a leadership election to take place. Our best hope of ridding ourselves of this utter plonker.
General Barrons
That chap knows what he is talking about, at last a breath of fresh air into the state of our armed forces.
In one word he summed it up THREADBEAR!!!!!!!
He said we are only in a position to fight a wide war for ONE WEEK
He started with the Navy – said it was equipped and manned with good stuff, but woefully short of bulk to equip it for world wide roleor to be spread over a number of different campaigns.
He said much the same about the Air Force.
But it was the Army he was really worried about, as this present Ukraine campaign has shown you need boots on the ground.
He also lamented that even training was inadequate.
He emphasised Russia`s actions in the Ukraine was a WAKE UP call and required reset into a NATO and National capabilty inthinking TOTAL WAR instead of the present policy of limited theatre operations (we should know that we eren`t very happy fighting Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time.
Funding – he said there must be and increase in spending to 3% for 5 years PLUS a SURGE (now) to bring us up to some sort of strength.
he mentioned that Germany had allocated 100 Billion for starters..
and he said there must be an urgent “Conversation” between the PM, the Chancellor, the Minister of Defence and I think the Foreign Office minister (but he might have said Home Office)
Thank you very much Roger, for watching the whole thing and writing this review. It is both frightening and scary to see how we’re factually incapable of defending this country – and that people in the MoD and Whitehall are fully aware of this fact even while others bleat that “we” must fight Putin on the ground.
And where are the business managers telling that useless lot in the HoC that we can’t do it, what with green crap policies, sky-high energy prices, sky-high prices of commodities – and sky-high budgets to ‘support’ refugees?
Our total lack of defences: It’s all deliberate. Britain is now controlled by those who want us wiped off the map. I feel so black with despair. I envy Flyer who appears to be getting away from it all.
I am getting more and more angry at the whole cabal persuading us that they ‘lead’ us and that they know better – all of them, the whole Westminster cabal, from mandarins to MPs to ‘news’ editors and ‘journalists’, and that includes the ‘loyal opposition’ and their hangers-on.
And then there are the likes of Cummings who postures as someone who’d ‘always known’ about the failure of Whitehall but is now only playing in his own little patch paid for by subscriptions. He was mentioning that Strategic Revue in an email to us non-subscribing plebs – but not a word about the abysmal failure of procurement and equipment and indeed research.
The Russian weapons have shown their superiority on the battlefield, and so have their arms developments, the latest ICBM included.
And “we” should worry about cruise missiles? We should rather worry about this PM trying to drive us into an armed conflict with Russia, we should worry because he and Biden and sadly their Defence ministers as well as the current top brass either believe their own and Ukrainian propaganda – or they know and don’t give a damn.
Thanks Viv,
I hope many more take the trouble to watch this all the way through, because to me, it is a blueprint moment, where the establishment through the medium of this committee have no excuse for not coming to terms with what is now required to mend and improve the defences of this nation.
In fact it is their PRIME RESPONSIBILITY and they have been found wanting and the least charge is GROSS NEGLIGENCE, never mind endemic TREACHERY.
When I say I hope everybody will read it, I also hope they will down load it and disperse it widely.
I hope all the points will provide a list for monitoring.and holding the government fully to account
Couldn’t agree more to all the points you make!
Indeed Roger; a sovereign country that cannot defend itself will not remain a sovereign country for long. However, isn’t that the plan ordered of Boris by his globalist mates?
Narrative, narrative. Every which way you look on whatever subject, we are adrift in an ocean of narrative.
“given his manifest lack of good faith”
Say what? Putin’s lack of good faith? Someone remind Boris who assured Gorbachev, on the fall of the Berlin Wall, that NATO would not take advantage and advance eastwards; and who utterly failed to abide by similar assurances in the two Minsk agreements.
“and his strategy, which is evident, to try to engulf and capture as much of Ukraine as he can.”
Er, except that it is not evident and never was his strategy.
I suppose the bottom line is that our government is supporting Nazis; so much for their constant virtue signalling.
Nice article Viv and I would comment further. Unfortunately though, today I have spent eight hours driving and a further eight hours walking up the side of a steep mountain with a heavy pack and a rifle, I’m too knac**red to comment further. I must now find the energy to lift another couple of glasses of wine to my lips before I crash out.
What life you lead, flyer! Just reading this made me feel so knackered that I can barely lift the fingers to type this …
Enjoy the wine and the wilderness up that mountain!
DEFENCE, Weapons, Fighters and manpower, Control, Politics, Inertia, Innovation., infrastructure, and all the other tools..( That last word is currently critical ).
Our best defence should be our Civil Service. To provide advice and guidance and the job up to the point where the above are called in to play their part.
There is an enemy amongst us. Our reaction I do not know . However, I do know there are groundswells and currents, uncontrolled by ouselves… Unfortunately, in control of much of this factor(s) is America and its past and present wealth producing unhappy ideas….
The enemy? Bureaucracy, the internet, and the uncontrolled Limited Liability Companies. The modern equivelant of the horse.( Charger ), providing dreams of excess.
The idea of sitting in armour on a horse was unfair,, The idea of Limited liability was a corrupt idea at the time, untill understood. The Internet was a bombshell for the semi and poory educated. ( When did you last find a Standard Alone computer.? Does anyone make one ? )
But we seem to have lost all that chunk up to 1990 in the belief that the computer only vomits value.
. WE have become stuffy.
And so it goes on…..That was fun .
Maybe the plane carrying Johnson and his war junkies can divert to the Ukraine (not for photo opportunities) but to join the brave soldiers and actors in their bunker for a sing-song. Just when you think the world had reached peak madness, the insane get worse, a lot worse.
In Singapore, once the hapless General Percival realised his incompetence was failing to stop the Japanese from taking the island, surrendered. Subsequently, many died a slow death in captivity, but many survived who would not have done had Percival not surrendered. Throughout history soldiers have surrended once it is clear they have lost, preferring captivity to death. In the Falklands the Argentines eventually surrendered rather than die.
‘Elensky telling the remnants of his Nazi battalion not to surrender is to say he would prefer them to die. (So would I but that is another matter). Only fanatics give such orders. Churchill was angered by Percival’s surrender but he never said he would have preferred the troops to have all died. I do not know how many allied soldiers were prisoners of war – some estimate 2.5 million – but history does not scorn them for not fighting to their death.
Does no-one in the West’s MSM see ‘Elensky’s fanaticism?
Probably many do, but they are well remunerated, or scared of losing their job or worse, into not seeing it. Just as with climate lies and Covid and jab lies. And according to UK Column, well evidenced, the BBC is actually running Ukraine’s media propaganda output.
Not only material shortages of high tech electronic components steels and alloys due to supply chain ‘issues’ but nobody has yet to explain how these products are to manufactured in a country that has destroyed not only it’s manufacturing base but has distroyed the highly skilled workforce that is needed to manufacture anything on any scale. Maybe all these high ranking officers are suffering from selective memorary loss when on their watch during the last twenty years they allowed the political clowns to desimate our arm forces, the ‘army’ by the way would now fit in a football stadium with room to spare.