RACHEL REEVES wants us all to take a leaf out of “optimistic” Donald Trump’s book and finally stop talking Britain down.
If only the culprit who led that growth-annihilating charge could be found . . .
Rachel Reeves wants us all to take a leaf out of ‘optimistic’ Donald Trump’s book and finally stop talking Britain down
ReutersBut does the Chancellor’s new ‘Make Britain Great Again’ mantra really cut the mustard?[/caption]
But does the Chancellor’s new “Make Britain Great Again” mantra really cut the mustard?
In a couple of weeks, a fresh headache for Downing Street will start landing with a thud on desks across Whitehall.
The latest Strategic Defence Review may have bought the Chancellor a year or so’s grace on hiking spending on the military, but you can only kick that can for so long.
Or so you would think in an increasingly mad world dominated by the baddy CRINKS — aka China, Russia, Iran and North Korea — and the return of President Trump on the good guys’ side, albeit with strings attached.
Yet there are growing concerns in the defence arena that the review is shaping up to be a dud, with well-founded fears that Labour’s promise to hike military spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP will be delayed well beyond the next election and even until 2032.
‘Yesterday’s men’
Despite our Armed Forces creaking, that mind-boggling time frame was not officially denied last night — instead met with insistence that no final decision has yet been made.
And that’s leaving aside the colourful tales of the report’s author, retired General Sir Richard Barrons, winding people up all over the place, and claims his fellow reviewer, the 79-year-old ex-Nato boss Lord Robertson, had nodded off during crucial meetings.
A defence source said: “It’s shaping up to be a s**t-show.
“Yesterday’s men plotting how to fight yesterday’s wars, and the Treasury doing what they always do: saying no to absolutely everything.”
While there is always plenty of Whitehall bickering during these things, such a delay to Britain stepping up on the world stage is putting the Government directly on a collision course with the White House.
And it’s yet another classic example of Labour’s rhetoric failing to come anywhere near the delivery.
Last week in Ukraine, the Prime Minister told me that Europe needs to spend more on defence, with Trump repeating his call since re-entering the Oval Office that five per cent of domestic output on defence spending is a more realistic target than the current Nato membership ask of two.
Currently, Sir Keir is in no position to lecture his allies about doing more.
While Nato estimates the UK will spend 2.3 per cent in 2024, once you strip out the ballast added to cook the books, such as spy pensions, vast amounts of other espionage spending, and billions in MoD spending on VAT, that figure quickly drops below the Nato floor.
Industry experts and officials alike agree that 2.5 per cent is the bare minimum needed just for us to stand still in terms of our dwindling Armed Forces, ageing nuclear deterrent and hollowed-out munitions stockpiles all handed to Zelensky.
Yet given that last year’s £57billion defence spend is dwarfed by the £87billion annual bill needed by the end of the decade to hit 2.5 per cent, you can see why Reeves is sweating.
Double down
While the Chancellor will double down in a big speech on Wednesday that growth is the number one job of this Government, defence of the realm cannot be put on the backburner.
And it is far from the only area where the calls for some Trump-like flair are found wanting.
Where’s the optimism, like having the balls to turn on domestic energy production taps to produce growth — or “drill baby drill” as the US President puts it?
No, instead we get Red Ed Miliband’s messianic desire to shut down the North Sea and pray for more windy days.
Or what about Trump’s day one flick of the pen to scrap US electric car targets?
Manufacturers and consumers both know the numbers are nuts, but ministers insist they can be hit here within ten years.
Or what about Trump’s immediate ban on the civil service working from home to boost productivity?
Don’t pretend that for every penpusher who achieves a better work-life balance, there’s not another sitting eating toast in their pants with their webcam turned off.
While Trump is deregulating for growth, Angela Rayner and the unions are tying up employers in reams more red tape just as they are being hammered by Reeves’ National Insurance raid.
Of course it’s welcome news that the Chancellor says she will go “further and faster” rather than moaning us into a recession, yet still the biggest issues we face are being ducked for mere warm words.
I can’t help think of Brian Clough: “We had a good team on paper. Unfortunately, the game was played on grass.”
REFORM UK’s new chief tin-shaker, Nick Candy, looks set to haul in more than a million pounds in just one evening from fewer than a hundred backers.
Ultra-exclusive Mayfair club Oswald’s, where Victoria Beckham held her 50th birthday, will host rich supporters on Tuesday night, with tickets ranging from a whopping £10,000 to £25,000 PER HEAD, depending on how close you want to sit to Nigel Farage.
Canny businessman Nick has been sure to collect the ticket fees up front . . .
PANICKED Kemi Badenoch blurted out that Yellow Submarine was her favourite Beatles song yesterday, after a clearly unexpected question from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on her Sunday show.
But that’s not the first time the Tory leader has been mentioned in the same breath as baffling riddles about disappearing beneath the surface this week.
ReutersKemi Badenoch blurted out that Yellow Submarine was her favourite Beatles song[/caption]
The Leader of the Opposition was invited by the PM on Monday to a briefing on the Southport attack, yet sources say she did not attend.
The top-level update, done occasionally on secret Privy Council terms, was due to be given by the Deputy National Security Adviser – pointing to how serious No10 was about keeping the Opposition in the loop.
So there were some eyebrows raised that Badenoch opted to send her shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, instead.
For their part, team Kemi insist the Government’s plans were upended by the unexpected guilty plea of monster Axel Rudakubana rather than her choosing a “life of ease”, as the song goes.
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