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Strength and Weakness in leadership
The Defence Secretary, tries to label Labour & Miliband as weak on defence alleging that Labour would not replace Trident. Due to the unnecessary and scurrilous allegations made, the issues surrounding Trident are lost in the noise and the debate becomes one of character, which Miliband wins again!
- The New Statesman finishes the day, with the headline, "...attack backfires, leaving Miliband to emerge as the decent man."
- Michael Fallon's attack backfires, leaving Miliband to emerge as the decent manToday's Tory intervention could have been focused on the question of whether a Labour government would renew Trident, sowing fear among voters about the possible influence of the pro-disarmament SNP. But rather than that policy issue, it is Michael Fallon's crude ad hominem attack on Ed Miliband that is dominating discussion.
- It was going wrong, when the Spectator asks how a Government or Party that won't commit to the NATO defence budget commitments (2% of GDP) can hope to criticise anyone, and also distance themselves; they quote Miliband's devasting riposte, "Decent Conservatives across our country will say – come on, we’re better than this. David Cameron should be ashamed,"
There's no need for the Tories to descend into the gutter - Spectator BlogsYou might be forgiven for expecting that a Defence Secretary giving a speech on defence during an election campaign would involve an announcement about his party's defence policy. And Michael Fallon did 'announce' something today, which is that the Tories would commit to four nuclear submarines, updated missiles and warheads in a renewal of the Trident continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent.- Matt Burleigh summarises the hypocrisy in his blog detailing the Tory defence cuts since 2010 and retelling the story of the Tory's cuts in the 1980s which led to the Falklands War.
When Tories play fast and loose with our national security....
When 80% of the national newspapers are owned by Tory supporters (Murdoch, the Barclay Brothers, Rothermere, etc), actively pushing a Tory agenda, they can frame each day's narrative in this General Election. The agenda of TV news, even the "left-wing biased" BBC (my quotes, since it's a nonsense pushed by Murdoch and his ilk who...- The arguments on Trident are not clear, the Labour Party's National Policy Forum has not debated the issues and in the article below, Michael Meacher, sums up in one paragraph the critical arguments against Trident, while analysing Labour's leadership's caution.
- "The recent vote in the Commons, ... calling for the non-renewal of Trident brought out the same response. Labour recognises, and is sympathetic to, the downsides of continuing with Trident – the £130bn cost over a 50-year period, the uncertainty of being able to operate the system independently of the US, doubts about the relevance of such a weapon at such enormous cost against today’s challenges of terrorism and cyber-warfare – but will not take a stand against the conventional wisdom. That is even the case when an increasing proportion of the military top brass have come out against renewing Trident, especially when it means cutbacks in other areas of the military budget such as adequately arming and protecting UK troops in the field, as the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan have shown all too starkly.
Nothing stands between Labour and election victory except its own timidityThis coming Monday the remaining stages of the Infrastructure Bill will be taken in Parliament, including votes on the launch of fracking in this country.- I point out that a Tory Defence Secretary might not be the best person to look to apply the chisel to Labour given their record on defence spending both since 2010 and also in the '80s.
Ello | davelevy | The Tories announce their commitmentsThe Tories announce their commitments on defence; they announce that they'll build a new seaborne strategic nuclear deterrent; while failing to fund enough soldiers, weapons, war planes and surface warships to defend us against the next threat.- The Tories in two minds as to the attack line, being Nukes or Miliband's character allow Michael Fallon to attack both in one go.
General election: Michael Fallon takes on Ed Miliband over Trident - FT.comMichael Fallon on Thursday defended his claim that Ed Miliband was willing to "stab the United Kingdom in the back to become prime minister". Mr Fallon said that Mr Miliband's defeat of his brother David in Labour's 2010 leadership election "showed- This story took me a week to finish. The speech was given on the 9th April,
