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Could Starmer’s Britain be any more broken? To heap a final humiliation on the nation that once ruled the waves, Britain now has to apparently rely on its oldest enemy to protect its overseas assets.
France is sending warships and anti-air attack systems to Cyprus amid deepening questions about Britain’s ability to defend its own bases from Iranian attacks.
Emmanuel Macron has ordered units including two frigates to the eastern Mediterranean after RAF Akrotiri was struck by a drone which pierced its air defences on Sunday night.
They’ve even offered to loan them a white flag, if necessary.
The Cyprus Mail said president Nikos Christodoulides appealed to both Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to send naval vessels to help protect the island.
The damage to Akrotiri was said to be ‘minimal’ and there were no casualties, officials said, but the very fact that Tehran was able to hit the base has highlighted potential gaps in depleted UK forces’ ability to defend it.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper yesterday said additional defensive capabilities had recently been moved to bases in Cyprus, including radar systems, counter-drone systems, F-35 jets, and ground-based air defence.
Fat lot of good they did, obviously.
Maggie Thatcher must be rolling in her grave and the ghost of Winston Churchill storming the halls of Number 10 in fury at what a laughing-stock Britain has become under Labour.
The Royal Navy has six Type 45 destroyers which are designed for air defence. But in January Defence Minister Vernon Coaker confirmed that only three are operational.
Reports suggest that currently only one of them, HMS Duncan, is at sea off the UK, with the other two tied up alongside in HMNB Portsmouth.
No doubt they’re busy making sure dinghies full of African and Middle Eastern rapists reach Dover safely. They’re probably well stocked with brand new mobile phones and welfare application forms.
Greece has also said it will send two frigates and fighter jets to defend Cyprus, meaning it will have more naval assets in the area than UK.
Even Greece, which hasn’t been at war with Iran for 2500 years, is stepping up where Britain cannot – or will not.
How has Britain come to such a pathetic pass?
Because it’s riding the twin tigers of Islamic and left-wing hatred of Israel. But it’s principally because Starmer and the attorney-general, Lord Hermer, have made a religion out of international law.
This, as I wrote recently for Real Good Oil, is a contradictory, illogical and un-democratic farrago of nonsense cooked up by communist academics. Naturally, Keir Starmer and his cadres are fully signed-on. But even by the garbage tenets of ‘international law’, Starmer is an incoherent coward.
International law allows a state to assist in the defence of allies who are threatened. It was never intended as a suicide pact, forcing a country to sit on its hands while its mortal enemies develop weapons to destroy it. As the Conservatives’ shadow justice secretary, Lord Wolfson, said on X, such a stance would be a “fundamentally immoral system of law”.
The even deeper perversity is that this is indeed a defensive war. Iran has been attacking Israel, both directly and through its proxies, since the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023.
The mistake is to think that the UK Labour government actually has a problem with that. The odious Jeremy Corbyn may not be running the clown show any more, but the spectre of anti-Semitism still riddles Labour, root and branch.
Not to mention utter, jelly-backed, cowardice.
Confronted by Iran and other enemies of the West, he has in effect offered them Britain’s throat and told them “go ahead and cut it – and we’ll only try to stop you once you’ve done so”. He and Hermer fit Wolfson’s astringent observation that “too many international lawyers serenely promote an analysis which ultimately protects tyrants”.
This, let’s face it: is a feature, not a bug.
Last month Nato chiefs delivered a stark warning to Sir Keir over the consequences of failing to boost defence spending.
The PM has been told that the UK faces falling towards the bottom of the alliance's league table without more investment.
Top officials are said to have highlighted the danger of failing to hike budgets as a proportion of GDP, with Britain missing targets for bolstering capabilities.
When even the EU is calling you out, you know you’re completely and finally humiliated.
