Britain's Defence - An Open Letter

Dr Liam Fox MP Secretary of State for Defence Whitehall London William Hague MP First Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs Whitehall London

10th August 2010

Gentlemen,

Britains's Defence and its Nuclear Deterrent

The decision taken by Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, to place the financing of Britain's nuclear deterrence within the budget of the Ministry of Defence, which due to its serious nature can only have been undertaken with the consent of the Prime Minister, David Cameron and his Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, has presented an opportunity for you both to profoundly influence, if not indeed to change the future direction of our country. Writing as an ordinary member of the public it is my personal opinion that this is a critical turning point in our national affairs and it seems beyond co-incidence that you two particular individuals now head the two great departments of state best placed to push the necessary changes through. In my view there would be no other two members of the Cabinet of your coalition government whose instincts I would rather trust in making the coming crucial decisions. The reality of the scale of spending cuts now faced by the country makes imperative a complete re-appraisal of our policies. I suggest we approach our senior Commonwealth partners, Australia and Canada, with a view to merging all our armed forces, with a one third share/commitment from each country. The nature of the global threats we now face clearly cannot be adequately countered from our resources alone. The increased spending for the EEAS of Baroness Ashton must be vetoed because a common EU foreign policy, if achievable, seems unlikely to either work in Britain's interests nor be backed with sufficient resources given the recent acceptance by the ECB of Government Bonds of dubious worth as collateral for previously unimaginable amounts of future commitments. I therefore also propose as an incentive for our future partners that Britain's Trident fleet of submarines be placed at the disposal of this new defence force, with a triple lock for each of the Prime Ministers of the three countries other than in the event of a nuclear attack upon one of our nations, in which event the premier of the attacked country would be empowered to solely authorise the launch of missiles. Britain's vote and veto at the UN Security Council could similarly be made subject to co-ordination with these two countries. The replacement for Trident should be agreed by the governments of the three countries and jointly financed. Existing arrangements with NATO, the EU and other previously shared defence commitments would necessarily have to be reviewed. There can be few families in Britain who do not have some links to others in either Canada or Australia, other Commonwealth nations may eventually also wish to join. Defence must be directed at the protection of our heritage, how better could global protection be acieved than with such a force structured on three continents of the world, based on the shared heritage with our senior Commonwealth partners and ready to face emerging threats from new nuclear powers bordering every ocean of the world. Sincerely, Martin Cole Email copies to: Anne Palmer Australian Monarchist League Chair, Philip Benwell MBE Conservative Home Blog