Cicero told us that the sinews of war are unlimited money, nervous belief, pecuniary infinitum.
Last week on GB News, we suggested that overseas aid should be cut to fund a boost to defence spending.
Today, Sir Keir Starmer has followed our advice. We’re making policy on GB News.
This is a remarkable step for the Labour Prime Minister, who, for the first time, is moving against the internationalists in his party to put the domestic national interest first.
Jacob Rees-Mogg shared his thoughts on the defence spending increase
GB News
Russia is a threat. Putin is dangerous. His invasion of Ukraine was fundamentally wrong and the one unforgivable act if you believe in a world order legitimised by the nation-state.
If sovereign borders are not sacrosanct, there can be no peace. We have been asleep under the coalition. It was assumed, as it was after the First World War, that there would be no war for ten years.
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This left us unprepared, and support for Ukraine has left us understocked in terms of munitions.
The defence budget has been consistently cut since the end of the Cold War, as we have grown complacent on welfare.
But even the money we’ve allocated to defence has been wasted on procurement schemes that never met budgets and produced unsatisfactory equipment.
The reckoning—the great day of reckoning—is now upon us.
“Donald Trump looks to an aggressive “America First” policy”
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As Donald Trump looks to an aggressive “America First” policy, we must defend our own aisles. The comfort of complacency has to end.
The wasteful expenditure on overseas aid will be slashed under half the legal target of 0.7 per cent. Yet this is not enough. We are doing things by halves.
We need a bigger economy, and to get people back to work, the Prime Minister will need to cut the welfare budget.
The net-zero nonsense must end too. We cannot make the argument we need if our energy costs are four times that of the United States and over ten times that of Russia.
We will simply find that we can’t afford to make munitions. The luxuries of idle prosperity must go.
Because, as Vegetius told us 1,500 years ago, “If you want peace, prepare for war.”
This is what we need to do now, and Sir Keir Starmer has made a modest, but encouraging start. There is much further to go, as always.