Tim Montgomerie has posted an excellent article on BritainandAmerica.com headlined "It's a long way from Port Stanley to the Shatt-al-Arab waterway". In it he argues that the current crisis in Iran has exposed the decline of Britain as a serious power. He goes on to list ten key factors that have contributed to Britain's vulnerability in 2007. They are...
1. An overstretched and under-resourced military
2. The Iraq war
3. Appeasement of Iran
4. Appeasement of internal threats
5. The weakness of the transatlantic relationship
6. Decline of NATO
7. Unfounded faith in the United Nations
8. The BBC
9. Lack of strategic thinking
10. A distracted opposition
Read Tim's article HERE.
51 comments:
Who wants to be a “serious power” anymore? It’s just childish.
Lack of self belief and pride in being British.
what a lot of nonsense.
2,3,4,5,6,7,9 and 10 apply to the USA.
As for no. 1 was it Bin Laden who enjoyed watching the spectacle of America humbled in Mogadishu? Did that help? Depends largely how no 1 is managed for it to be effective. Did no 1 help on 9/11 also?
And their media can be as poisonous as ours. Perhaps a decline in western power. But really the US blogoshpere likes to distract itself with the UK and Europe as though it were impervious to the same issues. American politics is as stale as ours.
I would add the deliberate diluting of the national identity with mass immigration and an iron-fisted imposition of "multiculturalism" on a formerly cohesive people with a strong sense of their own national identity.
I have huge sympathy with the broad thrust of the message (and I've yet to read the full thing) but the inclusion of the BBC is laughably paranoid surely...?
I think the inclusion of the BBC is deadly serious. It is part, with the government, of the fifth column. The first time in human history that the fifth column was also the government.
The first time I ever saw Tony Blair's photo, I knew he was going wreak untold damage on my country.
Look what we've sunk to: Caravanner Margaret Beckett, whose "personal assistant" is her 80-year old husband, is our Foreign Secretary. Says it all.
Tonight's University Challenge posed a question asking about a computer program, modelled on the Daily Mail, that churned out random DM-style headlines like "Unions infect your mortgage with AIDS!" and "Feminists devastate the countryside!". The program sounded remarkably similar to Iain's list and indeed many of Iain's headlines - could he be using the Daily Mail program? Perhaps we should be told.
"A distracted opposition"?????!!
You mean they are busy trying to get elected rather than posturing in front of TV camera's undermining any behind the scenes negotiations!
In Australia they have had to recongnise that national coherence is spart of your ability to act internationally . As they perceive themsleves to be peculiarly vulnerable ther has been a great deal more honesty about this than we are able to stomach.
Why not kidnap our troops what are we going to do with so much of the country more or less sympathising with any enemy we have. The BBC is the louche bordello where the decadence is celebrated whilst enjoying the safety the remnants of the old loyalties have guaranteed.
( A distracted opposition? No that is irrelevant but the UN is becoming worthy of true hatred)
We have serious and growing problems at home to deal with without trying to be the world's policeman on behalf of our American masters.
Let's give up trying to be a "serious power" ie a US mercenary state, and give us some of our tax back.
Calling the British Bluff on the world stage reveals New Labour as Flaccid. The only option for New Labour now is Loveboat Diplomacy.
Perhaps Gordo should show the Iranians his "big clunking fist" or has the great charlatan gone into hiding again?
Our pension-destroying Chancellor may eventually take over from Blair but he sure as hell isn't going to win the next election or come anywhere near it.
The BBC?? Oh do grow up.
Even the US networks over here have realised it's pointless talking up victory in Iraq.
Typical Tory Think Tank b0ll0cks.
Critical ones are appeasement. Never works.
Kinglear:
It was nice to see you being portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen in Stratford a week ago.
Sadly, the reviewers have concentrated on the "male nudity" that is portrayed in the Storm scene.
My better half is a GP and reckoned that watching an old man waving his tackle around was too much like her everyday work.
No 1 An EUssr Defence force by the back door, how long before the Army is down to 86000?.
Oh and a Euro file as a Tory? Leader.
Iain, a couple of points. During the first gulf war we would not have intercepted that ship where we did because the nature of the delta means the exit of the Shat al Arab moves and so you can't tell where the border is, we would have intercepted it in more open international waters where firstly the Cornwall would have had more room to maneuver and there would be no doubt that we were not in Iranian waters.
Secondly our relationship with America is weak not because we are not close enough to them, but because we are too close. Maggie would not have had anything like the same relationship with Bush.
Cameron has recognised that and anyone who thinks he is being too critical of America need only look at what Tony Blair's unthinking loyalty has brought us.
The BBC ? Oh just p!$$ off if that is the level of Montgomerie's intellect.
Yeah, I can just see how those army types are now quaking in their boots because we now have the BBC, whereas we didn't 25 years ago..
Oh, hang on...
Crap, crap, crap. Our power has been on the wane for donkey's years.
Many would say it was never that high to begin with, and I certainly don't want to go back to that colonial 'power at the barrel of a gun' b*!!*cks.
Do you want Zimbabwe back as a fully fledged member of the Commonwealth ? Of course that Mugabe problem is just down to the weakness of the transatlantic relationship, natch...
And us losing Hong Kong, well we could soon get it back if we just got rid of our 'unfounded faith in the UN' [aka International Law]..
And us being stitched up by Iran of course has nowt to do with getting into an illegal war with their sworn enemy in Iraq, oh no- that'll be 'yer 'Decline of NATO' guvnor..
Nah, send the gunboats over, it's the only language they understand..
I 'ad that Tim Montgomerie in the back of the cab last week, very clever man...
"The first time I ever saw Tony Blair's photo, I knew he was going wreak untold damage on my country."
Really, verity, which country is that then ? Iraq ? Afghanistan ?
"In Australia they have had to recongnise that national coherence is * spart * of your ability to act internationally . "
The evidence at last ! newmania's true identity !
Step forward - Dave Spart !!
Benedict White - maneuver ?
Is that a little bit like a manoeuvre ?
Doesn't our crime ridden, drugs and alcohol addicted, foul-mouthed society also have something to do with our diminished status too?
How on earth can Monty be foolish enough to think that we were at the height of our powers at the time of the Falklands conflict ?
If Iran had done the same thing 25 years ago, what would we have done ?
I suspect the answer would have been along the lines of allowing Mark Thatcher to pop over and sell them arms as long as they handed 'our boys' back in one piece.
Grow up folks, we never were a super-power so stop bemoaning the loss of status and influence we never had anyway.
"I would add the deliberate diluting of the national identity with mass immigration.."
Oh, verity, I so agree - if only those English bastards hadn't moved down the M4 to live in Wales, and the Taffs hadn't moved to England, then those Iranians would be quaking in their boots now.
What a load of bollocks you talk !!
To coin a caption from a Paddington Bear graffito I saw today :-
"Migration is not a crime".
Now where are my marmalade sarnies..
Anonymous at 1:04. You might think that I could not possibly comment. (sugar,or words to that effect)
He left out a decline in a belief in God!
'When Britain first at heaven's command arose from out of the azure main...........'
Rule Britannia
If Iran had done the same thing 25 years ago, what would we have done ?
Exactly what Carter should have done back then - kill Khomeini before he left France.
Blockading Iranian ports as we proposed in 1951.
Had Carter acted in 1978 we could have stopped this upsurge in Islamic radicalism...as it is we have a rendezvous with these nutters at some stage in the future when we can fight a real nuclear war - after all they want to rebuild the Persian Empire
Benedict at 1.35:
Do you mean: You might think that I could not possibly comment.
or ...
You might think that; I could not possibly comment.
Just wondering..
Iain
you missed appeasement of America esp Bush as final nail for UK
au revoir
Alba
Is it just me, or has Iains blog been infected recently by a plague of left-wing knob-jockeys?
Yeah, that's right. I use the word "infected" deliberately. Lefties are a plague. A cancer in modern society. And they never f**king learn.
Christ, I hate them so much.
Lefties are either; (1) totally ignorant, (2) morally self-satisfied tw*ts, (3) idealogical dimwits, (4) self-flagellating turds or (5) all of the above. They are always hypocrits.
I particulary DESPISE the way they try and dismiss sensible, reasoned centre-right points of views and positions on issues which they're too scared (or stupid) to deal with with the following leftie lexicon buzzwords; "Bigot", "Racist", "Sexist", "Homophobe", "Imperialist" & "****ist" & "****phobe". Sod off.
It just goes to highlight how incapable they are of debating their position.
Now, be a good bunch of chaps and either get a life, a brain, or lost.
Britain's influence in the world is dependent upon having a simple 'BIG IDEA' that others will find compelling (or can be compelled to find compelling, ie the Empire) As far as I can see, we don't have that. Period.
The BIG IDEAS that seem to be around at the moment are: Mohammedanism, Raw Capitalism (the Chinese variety), Zionism, Oil(ism), and perhaps one or two others.
Given the scale of disruption likely to ensue as these forces swirl around our tiny globe, it might be prudent to sit on the sidelines for a while - and, in line with our Foreign Secretary's caravanning credo, brew up.
Tim's at it again.
Everyone of those points can be directly associated with a Tory out in the cold.
I don't relate any of those to a three times winning Labour Party.
It's the Tories and their party that was kicked out of the White House and made to swim back to their bunker in Hyde Park.
Blair got the old Congressional meadal of Honour (Gee, I'm so proud!)
Sour grapes from the Bishop of Conservative Home.Loser.
Gary
Who is Dave Spart ?
Britain hasn't be a true world power for a long time. It's just that most people have only just started to realise it.
Knowing Tim, that's more a list of 'things I don't like'. ;-)
Seriously, some of those such as the BBC and a supposedly weak transatlantic relationship are nothing to do with it.
What is the major factor is the unwillingness to forge an independent foreign policy (remember the Falklands?) and a systematic downgrading of the forces. Nothing else.
'I don't relate any of those to a three time winning Labour party'-Gary Elsby.
Really Gary? How brainwashed/stupid (delete as appropiate ) are you exactly?
Shouldn't number 1 be the taking over by stealth, of Britain, by the EU?
Malcolm:
Are you still attempting to convince yourself that Labour is not going to win for a breathtaking fourth term?
Are you contemplating Dave pulling a rabbit out and storming home to victory for windmills everywhere?
You are still playing the anti EU card and the British prisoner sob story and it is exactly those two areas that are entirely responsible for every 30 years old child in this Country never having seen a Tory Government reign.
I can't say it any clearer than that. I get great pleasure in saying and writing it, believe me.
If you don't want to listen, i'm more than happy.
If you want to listen to Tim and his synod in Conservative home, be my guest.
I'm right, you lot are wrong (losers).
At the next Tory Conference, don't guest the likes of Tim making grand speeches of yesteryear and Falklands, invite me to shout out loudly why you fail.
You just might do something about it then, if only to wipe the big grin of my face.
helpfully yours
Gary
The writer is clealry devoid of any logical thought processes...
We used to be THE superpower with a superpower economy.
Then
we became A superpower without a superpower economy.
Now we realise you cannot be a superpower without a superpower economy.
All the rest is cow excement.
More vulgar: Are lefties an "infection" or a "cancer"? Have to get the metaphorical diagnosis right or you'll never get the metaphorical cure.
In the long term a country's world influence is closely related to its economic power. We are growing at 2.5%, better than the EU average but just over half the world average.
All the rest about punching above our weight, special relationships, even our Security Coucil veto & Trident are froth on top of the economic facts.
Steve 11:46
See what you did there. However, remember that I said they had "infected" this blog, but that they are a "cancer" in society.
Two distinct things with two distinct cures ;-)
In my view, the 10 biggest reasons for Britain's declining world influence are:
1. Tony "Adolf" Blair
2. The Evilpean Union
3. The BBC
4. Political Correctness
5. Gordon "Stalin" Brown
6. The Left in general who are always looking to do down Britain and turn it into a third world tyranny
7. Religious extremists
8. A weak and divided Conservative party
9. Chav "culture"
10. Disillusionment with politicians
You missed out wet behind the ears incompentents like ET (Environmental Twit) the extra-terrestrial Miliblob - Anon 12:48.
Auntie Flo'
More vulgar - mmmm fair enough although you did say "lefties are a plague" [which is an infection] in a context that implied you were talking about society not the blog ... ;-)
[That's enough smartarse coments. Ed]
Gary Elsby, your obviously a very odd/deluded (delete or not as appropiate) person.
Newmania: 9.53
I had inferred from your postings on others' blogs that you were reasonably well-read. However, it seems I may have been mistaken. May I humbly suggest therefore that, to fill the odd gap in your knowledge, you take out a subscription to that esteemed fount of knowledge "Private Eye" wherein regular "Spartist" comments on current affairs will rapidly enlighten you.
Neil Craig:
The British economy is growing faster and bigger and better and more wonderful that any other Country I couldn't be bothered to mention (Gordon Propaganda)
So why isn't the Country bouncing and singing our praises?
Debt.
Gordon needed to be PM about 10 weeks ago.
Keep your eye on Ed Balls as he heads for meltdown.
Timing is everything.
Doom.
"Serious power"? Britain??? Not since 1945, mate.
britain's influence is on the wane because of the bbc which is the most recognised brand in the world? that's a laughable assertion.
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