BEN WALLACE AND NATO

Ben Wallace, the British Defence Secretary, has withdrawn his candidacy to be the next leader of NATO. This follows a decision from the USA that it preferred to retain the current leader, Jens Stoltenberg. Clearly, President Biden was not persuaded by Rishi Sunak, who had lobbied for the position to go to Wallace earlier this month. The EU was also opposed to Wallace. Some countries wanted a woman in charge.

However, it has also been stated that there were concerns that Wallace was not up to the job. He had no experience at ‘leader level’. Recent NATO leaders had all been former national leaders.

Ben Wallace is a former army officer and has been credited for his role in supporting Ukraine. He is also the Defence Secretary who has presided over an increasingly woke leadership of all three arms of the military (army, RAF, and the Royal Navy), with the RAF being particularly anti-English in its recruitment. Further he has presided over the significant reduction in the army, while the number of civil servants in the Ministry of Defence increased: fewer soldiers and more pen pushers. The RAF has only around 100 fighters when it had double that number when the Tories took office in 2010, and just under 900 fighters in the late 1980s.

The Royal Navy has aircraft carriers without anything more than a token number of aircraft between them (and even has to borrow fighters with pilots from abroad), and without sufficient destroyers to guard those carriers.

In the 1970s, the Royal Navy was still the third largest navy in the world. Today, it is doubtful whether what few surface vessels it possesses have engines that work properly. The army has blown more than £3 billion on an armed vehicle that is such a rattle trap that it is a danger to its users. Consequently, it is long overdue, has yet to enter service, and the development costs continue to escalate..

This NATO escapade is yet another example of the Tories obsessing about global institutions, seriously overestimating the UK’s importance and influence, and neglecting the national interest.

Ben Wallace needs to focus on the day job.