Totton
Conservative Club
Saturday,
7th November 2015
Driving
rain and blustery wind did not prevent people from crowding into Totton
Conservative Club on Saturday, 7th November to hear a wide ranging
outstanding speech on Defence from Dr. Julian Lewis MP, chairman of the House
of Commons Defence Committee. Starting
from the first Iraq War his talk covered recent wars which when over had left
civilians still in difficult conditions
Libya for example was an almighty mess.
He said that we were bad at predicting wars, such as the 6 Day War or
events such as 9/11. Dr Lewis went on
to say that regarding the Syrian debacle, the Russians wanted Assad to win but
this country wants both sides to lose!
John
Strafford interviewed Julian Lewis and commenced by saying he agreed 100% with
his views, and he was wholly in favour of spending 2% of the Budget on Defence
spending, and that more of the budget should be spent on conventional
weapons. John Strafford wondered if we
were spending money in the right places
When
questioned, Dr Lewis said that if British troops were in the Ukraine but we
denied they were there it would be a scandal, but that is what is happening now
with Russia in the Ukraine.
NATO says
that an attack on one NATO ally is an attack on all.
The
question of Trident came up not surprisingly.
One member of the audience wanted 10 Tridents and another questioner
wondered where, if required, a new base could be found – answer Milford Haven in
Wales. The audience included several former service military personnel - so
informed questioning ensued. Queries
on drones, aircraft carriers, state of readiness
to respond to attack – all were competently responded to
by Julian Lewis.
Cllr
Allan Glass closed the meeting after warmly thanking the speaker for an
informed speech.
It was a privilege to be at the debate. Julian Lewis made a powerful defence of replacing Trident which was compelling. To read some of his papers you can visit his website here.
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