Rich

@afneil @TimesRadio The cost of leasing back Diego Garcia from Mauritius would also come out of the Defence budget.

My monologue from today’s The Times at One with Andrew Neil @TimesRadio FAILURE TO INCREASE DEFENCE SPENDING A NATIONAL SCANDAL. The failure of the Starmer government to increase defence spending by anything like enough is becoming a national scandal.  The need has never been greater in peacetime. Wars are raging in Ukraine and the Gulf. A revanchist Russia bears down on Eastern Europe. The Strait of Hormuz is in Iranian hands — and closed.  President Trump has gone from rightly demanding NATO’s European members do more for their own defence to wrongly threatening to pull America out of NATO altogether.  Yet the Starmer government sits on its hands doing next to nothing.  It sensibly commissioned a Strategic Defence Review when it came to power in the summer of 2024. That review reported in June 2025.  The government accepted all 62 of its proposals to reconfigure our military and rearm the country. It promised a Defence Investment Plan by the autumn to show how we’d pay for it.  Almost a year later there’s still no sign of it. Neither the PM nor the Defence Secretary can tell us when we will see it.  Meanwhile defence spending stutters, wholly inadequate to the tasks at hand. Trump’s War in the Gulf has exposed just how hollowed out our armed forces have become  — a diminished Navy, most of which cannot be deployed at sea  — an airforce short of fighter jets — a minuscule army incapable of mounting a major armoured fighting force — a country without its own ballistic missile defence.  Yet none of that can be put right on current or planned levels of defence spending.  Of course Labour’s inheritance was a terrible one. Fourteen years of Tory government were marked by a clear deterioration in our military prowess.  In the Cameron/Osborne years between 2010 and 2016, defence spending was cut in real terms by 22%. A fatal fall. Subsequent upticks did little to fill the hole that cut left.  But blaming the Tories only gets you so far. Rather than making up for lost ground the Starmer is largely standing still.  It inherited defence spending in its first year — 2024/25 — of £60 billion. It increased that by a mere £2 billion for 2025/26 — a pathetic amount in a dangerous world. And that’s in cash terms, without taking inflation into account.  It’s added only £3.5 billion — again in cash terms — for the upcoming financial year 2026/27. It barely takes the defence budget to 2.5% of GDP.  Yes, there are bigger rises in the years after that. But it’s still too little, too late — and barely moves defence above 2.5% of GDP.  Starmer has vaguely committed to 3% in the next Parliament — ie the early 2030s — and to 3.5% by 2035, which would be the next parliament after that. But these are only ambitions. There is no roadmap, no blueprint, no budget plan to get there.  Defence spending needs to be ramped up far more quickly than that. Instead, sleight of hand is exaggerating what small increases there are. Ministers try to slip in the intelligence services when counting defence. The cost of helping Ukraine. Unfunded pay rises for the military.  It all means that in real terms even the small uptick in defence spending is not as big as it seems.  There was a time when, as a share of GDP, Britain spent more on defence than any other NATO member bar America. It is a measure of our military decline that we’re now 12th — and still slipping.  The money is there if only there was the willpower to move it to defence — from the massive profligate expense of net zero, from the ballooning welfare budget, from a new time-limited tax, perhaps on luxuries, if that’s what it takes.  Other countries get the need to rearm — Germany, Poland, the Baltic States, Canada, even the peace-loving Scandinavians. But not Keir Starmer’s Britain.  It is his single biggest dereliction of duty. He needs to put it right. Before it’s too late. Or it will be forever the blackest of marks on his tenure in power.

@QuintenFrancois Logically reassuring, thanks 😂

If quantum “kills” Bitcoin, it also kills: • The global banking system • SWIFT transfers • Stock exchanges • Military communications • Nuclear command systems • Every HTTPS website on earth If Bitcoin is dead from quantum, your portfolio is the least of your problems.

@John_Dabell Getting Maxx Headroom vibes there John 😂👍🏼

Smile like you’ve already cracked the code.

@elonmusk That single zero is bothering me😂

Lovely day for a bike ride with the lad. #cheshire #middlewich #canal

@HWarlow Bempton is a spectacular place. Been a few times whilst holidaying in Brid 😄

Darren Woodhead Born in West Yorkshire and now living in Scotland (1996) Accomplished Watercolour artist passionately interested in Wildlife His work is created on site ‘Dawn Over Bempton Cliffs’ Beautiful area I wish I was there

@elonmusk Approx 30km apart, according to Grok calculation.

The satellites will actually be so far apart that it will be hard to see from one to another. Space is so vast as to be beyond comprehension.

@bo66ie29 Slower, calmer times. Just living.

England in 1903. Whoever filmed this had no idea what a beautiful gift they were capturing for the future.

@Kristin_Mae Salt Mine, Cheshire

Orange, the hue between day and dream. Let’s see your orange photo 🧡

@AJamesMcCarthy Me too, had plenty of practice 🚀

My toxic trait is thinking I could have landed this

@models_by_Russ “Gravy poured with intent" 😂

Good morning you lovely lot ❤️ It’s Sunday. The day the alarm clock fears, the kettle works overtime, and the Yorkshire pudding ascends to its rightful position as a food group. Slow starts only. Big mugs of tea. Zero urgency. If it can’t be done in slippers, it’s not happening. Today’s priorities are simple:    •   Roast beef that’s had a proper upbringing    •   Yorkshires so big they cast a shadow    •   Gravy poured with intent, not drizzle    •   Arguments over who gets the crispiest one (spoiler: me) Forget the week ahead. That’s tomorrow’s problem. Today is about full plates, full bellies, and that magical Sunday calm where even time has a lie-in. Have a cracking Sunday, eat like a champion, nap like a professional, and remember: Yorkshire pudding first. Everything else is garnish. ❤️

“The silhouette says a lot with very little information.” Share a photo of a silhouette!

@ElliottBlackwe3 I keep meaning to watch this. Looking forward to it.

A glorious, transcendent film. An elegiac meditation on life & death that is both delicate & profound. Train Dreams is a work of art.

@Kristin_Mae Love the sun catching the bottom of the clouds ⛅️

It’s time to sprinkle sunrise beauty on the timeline. I hope this finds you in your “for you” feed. ✨📷✨

@Simon_Treasure Here’s our two, they like a good cardboard box!

@cxords All 3 are on the bed most mornings , Zack has just about got used to to the other I now , they 9 months old . Zack and Oscar getting to know each other 😹

The cat’s impressed by this evening’s aurora. #aurora #northernlights

@Simon_Treasure Nice cat family. Do they take it in turns to wake you up for breakfast? 😄 We have an 8 year old tabby/white girl who puts up with a lot from our rescued 3 year old black, he’s the star of the aurora photo 😻

@cxords Thank you, back in October I took on two rescue cats , Oscar the grey one and Pippa I also have a 10 year old tabby and white, great companions since my wife passed away

@Simon_Treasure @catsareblessing I see what you mean, lovely photo and great memory of your cat.

@catsareblessing Definitely

@plutarchos2 Amazing, thanks 😊

@cxords Sun IS boss! So happy to see that your great photos got the recognition they deserve. Well done!

@Simon_Treasure Thanks Simon. Love the innocence of cats 🐱 it must be a great life!

@cxords Beautiful! have a similar pic, of my late cat watching the sunset