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  • 'Positive Policy' - Defence: Part 4 of 4 - Conclusion

    by Matthew Taylor (@MTPT) on Friday, 5th March 2010

    We need armed forces which are capable of performing a variety of missions, and we need to be able to deploy them in a broader range of capabilities. Other policies which I have not focused on are also important. In particular, increases to the RAF's airlift capability (already underway) must continue, and we must procure new aircraft carriers to replace the Invincible class ships which are now being retired. Neither of these are new lessons: the need for the former was demonstrated in the Falklands War, while the need for the latter was proven by the Belize crisis in 1972. Yet both lessons... read more »

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  • 'Positive Policy' - Defence: Part 3 of 4 - Cancelling Trident

    by Matthew Taylor (@MTPT) on Friday, 5th March 2010

    Of the UK's £36Bn annual defense budget, around 5% (about £2Bn) is spent on the UK's nuclear deterrent - a fleet of 4 Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines. Those submarines require either replacement, or expensive refitting, towards the end of this decade.



    The need to replace the Vanguard class provides a useful natural break at which we can and should question both the need to maintain a nuclear deterrent, and the shape which it would take.



    Should the UK maintain a nuclear deterrent at all? My answer is an unqualified 'yes'. The chances of a nuc... read more »

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  • 'Positive Policy' - Defence: Part 2 of 4 - Recruit more troops, Building U(C)AVS

    by Matthew Taylor (@MTPT) on Friday, 5th March 2010

    Recruit more troops

    Sounds obvious, doesn't it?



    The regular Army is now around one third of the size it was in the mid-1950s (after the Korean War), less than half the size it was in 1939 (immediately prior to the second world war), and only two thirds of the size it was at the end of National Service (1963).



    More important that the simple numbers, the role of the army in recent conflicts has been a policing role, deployed to provide civil security or conduct low intensity counter insurgency operations. These functions require more troops - ... read more »

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  • 'Positive Policy' - Defence: Part 1 of 4

    by Matthew Taylor (@MTPT) on Friday, 5th March 2010

    Now British troops have withdrawn from Iraq, and we are reinforcing Afghanistan, with territorial dispute over the Falkland Islands again in the news, and with crucial elements of the UK's military forces coming to the end of their lifespan, this is a good a time to talk about defence policy.

    

Let us be clear: we cannot conduct debates about defence policy in way we all too often approach health or education. Where new schools and hospitals can be delivered in a matter of months or a few years, it takes years to build up military forces, and decades to introduce new weapon syste... read more »

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  • 'Positive Policy' - Education: What Labour did wrong & What Tories can do right

    by Catey Maxx (@cateymaxx) on Thursday, 4th March 2010

    I began my teaching career under a Tory government, and was forced to end it under the fag end of a Labour one.

    As a fledgling student at university, I remember being asked by one of my Labour supporting counterparts,

    "How on earth can you be a teacher and vote Conservative?"

    "Quite easily!" I replied.

    In hindsight a little idealistic, but never-the-less, the beginning of a beautiful (if not at times volatile) friendship.

    Teaching at that time was all about inspiring and entertaining young people into learning. ... read more »

    Comments (13)

  • 'Positive Policy' - The Lords Question: Reforming the House of Lords

    by Shane McMurray (@HMSEnterprise) on Thursday, 4th March 2010

    Being a fan of our ancient and, at times, curious system of government when I was asked to choose any area of policy and write about it I knew almost immediately it would be on constitutional reform, specifically everyone’s favourite upper house: the House of Lords. Or The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled to give it its full, official title.

    As chance would have it I ended up on a tour of the Palace of Westminster while Parliament was in recess recently that focused almost entir... read more »

    Comments (5)

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