CAMERON told the House of Commons on Monday afternoon in his statement on national security strategy that: ‘On Thursday I will make the case for Britain to join our international allies in going after ISIL at its headquarters in Syria, not just Iraq. . .’
He added: ‘We will invest more than £178 billion in buying and maintaining equipment over the next decade, including doubling our investment in equipment to support our special forces. We will also increase the size of our deployable armed forces.
‘In 2010 we committed to an expeditionary force of 30,000. Today I can tell the House that by 2025 we are increasing that number to 50,000. As part of this, we will create two new strike brigades, forces of up to 5,000 personnel fully equipped to deploy rapidly and sustain themselves in the field.
We will establish two additional Typhoon squadrons and an additional squadron of F-35 Lightning combat aircraft to operate from our new aircraft carriers. We will maintain our ultimate insurance policy as a nation, our continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent . . . and we will buy at least 13 new frigates and two new offshore patrol vessels.
‘These will include eight Type 26 anti-submarine warfare frigates. We will design and build a new class of light, flexible general purpose frigates as well. . . ‘Secondly, turning to counter-terrorism . . . as I announced last week, we will invest £2.5 billion and employ over 1,900 additional staff . . . And I can tell the House today that we have put in place a significant new contingency plan to deal with major terrorist attacks. Under this new operation, up to 10,000 military personnel will be available to support the police in dealing with the type of shocking terrorist attacks we have seen in Paris.
‘We will also make a major new investment in a new generation of surveillance drones. . . We will also do more to make sure the powers we give our security services keep pace with modern technology, as we will see through the draft Bill we have published to ensure that GCHQ, M15 and our counter-terrorism police continue to have the powers they need.’
Cameron was asked about his contingency plan that will allow 10,000 members of the armed forces to support the police. He responded: ‘The thinking here is that just as in France it was necessary to surge the number of uniformed personnel on the streets – perhaps to provide a security cordon or keep people safe – so we should get rid of the divide that has existed for many years about the deployment of military personnel on the streets of Britain.
‘The right hon Lady asks when these people will be trained. The first 5,000 are already able to fulfil that function should it be necessary, and we will get to the figure of 10,000 that I announced. This is not about members of the armed forces supplanting or taking over from the police; it is about them being at the disposal of the police, perhaps to provide a security cordon or a certain amount of safety. In the past we had a rather artificial divide between those two functions, and it is time to get rid of that.’
In other words in emergencies, including mass strikes by the ‘enemy within’ ie the trade unions, there will be 10,000 troops ready to aid the civil power, with the ability to ‘shoot-to-kill’. There is now to be a huge increase in military spending, at the same time as there will be a savage £20bn of cuts for the masses announced today by his Chancellor Osborne.
There are also measures in hand to give the police and secret agencies unprecedented access to people’s private information as well as attempts to dictate union contracts to big groups of workers such as the junior doctors. This is at the same time as the most reactionary trade union legislation is being brought in to try to illegalise every strike.
The crisis of capitalism has seen the Tories adopt a home policy of destroying the welfare state, and then extending it to a foreign policy of massive rearmament to participate with the US in an attempt to redivide the world. Yesterday’s shooting down by Turkey, one of the chief IS supporters, of a Russian jet fighter flying over Syria has brought Russia, Turkey and NATO to the brink of hostilities, just as the UK government is about to move to bomb Syria.
Cameron is incapable of thinking again! However the Labour Party leaders must think again, and tell all Labour MPs who are preparing to vote with the Tories to bomb Syria that they will be deselected as MPs if they do so! Further, the TUC must warn the Tories to withdraw the anti-union bill, or face a general strike to remove them as the government.