Defence
The non-issue
David W. Wragg
Imposition though it may be, obviously an election is one of the benefits of democracy and much to be preferred to life under a left-wing tyranny. The real disaster must be that the protection of our way of life is not seen as an election issue, by the electorate or by the politicians. The average Briton not only confuses cause and effect, seeing the cost of living as an issue rather than inflation, but allows himself to be treated much as an illiterate tribesman in a newly emergent nation by political parties who offer, in truth, bribes for his vote.
One might have at. least expected the Conservative Party to call for a return to the policy of only allowing the state to do those things which the individual cannot do, or arrange to have done, for himself. The ideal would be an order of priorities starting with defence, followed by law and order, and then by help for those unable to look after themselves. Another priority would be to establish the state as arbiter rather than manager — the bureaucratic mentality is ill-suited to commercial enterprise, apart from less obvious principles of freedom which are also tarnished by state monopoly operations.
Few words are spared for defence in the party manifestos. The Conservative promise to maintain our defences, including the nuclear deterrent and NATO, but decline to say at what level. In fact, everyone knows that in spite of promises it would be the level dictated by a preceding Labour administration, or even by a Conservative Chancellor. The warnings about defence cuts by' the Commons Select Committee on Expenditure are ignored, as are the more solid warnings of intelligence reports on the growth of Soviet military might.
The Liberal Party tries, officially, to maintain some support for NATO, although the attitude to the nuclear deterrent is less clear cut. In fact, the Liberals see NATO not as a military alliance, but as something more, or perhaps it should be less. NATO, to the Liberal, is a means of promoting detente, not of preserving freedom. No doubt Liberals would ignore the needs of the EEC, which if, it is to mean anything at all, must have support from Portugal, Spain, Greece and Turkey, yet three of these nations are, officially at least, in NATO, and the other, Spain, has indicated interest in the past. Only if taken over by Anti-Western regimes, could these countries have any appeal for the Liberal Party. For all of their professed support for freedom, the Liberal Party, particularly the Young Liberals, show a marked inclination not only to ignore the threat from the Warsaw Pact, but also to ignore the intolerable conditions which make these countries far worse than Spain, , Portugal or Greece at their worst. The new regime in Portugal threatens the Atlantic alliance, forcing Europe into a pincer with the Warsaw Pact on the other side, and making the Cape shipping route still more vulnerable.
Labour is pledged to make massive cuts in defence expenditure, said to amount to 0,000
million. Roy Mason, the "moderate" allowed the Defence Ministry by those who see a moderate as a man disinclined to stop the excesses of the left, is nevertheless supposed to have been alarmed by the levels of Soviet strength on the one hand, and the implications of anything so impractical as a one-third reduction in defence expenditure on the other.
Labour's attitude to defence, and the internal differences, have been easily smothered. In ensuring defeat for the West, there is unity within the Labour Party, if not on any other issue.
Yet, on this as on so many issues, one does not select the Conservative policy as being the right one or the best one, but because of the need to stop the policies of the other parties from taking effect and because the Conservatives are least wrong. Geoffrey Rippon hastily and typically withdrew his statement on voluntary organisations to support law and order once the left raised a yell of anger, but would it be wrong to have public-spirited individuals ready to maintain essential services? Indeed, do we not need some kind of people's militia to defend our way of life and to act as a last ditch reserve — for not only should the devil not have all of the best tunes, but the Communist bloc should not have all of the best ideas!
David Wragg's most recent books include Speed in the Air and Flight Before Flying
Australia
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