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Is Britain Ready for War? NATO Divisions & Your Biggest Questions

Times Radio

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For their Christmas special, Tom and Patrick turn the entire show over to you. They answer as many listener questions as possible that have landed in the General & Journalist inbox since May. Among them: what to do about wayward NATO members who still help Russia, and the state of Britain’s fighting power, and plenty more.

#podcast #special #britishforces

Hosts: Tom Newton Dunn & General Sir Patrick Sanders

Get in touch: generalandjournalist@thetimes.co.uk

0:00 Christmas special: your questions answered
0:43 Festive intro and Christmas traditions
3:23 Is Britain’s army actually ready for war?
7:41 How long would UK ammunition really last?
10:31 Is the UK a target, how resilient are we?
16:21 Can politicians sell higher defence spending?
21:20 Should the UN Security Council be reformed?
25:54 NATO tensions: Turkey, Hungary and Russia
31:00 Are tactical nuclear weapons thinkable?
35:08 The best war movie to watch at Christmas
39:11 Final thoughts and sign-off

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20 Comments

@mickjenner6697 9 months ago

What ammo ???

@rflameng 9 months ago

If the British Armed Forces want to be agile and spend their budget more wisely they could stop the AJAX joke and return to the original model that Spain uses and they could decide right now to adopt the HK416 as the new rifle without going through the rigmarole of a competition. Both these things would save money, get you a tried and tested solution, and increase complementary and interoperability between NATO forces. As we all know, none of this is going to happen... 'Due process' and 'administrative procedure' will beat 'smart' every day of the week, and the British Army is ab-so-lu-te-ly convinced that it has needs that are so unique and specific that they cannot be met by an off the shelf solution.

@timcatton3493 9 months ago

How do you persuade the general public that we need to do and spend more on defence, when we are unable to stop unarmed, fighting age men in fragile rubber boats?

@lindsayheyes925 3 days ago

When we won the Falklands War we only had two days of artillery rounds left... "a damned close-run thing".

@djb20251 9 months ago

Make sure no one is exempt because of religion from joining the Army if it happens

@aaronheaton5903 9 months ago (edited)

There are two strong arguments.
1. Having a military makes you a target.
2. Not having a military makes you a target.
Both points of view are right, and both are wrong.
One truth everyone loses in war eventually.

History shows that not having a defence gives no immunity. It's easy to fact-check

@Squarepeg57 9 months ago

WRT the ‘Rogue European states’ (we all know who we’re talking about) the old saying ‘keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer’ seems appropriate. Keeping the rogues inside the tent means they don’t just turn 100% to Russia.

@seminarygreek 9 months ago

Did think we had any.

@peterwait641 9 months ago (edited)

At Ukraine levels ammunition would last about two weeks lol. Soldiers were a bit more roughy tuffy in the past as now the generation played video games instead of playing outside. The bones and muscles won't be as conditioned as in the past. Thatcher's sale of Royal ordnance closed about ten factories removing capacity for supplying a war, we don't even make large calibre barrels any more.

@BarefootLorrie 9 months ago

Seems like sabre-rattling with butter knives, all by people who ever grew out of a Cold War mindset. We’ve too little ammunition, donated most of our artillery, the army is small and underfunded with catastrophic recruitment and retention, and most importantly a great many people in Britain either hate the country, are otherwise completely demoralised by what it’s become, if not both.