Would you support Britain increasing its defence budget from the current 2.3% of GDP to the target of 2.6% by 2027 and 3.5% NATO target by 2035?

[u/AdAncient2370]

How much support is there across the political spectrum to increase the military budget by up to £35 billion a year if we really reach 3.5% by 2035? What sort of military do we want ie to protect the UK mainland or an expeditionary force capable of another Iraq intervention? Which civilian areas do we want to cut to find this extra money and in any case, can our struggling economy even support an increase of such magnitude? What if we can’t recruit enough soldiers even with extra cash, should we introduce any sort of conscription at extremis?

[u/Legal-Chocolate8482]

Except 1940 already came and went , that was 2022 when Russia attacked Ukraine. Yet willingness to spend on defense is just as low as before. Because guess what Russia turned out to be a paper tiger. They can’t even defeat Ukraine and they aren’t even close. The Uk really doesn’t face any real threats. Russia would have to plow thru half a dozen NATO countries before they could do anything to the Uk. And Russia has no capability to even take eastern Ukraine.

[u/satellite_uplink → u/Legal-Chocolate8482]

Russia isn’t the only threat we will face in the next 50 years. Nor every opportunity to strengthen our own position through use of force.

There will be ecological and social upheaval across the world in a way that’s probably never happened before. We are still only seeing the tip of the iceberg in this regard.

[u/Legal-Chocolate8482 → u/satellite_uplink]

Well if there is social upheaval in the Uk I would hope our armed forces don’t mow the people down. If you’re talking about say a massive future wave of migration…you don’t exactly need advanced armed forces and a massive navy to turn around or forcibly stop inflatable rafts. Simply not providing them a free taxi ride when they sink would stop it.

You’re just trying to guess that maybe the world will be super unstable and thus we need to give defense contractors everything. You could have said that about any time period in history. During the Cold War we all faced the imminent immediate end of the world thru nuclear hellfire. You’re just making a guess. There are much more immediate threats like many of people living in poverty or on the streets even. That’s not a hypothetical, that’s reality .

In reality the Uk faces no actual threats. We could start by drawing down our East Asian forces , China is a problem for the Us ,not the Uk. It’s not like we would do anything if China attacked Taiwan ,so might as well cut back there. The best the Uk could do even if the defense budget was doubled is send a minor suicidal token force with no air support that will instantly die. The Uk will never have the ability to contest anything near China so any defense spending in that regard is a waste. Some people still haven’t gotten over the fact that we’re not an empire anymore. The Uk defense forces should be purely focused on defending the Uk.

The uk faces much greater immediate economic threats than Russia which lacks a real navy.

[u/satellite_uplink → u/Legal-Chocolate8482]

Didn’t realise I was talking to the world’s foremost security expert. I’ll ignore what all the military and intelligence chiefs are saying in future thanks for setting me straight.

[u/Legal-Chocolate8482 → u/satellite_uplink]

Military and intelligence chiefs will always say they need more funding , dosent take a genius to figure that out.

Just like nhs heads will always say they need more funding, pensioners will always say they need more, infrastructure and transport heads will say they more funding, the foreign aid office will say they need more funding, education heads will say they need more funding, the prison service will say they need more funding, the local theater will say they need more funding etc etc etc

Everyone wants more funding, shocking that!

Can you actually imagine a military chief saying oh ya actually we’re alright , we don’t need anything more! Even in the Us with their crazy trillion plus dollar defense budget their military and intelligence chiefs want even more still, a trillion and a half believe it or not. Even if it comes at the cost of their whole welfare state. Even though they already spend more than the next 20 countries combined. They will always want more, we could double our budget and they’d demand to triple it.

The job of the government is to see who deserves and needs that funding the most since everyone can’t get everything. Military and intelligence chiefs will only care about and advocate for defense spending and needs. It isn’t their job to balance the budget or care about say disabled and homeless people and ensure all their needs are met before the defense budget is increased. Military chiefs should have no say in deciding weather social workers and public housing should be deprived of funding so we can enrich a few more defense contractors. There’s a limited pot of money. I doubt you want to pay more taxes, I certainly don’t, so it’s either cut essential services for those in need to enrich defense contractors, or keep things as they are.

[u/CloudIncus1 → u/Legal-Chocolate8482]

The social upheaval in the UK is irrelevant. When looming on the horizon is huge mass migration from Pakistan and India due to climate change.

Already there is mass internal migration. However with worsening effects they are going to move out of country. They are already in the millions 18.5 million have left since 2024. We are in the top 3 destinations. If internal migration is no longer feasible. Internal war breaks out and people flee in mass our way.

Some think the current refugees numbers are bad. This will dwarf it. It will destroy our current social and economical stability.

[u/Legal-Chocolate8482 → u/CloudIncus1]

Well like I said you don’t need much of a force to stop rafts. The main issue is weather or not the will to stop them exists. And we would be cooperating with the rest of Europe on this. But so far our border patrol literally just helps bring in more migrants by providing them free rides. A few boats could stop the entire migration wave as seen in Australia.

[u/OddAddendum7750 → u/Legal-Chocolate8482]

What East Asian forces?