Britain is no longer a fighting force - pre-General Election Debate at the Oxford Union

Whatever happens on July 4th, will our army be strong enough to face the threat of Putin in the East, China in Taiwan and Iran in the Middle East?

Proposing the motion were two members of the British army , a retired army officer from the Coldstream Guards and ex Conservative minister, Lord Robathan and General Sir Richard Barronpeller.

Guest speaker, a Labour MP, failed to show and did not help the opposition casting further doubts that under Starmer's potential majority new Labour Government, Britain's Defence and Security will not be just fine. Sir Graeme Lamb, another retired army officer was the main speaker trying to save the day for the opposition.

The first Oxford student proposer for the motion said, 'this is not a debate about our servicemen its about our Government and its committment to the armed forces. The UK military is now a general service, it is no longer a top military force. Today, it consists of 76,000 men and we now have the smallest army since Napoleon.. Today's modern warfare is now based upon technology not the number of men. If we were attacked now, we would run out of ammunition in a few days, if not an afternoon'. Today is the 80th anniversary of D Day but what we fought for, with the present condition of our military, we are now left as if we were beaten not won', he added.

The big question today, does Britian have the capability to fight on its own? Since the break up of the soviet union in 1988, UK defence expenditure has fallen by 50%. We barely meet 2% of what is required by NATO. What we have now is too little too late. If war broke out it would be lions led by donkeys all over again. Men would become cannon fodder like in the First World War. The general refered to one ex Afghanistan veteran he had once met who had stood on an IED and had said, he would do it all again'. This is the spirit of our brave servicemen. Today's servicemen still have the passion of D Day veterans. There is no need to romantisie about their service or bravery.

The proposer aginst the motion from Regent's Park, said that our committment is defence is good. Britian contributes to 6% of all world's defence spending. We now have the nuclear deterrant, the UK does not need a vast army. We need to assess Britian in the post war context. One US amabassedor once said that the UK has lost an empire and is yet to find a new role'. Britian's military has not been side-lined. Britian is ranked 6th over 131 countries in defence. Our intelligene services are the second best in the world. We spend 54 billion on defence. The UK has the largest stockpil og nucelar warheads. Britian is a small nation and doesnt need more military personnel, Brazil is three times larger than the UK and has a proportinally smaller army according to a 20-24 source.

Brtian won world war two not because of its individual strenght but because of its intellectualism.

President Elect Hustings report

Tonight's debate was proceeded with a highly charged Presidential Hustings Debate. Following this most of the standing committee walked out in difiance of the disciplininig and expulsion of one of the President elect candidates earlier.

The battle for the Michaelmas 2024 presidency was between three president elects, an Asian, a woman and a third party who had been banned and excluded from the contest due to offensive language and alleged misbehaviour during his pre-election campaign. All candidates argued for change within the Union.

The male candidate said that we are all on the wrong side of history, the union remains a 'gentleman only club'. There is a lot of rascism and Islamaphobia about the place. He is a second time Asian candidate. He wants to make it more open and inclusive. His election mandate revolved around a desire to transform the Union. First, upgrade the relevance of events, second, reform finances and third bring about constitutional reform. 'The Union needs to become forward looking and on the right side of history' he argued in his opening remarks.' The Union is a complex place, there is a lot of division and we need to bring together all of the stake holders. We need to make the union more accountable. The present voting structure/consititution has loopholes. Life members can run for election. Voting groupings are confused between matriculated and non matriculated members, life and permanent ones etc. The institution is constitutionlly rascist. There is a lot of anger and frustration this week about the discsiplinary procedure. The disqulification of one of the candidates from the ontest is grossly injust with gagging orders being issued and standing committee members resigning

The female candidate had served as a librarian for 5 terms. Most union officials normally serve for at least five terms, 'it requires a lot of dedication and committment', she added, ' which she was prepared to give.'

' She too was in favour of contitutional , and finance reform, but had more to offer than just that. She wanted to promote more the debate magazine, extend the bar opening hours and make the union a more welcoming and friendly place. '

There is a need to end the disparity in gender composition at the union, end diversity and rascism, promote actions rather than words. More people from the floor should have access to participate during the debates. Members can ballot to get theeir chance to speak rather than the right to speak being at the sole descretion of the committee members',

During the main debate, one student during a matter of information cracked a joke about the standing committee walk out. 'Let's keep the union an inclusive place', he jibed. The big question for the debating chamber after the summer recess is, 'to what extent will the newly elected President actually achieve this?'

Lord Robottom spoke for the motion stating, 'People enlist becasue they want to serve their country, lay down their lives for their country. In my 18 years of service, I never met anybody who regrets joining the armed forces'. Today there are now more people leaving the forces than joiining and we are now down to 20,000 personnel. On D day in 1944, we had a far greater number of up to 1 million men.

If you desire peace, you need to prepare for war'.

The soviet union collapsed in 1989 because it had so much defence capabilities and preparations after 1945 and during the cold war. The armed forces are our immune policy to war, we will need to claim on it one day'. Since 1990 we have wittled down our defnce. Things got worse in 2010. Five million people are on benefits in the UK, maybe the money to increase our defnce could come from that?.

Putin is now waging war to establish a zsar empire. We should be preparing for a war which could kill 10 million people. Is Britian still a fighting force to cope with this? Its painful, we are still not'.