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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to point out that the most important duty of the UK government is to maintain the defence of the country?

133 replies

KateSixer · 11/06/2026 12:52

The shameful, cowardly and extremely short sighted decision of Starmer and Reeves not to properly fund the defence budget has led to the resignation of the Secretary of State for Defence.

Honestly it's traitorous.

OP posts:
Justveryveryangry · 11/06/2026 13:19

TheFairyCaravan · 11/06/2026 13:13

Where were you when the Tories hollowed out the armed forces?

Whataboutery and trying to deflect from the OP’s point by attempting to drag this into a partisan fight is pathetic.

Anotherdayanotherexcuse · 11/06/2026 13:14

Oh behave. The Tories underfunded it for 13 years. Labour can't wave a magic wand and fix things in only 2.

InveterateWineDrinker · 11/06/2026 13:13

The problem is that the only two ways of seriously increasing the tax take in the UK is to raise income tax or VAT (or both.)

Sir Keir ruled out the former because it would have been political suicide in an election that was Labour's for the taking. There are enough people claiming VAT is a tax on 'ordinary working people' that he cannot possibly raise that now either.

Everyone who voted Labour because they promised not to increase income tax is complicit in this, although if Sir Keir sees the writing on the wall it might be interesting to see what he does with VAT.

TheFairyCaravan · 11/06/2026 13:13

Where were you when the Tories hollowed out the armed forces?

Ablondiebutagoody · 11/06/2026 13:11

Benefits and net zero are way more important according to the Labour Party. Never mind that we are an island nation with Putin sniffing around and we have pretty much no functioning warships. It's a disgrace.

anniegun · 11/06/2026 12:57

Nobody disagrees its important. But when we waste defence money on Ajax fighting vehicles that dont work, aircraft carriers that cannot be deployed. you might argue its not the funding but the spending thats the problem.

Walkyrie · 11/06/2026 12:54

YANBU. But, every penny must go on benefits because if we spend money on defence then ‘we have money for bombs but not feeding people’ etc

mandysocks · 11/06/2026 12:54

Well the Tories decimated the Armed Forces during their tenure, Labour haven’t quite reached that level of neglect yet. They’re at least getting above inflation pay rises now.