Defend us
BRITAIN must be ready to strike again at Vladimir Putin’s shadow fleet of illegal oil tankers.
For three years Russia has been funding its war machine by sailing them up the English Channel while European leaders did next to nothing.
Fifty sanctioned vessels have passed through British waters just in the last three days.
But Donald Trump’s raid on a Venezuelan tanker this week — with help from our Armed Forces — has sent a message to Moscow that it will no longer be tolerated.
It is vital that Britain deals a heavy blow to Putin by seizing more vessels.
Ukraine will also be reassured that a lightning force of British troops is being readied to secure a future peace deal.
Defence Secretary John Healey understands the Russian threat must be dealt with.
But he hasn’t had anything like the backing he needs from No10 and the Treasury.
Sir Keir Starmer was apparently shocked when told by military chiefs that there is still a £28billion shortfall in the defence budget.
He shouldn’t have been.
So far his Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered only empty words on boosting military spending.
Instead, she chose in her Budget to blow tens of billions more on benefits.
Reckless welfare spending won’t keep us safe from constant threats we face from Russia, China or other rogue states.
Britain has always been America’s closest ally.
But successive Governments have shamefully run down our defences to a point where we can no longer be relied on.
That’s why Trump is so determined to take Greenland from Denmark.
His well-founded fear is that Nato countries don’t have the capability to defend the Arctic Circle and curb Russian and Chinese ambitions in the region.
Russia firing a nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile close to Poland only adds to the concern.
Yet Labour is still unforgivably dragging its feet on finding the cash needed to properly re-arm the country.
Britain is years behind where it needs to be . . . and the threats are growing.
Absolute idiots
RADIO chiefs censoring one of the greatest rock tracks of all time are in need of a history lesson.
Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA is famously a protest song.
So Absolute Radio’s decision to remove the lyric about “the yellow man” in Vietnam over fears of causing offence entirely misses the point that it’s a comment on racist attitudes in the US during the war.
Yet another example of tedious and pointless wokery rooted in complete ignorance.
