DAILY MAIL COMMENT: The humiliation of our Armed Forces

Sometimes it takes a crisis to fully reveal the cold, hard truth.

The Persian war did just that in conjunction with Britain’s military preparedness.

There have been countless warnings over the years about underinvestment in our Armed Forces, and now the conflict in the Middle East has revealed just how dire the situation has become.

Ten days after the first missiles fell on Tehran, the Royal Navy finally sent a single warship to protect British military interests in the Mediterranean.

A situation that does not go unnoticed by Emmanuel Macron is approaching the subject of ridicule.

The French president visited Cyprus, where RAF Akrotiri air base is located, and told the islanders they could ‘trust France’.

He landed on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle by helicopter and shouted: ‘An attack on Cyprus is an attack on all of Europe.’

By contrast, Britain’s two aircraft carriers (price tag: more than £3bn each) both remain in port; One of them (HMS Queen Elizabeth) is thought to be months away from returning to service following lengthy repairs to its propulsion systems.

Both current and former political leaders must share the blame for ignoring warnings about our depleted military.

But Sir Keir Starmer alone bears responsibility for the indiscretion that angered the White House and caused other allies to question Britain’s military relevance.

If Argentina were to invade the Falkland Islands tomorrow, Britain would have almost no chance of sending a Thatcher-style special force to retake them.

In the event of wider conflict we will be more dependent on America than ever before, but Starmer’s pacifist mania has left us insecure and unloved.

Getting out of this predicament will require billions of dollars to be diverted to defense from our over-inflated welfare state, our permissive asylum system and sloppy Whitehall budget execution.

If Labor fails to meet this challenge, in light of what we now know about the state of our Armed Forces, it will face charges of nothing less than treason.

Victory over hatred

The Jerusalem march, a work of the Iranian regime, was to be held in London this weekend.

Initially only one Labor Minister, Sarah Sackman, broke ranks and called for it to be banned; The rest of his party was reluctant to speak out in case he lost Muslim votes in marginal constituencies.

Starmer’s No 10 shamefully took responsibility, saying it was for the police to decide whether it was illegal or not.

The Metropolitan Police and the Home Office finally bowed to pressure and warnings from the Daily Mail last night and moved to ban the event.

As the Iranian mullahs rain down missiles on our allies, this must be the beginning of a new approach, a willingness to be intolerant of intolerance.

mistaken identity

The Labor Party is blindly pursuing its obsession with digital ID cards.

Ministers cannot explain their aims, other than general references such as ‘convenience’, and cannot say how much they will cost.

The only real benefit of the program, the fight against illegal work, will no longer be possible once compulsory registration is abolished.

The government should abandon this white elephant and instead direct money to critical areas, above all to the defense of the region.