Arms shortfall puts all we value at risk

OUR politicians must ramp up spending on our defence systems. In recent days, we’ve seen Russia significantly increase the scale of its attacks on Ukraine. And for the first time, its military has launched hypersonic missiles capable of travelling at more than 6,000mph. At that speed, they’re almost impossible to stop. Which is, frankly, terrifying.

So it’s no wonder Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned that Europe has entered a “pre-war era” and that “no one in Europe will be able to feel safe” if Ukraine loses against Russia. I just hope someone explains this to Rishi Sunak. Our Prime Minister has yet to commit to Grant Shapps’ calls for Britain to increase its defence spending to at least 2.5% of GDP. Even that is not nearly enough I believe.

Both men must act, and fast. One leading defence chief admitted to the Commons Defence Committee last week that the UK would run out of ammunition and equipment within two months if we were to go to war tomorrow.

Speaking to the same committee, Mr Shapps said, “It’s important to understand that because we are in Nato and (mutual defence agreement) Article 5 exists, we would never be in that situation.”

He’s missing the bigger picture. Like many young people, I once thought war would never happen again and that it’s peace and love from now on. But that doesn’t happen – countries fall out with each other, as do members of different religions.

The whole thing is a bloody mess.We’ve left ourselves open and in a dangerous position and we need to lean on our politicians to do the right thing by properly equipping our Armed Forces.

We all care about the NHS. We all care about living standards and free speech, but you can forget the lot if we can’t defend ourselves properly. The writing is now well and truly on the wall. Come on politicians.Whoever wins the next election needs to understand that we need 3%, even 4% of GDP put into defence spending.