I was just logging on to make a presentation at a European defence workshop, when Lord George Robertson’s ‘weapons not welfare’ speech broke in the media: “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget.” Like many interested…Read more…
“Little short of obscene”
Unite has expressed fury following the announcement by BAE Systems of record profit figures, at a time when the military-industrial giant continues to refuse to pay its workers a fair wage, and attempts union-busting high court injunctions to prevent strikes. Financial results published yesterday (18 Feb) show BAE’s full year operating profits increased by 12 […]
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Going up!
Workers at five sites across the UK will see a significant pay increase after taking strike action in pursuit of a fair deal. Thousands of workers at defence and aerospace company Leonardo have secured the pay rise in a deal which ends all industrial action at plants, including Yeovil in Somerset which is the UK’s […]
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Making Defence an Engine for Growth
Following the publication of its new Defence Strategy, the UK Government has now released its Defence Industrial Strategy, titled ‘Making Defence an Engine for Growth’. This is undoubtedly the most significant defence policy reform in d…Read more…
UK Strategic Defence Review in a changing world
The much-trailed UK Strategic Defence Review (SDR) was published yesterday. It was timely for me as I was participating in a European seminar on how Europe should respond to the new strategic situation.
There is a lot of narrative (som…Read more…
Defence Review
The new Labour Secretary of State for Defence has announced a defence review. This is not just a routine action for new governments, but a crucial and urgent step given the changes in threats since the last review. The review, with its broad and …Read more…
Ukraine and the ‘Johnson thwarted peace’ myth
I was involved in a panel discussion about defence expenditure this week. A trade union activist I greatly respect justified his argument against providing military aid to Ukraine by invoking a Putin-propagated myth. The essence of this conspiracy theo…Read more…
Defence in an Independent Scotland
The Scottish Government has published the latest policy paper in its Building a New Scotland series, An Independent Scotland’s Place in the World. This paper sets out its vision for an independent Scotland’s foreign, defence, and security policy. If yo…Read more…
Defence and security in an uncertain world
Everyone is suddenly talking about defence. Britain’s Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Patrick Sanders, discussed a ‘citizen’s army’. This has sparked nostalgia for National Service in some quarters (which Sanders rejected) and a more serious de…Read more…
‘It shouldn’t be like this’
Unite members in Deeside, North Wales, employed by DE&S DECA, formerly known as the Defence Electronics and Components Agency, are currently out on strike in a dispute over pay.
Following over a decade of extremely low pay increases, workers voted overwhelmingly to support strike action and began a series of 24 hour strikes in October 2023.
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Naval Shipbuilding – UK by Default
I was at the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Maritime and Shipbuilding this afternoon to present a report I wrote for Prospect, Design, build and maintain: Effective defence procurement. The report describes the current defence procurem…Read more…
Defence Strategy Refresh
All governments have a defence strategy, which typically outlines the threats and how the government proposes to respond to those threats. The current UK strategy claims to be an integrated review of defence, development and foreign policy. However, it…Read more…
Effective defence procurement
I was in Westminster this week at the launch of a paper on defence procurement I wrote for the Prospect trade union. The launch included interesting contributions from the Shadow Minster for Defence Procurement, Chris Evans MP, Andrew Kinniburgh (…Read more…
‘Investing in jobs and communities at home’
Unite called for the government to prioritise UK jobs and industries when issuing defence contracts at Congress in Brighton on Wednesday (October 19). Supporting composite two on economic recovery and manufacturing jobs, the union said hundreds of thousands of skilled workers in shipbuilding, defence, steelmaking and other industries are all being failed by a government […]
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Unite Statement on ACC Arms Fair
Unite acknowledges the concerns which have been raised by many in Liverpool and beyond in relation to the Arms Fair being held at ACC, shortly before Unite’s own conference takes place there. We have…Read more…
‘Wonderful news’
This week, it was announced that the beleaguered steel engineering firm Sheffield Forgemasters would be taken into public hands, after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) bought out the firm in a £2.6m…Read more…
‘Cast iron guarantees’ on UK defence spending call
Unite has cautiously welcomed this week’s defence spending announcement – but warned that it must be used to create and support jobs and communities in the UK amid a national employment crisis. On…Read more…
Support UK defence
Unite has hailed the support the union received at a lobby of Parliament earlier this week (May 13), where Unite reps pressed the case for the continued funding of Tempest, the UK’s replacement of…Read more…
Urgent talks call
Unite has called for urgent talks with the Marshall Group, one of Cambridge’s biggest employers, following the company’s announcement today (May 14) that it plans to move out of the city by 2030….Read more…
Back UK defence jobs call
Unite representatives from BAE Systems, Leonardo, MBDA and Rolls Royce headed to parliament today (May 13) urging MPs to ensure the continued funding for Tempest, the UK’s replacement of the Typhoon…Read more…