Keir Starmer’s Call to Arms: Why should we trust a government that has failed us at home?
Keir Starmer’s recent announcement that the UK is prepared to deploy troops and aircraft to Ukraine has sparked controversy, and for good reason.
Leaving aside the complexities of the conflict, and last week’s astonishing displays of ‘diplomacy’, I feel a knot of anxiety and resistance tightening within me, both as a mother of sons and as a British citizen.
We find ourselves in a Britain that's barely recognisable from just a few years ago.
The British taxpayer is already buckling under a punishing tax burden, hitting one of the highest levels in decades, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. I know families who are in the process of leaving the UK. We’re taxed when we earn, spend, save, when we’re pensioned, when we inherit, to prop up a bloated, out-of-control welfare state. We're grappling with a cost of living crisis that shows no signs of abating.
The government can find funds for a foreign war, but not Winter Fuel Payments for pensioners. Millions of elderly people in the UK will have struggled to stay warm and well this winter, abandoned by a hypocritical government which prioritises grand gestures over the elderly.
We’re squeezed dry to fund a state that seems more interested in waving every flag but our own — Pride, Ukraine, Palestine — while the Union Flag and St. George’s Cross are sneered at as symbols of racism.
In March 2024, Labour MPs were unhappy about the prominent use of the Union Flag on election leaflets, warning Keir Starmer it could alienate ethnic minority voters, because it was associated with the ‘far right’.
Now Starmer wants us to rally behind the flag his party treats as a liability? Good luck with that.
For years our borders have been dismally undefended, crumbling under an influx of legal and illegal immigrants. According to Migration Watch, 151,161 illegal immigrants have crossed the English Channel since 2018. Why aren’t we deploying our army to secure the English Channel instead?
As a mother, I think of my sons. One of my sons has thought about joining the army and I have been supportive until now. But why would I want them to join the armed forces in this climate? The thought is deeply unsettling. How can I trust a government that's failed us so spectacularly to look after them, either on foreign soil or when they return home?
Veterans already face homelessness and neglect. Why would I risk my boys for a system that doesn’t have their backs? And why should disenfranchised and discontented British lads feel patriotic enough to fight a war that’s not ours?
The disconnect is stark. Heavily taxed and disillusioned, we’re asked to muster a reserve of loyalty that’s been eroded by years of neglect and contempt.
If Starmer wants patriotism, he should start by securing our borders, not sending our sons to die for someone else’s. True patriotism begins at home.
All correct - and the propaganda being pumped out reeks horribly of the covid scenario. Dare to question - and you're labelled a ' Putin apologist', a disruptor blah blah. No, we're just people capable of independent thought who care about our country and the welfare and safety of its people - something which this dire government seems to consider a side issue to its grandstanding agendas.
After all that business about our country's flag being associated with the (imaginary) 'far right', the sight of Starmer surrounded by Union Flags at his press conference was absolutely nauseating. Just another example of the man's rank hypocrisy.
Of course dictators in history have always sought to distract from the situation at home by diverting attention to overseas. It's the political equivalent of 'oh look, a squirrel'. It doesn't tend to work out well for them though.