The Wrong Side of the Hill: The Secret Realignment of UK Defence Policy with the EU

One of the most significant – yet largely unreported – political developments of recent years is the move to integrate the UK’s armed forces with those of the European Union.

The nature of this new military relationship with our EU partners will make it increasingly hard for the UK either to fight independently or to co-operate militarily with the US.

What makes this even more alarming is the extent to which the British Government has been at pains publicly to conceal and even to deny its true military and political agenda in this respect, by insisting that its new relationship with its EU partners does not prejudice its continued participation in NATO.

However, in this detailed report, Richard North reveals how, today, US firms are being excluded from supplying the UK armed forces – even where this means excluding British firms associated with them.

The potential financial cost, in terms of buying inferior or more costly equipment, is estimated at £14 billion.

If this trend continues, the UK will no longer be able to operate alongside the US as a military ally. It would be irreversibly committed to operating only within a framework defined by European Union interests.

The “special relationship” will be over.

With a foreword by Major-General Julian Thompson, the Commander of the British Armed Forces during the 1982 Falklands War.

 

Richard North - Friday, 7th October, 2005