I despair of Whitehall and their useless idiots!

I doubt anyone in Whitehall understands the word 'Strategy', let alone 'Grand Strategy'!  So dim are they that I suspect they might have difficulty spelling the words!  Having blissfully floated along for some 20+ years in a blissful romance with the murderous thugs who run the Chinese concentration camp, they suddenly stub their toes on the concrete reality exhibited in Hong Kong.  At which point they throw a hissy-fit and kick the major Chinese company/government, Huawei, out of our budding/shrivelling (you choose!) 5G system.  Quite right but does anyone in Whitehall have the remotest idea what the next move should be?  Has anyone been working on alternatives to what was obviously about to happen?  Of course not, but I bet they are already forming a committee to, er, work out some sort of a plan.  Ah yes, the British answer for everything - form a committee!

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

I've read about a group of democratic nations-the Anglosphere plus India and others- that is pursuing this very question of technology advancement and security. The D-10, I think. SoD?

[Loz]

Bloody hell, I missed that one, thought I was out on my own - good spot Whiters! ...

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/10/g7-d10-democracy-trump-europe/

The D-10 - that'll soothe you down, Gaffer!

I'd add Taiwan Israel and Singapore to the list ...

US
UK
EU
Canada
Australia
New Zealand
India
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan
Singapore
Israel

The D-12.

Put a multi-market across them - we all accept each others standards, zero tariffs at the borders, and mega-easy on freedom of movement. Watch all our economic woes evaporate.

And while you're at it, dump NATO and up the D-12 to a defence pact.

See how that goes down with Ping-a-Ling, Vlad, Rocketman, and the Mad Mullahs.

SoD

[Whitewall]

SoD, thanks. I knew I had read this idea recently but my memory was spotty. Not nearly as daft as my wife tells me I am.

[Bob]

It's a great idea, but appearing under the banner "argument" isn't auspicious. The US gov should lean on Canada about using Chinese telephony or any other communication tech. Their equipment and ours interact on a huge scale.

However, including a hostile actor like Vladimir Putin’s Russia in this group of leading democracies was obviously a nonstarter—especially since the G-20 already exists as a separate, broader grouping that includes both Russia and China.

Someday, with any luck in a matter of months, we'll learn about everything Putin has on Trump.

[Andra]

I misread that heading. I thought it was Whitewall you were having trouble with.

[Whitewall]

Andra, on occasions I'm sure!

[Loz]

The Brexiteers have got a fight on their hands holding back the sub-nation's of Blighty from doing "internal Brexits" from Westminster ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-53423452

The sub-nations want what's good for the goose to be good for the gander: "If the EU single market was no good in principle as the Brexiteers argued, then why would Blighty's internal market be any good in principle too?" they ask. "We want our own rules and regulations and internal borders to enforce them. You Brexiteers have already put an internal border in the Irish Sea, so why not borders between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to protect local bureaucracies?"

Notice the position of the sub-national pols demanding internal Brexit is hypocritical to what they argued during Brexit when they defended the EU's single market too, of course.

That's where we are with the national and sub-national captain Mainwarings and VI Lenin's all unfettered and on the rampage: unchallenged hypocrisy and incompetence with no shame. And no EU to put the lid on it.

Good call 23rd June 2016.

SoD