Trenchant

Since when he has been doing sterling work on Twitter against the pro-Trident and anti-Russian cultists, Peter Hitchens writes: 

The unforgivable false allegations against Field Marshal Lord Bramall did achieve one good thing.

They reminded us that, still living in our midst, we have a great and distinguished soldier with real experience of war and battle, and an unrivalled store of firsthand knowledge and common sense. 

So why wasn’t more attention paid to his trenchant statement a few days ago that the planned replacement of Britain’s Trident submarine fleet is a futile waste of money?

In his view, we should keep one boat and a few rockets and warheads for emergencies. It is as if Father Christmas had announced that reindeer were obsolete. You have to listen when someone so expert speaks.

He says: ‘Now the credibility has gone completely and it no longer deters. We would set a great example to the rest of the world by getting rid of them. The money could be better spent elsewhere.’

He adds what everyone in Whitehall knows in their hearts: ‘I can think of no circumstance whatever in which a British Prime Minister would authorise the use of nuclear weapons.’

Lord Bramall is no peacenik. Nobody can claim he is a Russian or North Korean agent. He has faced real bullets, fighting for his country. His trained mind still blazes with fierce intelligence, and he has the courage to say what he really thinks.

So next time some noisy pseudo-patriot parades the worn-out and untrue arguments for this gigantic waste of national resources, remember what our most distinguished military mind thinks.

The truth is, he has dozens of allies among today’s senior officers of all services, but they are scared of stupid politicians.