In a recent Ipsos poll, half of Brits say there are no circumstances in which they would fight for King and country. This echoes a similar poll published back in July, which found that only 6 per cent of people in the UK would volunteer to fight for the country in the face of an ‘imminent’ invasion. Is it just me, or am I part of a very small minority who still think Britain is worth fighting for?
Let us not forget the famous Oxford Union debate of 1933. Shortly after Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Oxford students debated and passed the motion, ‘This House will in no circumstances fight for its King and Country’. Several years later, many of that generation shed blood and gave their lives for King and country on the beaches of Dunkirk and in the fields of western Europe.
Regardless, the results of these polls still make for depressing reading. When you listen to the reasoning of those on the left and right who say Britain isn’t worth fighting for, the arguments become nauseating and shameless. Whether on the left or the right, their arguments are the same. But I’m here to tell both sides that fighting for your country isn’t a vote of confidence in whoever is in No. 10.
Are we really going to roll over and not fight if Putin comes knocking?
The left, some of whom live on a social media diet comprised of Zack Polanski and Palestine, genuinely believe that institutions such as our military are systemically racist and that wartime heroes like Churchill were nothing more than imperialist bigots with abhorrent views. For the left, to fight for Britain is to defend a racist, imperial state. What they fail to realise is that a successful invasion by any one of our adversaries would result in their left-leaning ideas of diversity and equality being quashed.
Meanwhile, on the right we hear the same type of questions being wheeled out:
Why fight for a government which is actively working against Brits? Who would want to die for a country being overrun by illegal migration?
I used to find these pathetic comments from the usual suspects infuriating, but now it’s just tedious and predictable. Serving one’s nation is not an endorsement of asylum hotels or sectarian politics. Refusing to fight to protect Britain because you don’t agree with the government of the day is neither smart nor patriotic. It only hands a win to the oligarchs in the Kremlin and the Ayatollahs in Tehran.
The threats we face as a nation appear endless nowadays. Russian sabre-rattling, state-sponsored killings on British soil, spy ships in the Channel, monitoring our undersea cables. Meanwhile, the Iranian involvement in the ‘plot’ at RAF Fairford is as clear as day, and the Islamists who seek to terrorise our Jewish communities should also serve as a stark wake-up call. Also, don’t forget the big super-embassy that’s been given a green light in central London on behalf of a Chinese regime committing genocide on its Uyghur population and conducting espionage activities against the British state.
No doubt the critics will already be shouting at their screens, saying ‘why don’t you sign up then?’ Should my country require me to serve, then I will. My willingness to fight certainly doesn’t come from love for our prime minister or contentment with the state of Britain; it’s about fighting to preserve the basic liberties we all have a right to, not just for our current and older generations, but for our future children and grandchildren.
Many respondents to Ipsos’s poll will not necessarily be politically inclined. It would be a mistake to assume that everyone who says they wouldn’t fight doesn’t keep up with the news at all.
This leads me to my next point: the lack of honesty from our government. People won’t commit to something nobody has asked of them. Since coming to power, the Labour government has not truly levelled with the public about what a war would actually demand. Despite admitting that conversations need to be had with the public about a whole societal effort towards building up national resilience in the face of threats, we are yet to see what Andy Burnham’s proposals are.
Blackouts, cyber and drone attacks – these are all very real scenarios that could happen in the not-too-distant future. Does anyone know how they are supposed to react in the event of such an attack? Are we supposed to have stocks of food and water in our cellars? These are all very legitimate questions, but alas, Whitehall has offered no guidance.
Poland has successfully prepared its citizens for such an eventuality. It regularly trains its population on what to do in the event of an invasion from the east. Having participated in the scheme myself, I’ve seen first-hand how competent their population is, from building makeshift shelters to evading digital detection by drones. Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting would do well to run similar schemes to educate the population on how to deal with an attack by a hostile state.
It genuinely upsets me that my fellow countrymen and women say they would refuse to fight under any circumstances. Britain is, and always has been, a proud country built on the foundations of fighting for liberty and defending democracy.
We have a strong record of facing off against and defeating history’s most infamous tyrants, Napoleon and Hitler. Now we must ask ourselves: are we really going to roll over and not fight if Putin comes knocking? This isn’t about scaremongering or constructing false scenarios; it’s about demonstrating a willingness to stand up to hostile actors who are already probing our defences, conducting terror on our streets and butchering our allies.
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