An Account of British Land Forces Since WWII
- Category(s): Politics Essays
- Created on : 22 March 2015
- File size: 233.87 KB
- Version: 1.0
- Downloaded: 351
- Author: Richard Michael Lamb
Preface
The linkage between our British Land Force’s role post WWII, the strength of our post war foreign Policy and our English and Welsh Criminal Justice since 1945.
A. Military Engagements by the British Land Forces Post 1945
- a)
- Korean War with USA as our allies against North Korea and China (1950-1953)
- b)
- Mau Mau uprising in Kenya (1951-1954)
- c)
- Suez Crisis - Sir Anthony Eden PM (1956)
- d)
- Malayan Emergency against Chinese Communist insurgents (1950-1960)
- e)
- The Northern Ireland Troubles (1969-2000)
- f)
- Falklands War - Margaret Thatcher PM (1982)
- g)
- Aden Emergency uprising in Yemen (1963-1967)
- h)
- Dhofar Rebellion in the Sultanate of Oman (1962-1976)
- i)
- EOKA Campaign in Cyprus (1955-1959)
- j)
- Palestine Emergency (1945-1948)
- k)
- Iraq Conflicts - Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield in Kuwait (1990-1991) - Second Iraq War (2003-2011)
- l)
- Afghanistan War (2001-2014)
Resume: Therefore the British Military was engaged in at least thirteen separate military affairs overseas between 1945 and 2010: a sixty five year period.
B. Our Peacetime Garrisons During the Period 1945 to 2010
- i)
- UK Land Forces based on Mainland UK
- ii)
- Bermuda
- iii)
- Hong Kong to the expiry of our lease from China in the late 1990’s
- iv)
- Gibraltar
- v)
- Belize and British Honduras
- vi)
- Our territories in the West Indies
- vii)
- Northern Ireland 1945-1969 when the Troubles began.
- viii)
- British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) in West Germany later the united Germany.
- ix)
- Falkland Isles - 1945-1982 and more heavily since that conflict in Spring 1982.
- x)
- Our West African colonies and our East African territories to independence in the 1960’s
- xi)
- Our Central African dependencies: Malawi, Botswana, Zambia and Rhodesia pre-independence.
- xii)
- The Island of Mauritius
- xiii)
- The Island of Malta
- xiv)
- The Indian Sub-Continent to 1947 and Burma.
- xv)
- Kosovo: Balkans (2000)
- xvi)
- Fiji and Tonga (Pacific) to independence.
- xvii)
- The Seychelles to independence.
- xviii)
- Borneo
- xix)
- Brunei
C. The British Army -
Stood as a very considerable army in 1950 having already quelled the Palestine Emergency in the 1945-1948 period, and emerged victorious from WWII with our USA allies. We had National Service until 31st December 1960. We were to emerge victorious from the Korean War in 1950-1953 also with our USA allies. The British Empire and WWII had defined our Army which in turn was the power behind our Foreign Policy in the post-war years. The Privy Council Judicial Committee was thriving - hearing death sentence appeals from our overseas territories in the post-war period.
D. Our Foreign Affairs
What has weakened our foreign policy?
- I.)
- Our emasculated Army, Navy and Air force. All three services should be considered united. Without military might we will not be respected in the World.
- II.)
- Our infatuation with Human Rights which does not focus sufficiently on the moral and political well-being of our fellow nations and our own. Rights are all very well but they should not be an end all and be all. The priorities should be stability, economic growth, good health, public hygiene, and first and foremost liberty under the Rule of Law, as it prevails in England & Wales and in the 1940’s and 1950’s hitherto.
- III.)
- Our emphasis on supporting the EU co-ordinated foreign policy since 2008, and thereby being distracted from the Anglo-USA alliance has left English policy abroad lacking in direction. American foreign policy has also suffered by our English concentration on the EU since 2008.
E. How do we tackle this malaise?
a)
In my view we should disarm our nuclear capability and plough the very considerable savings into our conventional arms. (See my Nuclear Deterrent essay released by Temon Estate Ltd in July 2013.) This has now become crucial to our transatlantic alliance and furthering our policy initiatives internationally with the Americans.
b)
We should unilaterally leave the EU on the back of that nuclear arms disarmament decision. There upon the Continental powers should be encouraged to join this foreign policy of the USA-English alliance de facto if they may not join it de jure. This decision to leave the EU by our Parliament will send out a strong message worldwide that England & Wales mean “business” particularly with a strong USA President and equally powerful foreign policy emanating from Washington. Without this resolve of the USA President the necessary result I seek will not be achieved. I am however confident the USA will respond to this leadership by England & Wales if we English and Welsh grasp the nettle and secede from the EU in every sense. The USA will not forget WWII and Europe will remember it also. We were the last bastion against Hitler and Stalin in 1940-1941.
c) What else can we do?
There is not point dissembling. We all support Human Rights and the spirit of English and Welsh justice for every single country. I go one step further and say if you believe in the core of English and Welsh justice you should logically go forward to believing in the ultimate Penalty and the Judges to administer it. That judicial cohort in England & Wales is based on the sovereignty of our English Crown and her Parliament over the EU, her Tribunals, the ECHR and even the United Nations organization based in New York. I argue the International Criminal Court at the Hague should come second to the English Criminal Judicial model when that model becomes adopted by our friends abroad.
F. Conclusion
If you have something really valuable and good you wish to guard and protect it rightly. But you also wish to share it if you are a follower of Christ because He says to you:
“Renounce yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me.”
The truth of English and Welsh justice and those freedoms and practices defined by our High Court for centuries constitute an invaluable Cup and what is more a Cup which may heal them that “drink” from it. If you have the secret of this healing Cup you are morally bound to make it known to others I say. The traditions of English and Welsh justice and the powers of Her Majesty’s Judges, so honourable in practise since ancient times, centre upon the pronouncement of the Death Sentence from the 18th Century, and even earlier for the convicted murderer and traitor to England. Our noble Parliament has always defended our judiciary from encroachment upon their independence. The present state of affairs with Europe and the ECHR regarding our High Court has placed severe strain upon that independence. I am confident Parliament will not fail to protect and deliver our Judges from interference in due course, whatever the status quo may be now. The independence of our Judges will be restored you may be convinced. Justice should never be hum drum and lacking in vivacity, or it ceases to be characterful and fair. This character and fairness I speak of is the apogee of criminal jurisprudence as it used to be in England & Wales pre-abolition of the Death Sentence. Yes we will find this Cup easily and we will have the skill to spread its example. This Cup I speak of is English and Welsh criminal and civil justice when fortified by this Death Penalty for murder and its associated offences.
I do not propose treason be revived as a Capital crime. I do say the whole process of the death sentence for murder itself be modernised in the 21st Century. My analogy to this precious Cup is metaphysical i.e. the real meaning of things. I argue we must repossess this healing Cup represented in the Death Sentence for murder which was allowed to drop in 1968. It is the realization of the true significance of this Final Penalty that I am concerned with. I am no healer or prophet or messenger from Heaven. The analogy with this Cup: precious helps us to see the Death Sentence for what it really is - namely a way to forgiveness by contrition for not only the condemned man, but also for all in the administration of justice and mankind. Many influential persons will reject my interpretation. I say beware if we don’t act in unison we may end up trampling this precious Cup into the mud. I am not suggesting this Cup has any connection to the chalice of wine offered up in Holy Mass.
Life should never be oversimplified and made banal. It is full of contrasts subtlety, paradox and all the colours of the rainbow within the clear light of our souls. Do the English and Welsh leaders of consensus not need to think again? I say we are at risk of acting with disrespect to this valuable heritage which began with our historic pre-1968 Criminal Justice. What is the essence of this justice going back to the 1940’s and 1950’s and before in the Assize Courts of our land? Am I duped? Do my detractors miss the point and conduct their arguments without honourable distinction? Above all is the Common Man who I suspect favours my polemic going to be listened to? We carry a heavy burden for ourselves, for the USA, and all our friends abroad. I am confident when the debate becomes heated they will pay heed to the speeches of the English and Welsh protagonists.