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There was a short Editorial in the Telegraph today commenting on the fact that the British Government is sitting on its hands and leaving it to the French President Sarkozy to deal with the Russians over Georgia on behalf of the whole EU. Now given the low state of Anglo/Russian relationships currently which came about through inept Brown/Miliband handling of the Alexander Litvinenko affair, one might think this better but, it is not.

Neither France nor the EU represents British interests and the gutless indolence of Brown and Miliband is a disgrace but hardly a surprise as neither seems capable of doing the job they have got. It has nothing to do with Britain “punching above its weight” which was ever, a stupid notion held by stupid people, we need to be aware that it is about protecting our vital national interests which the EU won’t.

A New Cold War

It is unrealistic to imagine that the West can do anything about Georgia and the Crimea but the Baltic States will be next and we (NATO), should defend them and make it clear to Russia that we will. I am not anti-Russian, in fact we should be grateful to Tsar Putin who is the one pulling the strings for making Russian intentions clear but that also makes military ‘confrontation and containment’ a certainty or if you prefer, we have already entered a new Cold War and it has been building up over the past few years.

From a military perspective, Russia is not a threat to NATO but as it has shown, will be of little help to resolving issues such as Iran, if anything it will become an obstruction diplomatically in anyway it can. Currently its position on energy supplies is it’s only but, a very strong card and with that comes the ability to easily manipulate the majority of EU countries. Whether dealing with Russia or the Middle East, the truth is that the West must wean itself off oil and gas and the dysfunctional regimes that control current supplies.

However that will take a decade but the lessons need to be learned well and the British Government needs to start thinking in a strategic manner in terms of energy, water and food plus armaments production capabilities.

Price Is No Longer the Main Factor

Firstly price is no longer the determining factor, ‘energy security’ is which means that extracting oil and gas from the seas around the British Isles can and should be viewed separately from prevailing “market prices”. This will mean giving the existing North Sea energy operators, greater financial incentive to extract oil and gas from previously “uneconomic” fields.

The efficient use of energy becomes a major issue driven by higher prices which are not all bad news, because the “I can afford to pay and waste” attitude gets the boot. The other issue lies in increasing our gas storage capacity within the UK and getting on with the building of new Nuclear Power stations and constructing offshore barrages like the proposed Severn Estuary one.

Leave the EU

We need to change our relationship with the EU to a trade only basis because we don’t wish to be part of a shambolic political EU that lacks any democratic accountability. We need to repatriate Law making and administration as much, to hold our public servants to task as many have become lazy and corrupted by being involved with the EU. However, this also means that we can take control of our Fishing and Farming industries and apply a commercial regime that is both suitable and applicable to the needs of the UK.

Defence spending and manning levels need a complete overhaul. We need to establish an immediate defence capability based upon defending in depth a 200-250 mile radius from the UK shoreline. Which means replacing vainglorious projects such as the two super Carriers with smaller and more numerous ships. There will most likely be the need to reintroduce a revised form of conscription that covers not just military training for some but also training in civilian support organisations from telecoms to construction and everything in between.

Major Investment

All of which means pretty heavy investment in the UK which because of its political stability and the application of due legal process internally, is an attractive proposition for most overseas Fund Managers.

Russia needs massive inward investment because its broader economy is weak but do the Oligarchs care ? They didn’t in Tsarist and Communist times; they are unlikely to do so now which means that they have no incentive to improve the lot of ordinary Russian people and little pressure from them to do so. The consequence is that only a fool would invest there in such a politically unstable or should that read ‘undemocratic’ country where the whim of the ruling elite rather than the rule of law reign supreme.

As Britons, we should be grateful to Russia, for a time there it almost looked like a “European country with Christian roots” which believed in similar objectives to our own, clearly it isn’t, as ever, Russia remains Russia but good wakeup call Vladimir !