The great US President Teddy Roosevelt said the secret of successful diplomacy was to “speak softly and carry a big stick”. But in recent times, our political leaders have done exactly the opposite: loudly indulging in their fantasies of liberal intervention abroad, yet refusing to provide even the basics of national self-defence.
Only this week, a consultancy report claimed that Whitehall had failed to allocate capital funding for new projects like barracks, naval hubs and munitions factories, which are essential to meet the Government’s long-term pledge to raise defence spending to 3.5% of GDP. Other indicators of institutional negligence are just as concerning.
The Army is at its smallest since the early 19th century, and the RAF has shrunk by two-thirds in size since the end of the Cold War. Even the Royal Navy is a shadow of the force that once underpinned Britain’s maritime greatness.
In its review of the year 2025, the independent journal Navy Lookout complained that, “hull numbers continue to fall before new ships are ready to replace them, amphibious capability has been hollowed out, support shipping is fragile, global presence has contracted, and too much future capability still exists on PowerPoint slides rather than at sea”.
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The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That is certainly true of the employment tribunal system which was set up in 1964 to protect staff from unfair dismissal and workplace injustices. But it is now an arena for chancers to lodge spurious claims for compensation.
Youth worker Joseph Johnson has been criticised by tribunal judges for bringing 54 cases against schools and charities since 2016 – most for race or sex discrimination. Despite a single ruling in his favour (for unlawful deduction of wages) he did not win a single case, demonstrating his grievances were without merit.
Johnson is not unique. In June this year, it was revealed that law graduate Zakir Khan had brought 42 claims of job discrimination against legal firms and public bodies. Like Johnson’s catalogue of misery, not one of Khan’s cases was successful,
Far too much time and money is wasted on these troublemakers. On one government website, there is a list of 193 vexatious litigants who have been barred from taking legal action. This lot are partly responsible for the huge backlog of 491,000 open cases at the tribunal service. And what is the Labour Government’s solution? Disastrously, as a sop to the trade unions, the Employment Rights Bill will make it easier and more lucrative to pursue tribunal claims. More litigation will follow, exactly what our faltering economy and public services do not need.
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The New Year’s Honours list has provoked the usual controversy that surrounds the award of gongs. Some critics focus on the unfairness of individual exclusions or inclusions. Others denounce the whole system as a relic of a feudal past.
My own view is that the award of honours is not only essentially harmless but also brings a lot of pleasure to the families of recipients. I will never forget the thrill of driving my vintage Rover P5 into Buckingham Palace as I escorted my family to my father’s investiture, where he was presented with the OBE for “services to architecture in Northern Ireland”.
But I experienced even greater pride when the cricketer Geoff Boycott was knighted. As his unofficial biographer, I had forensically challenged the claim of his girlfriend Margaret Moore that he hit her during a hotel stay in Monte Carlo. To me, Moore wanted cash from him to pay her extensive debts whereas Boycott was an innocent man who richly deserved a knighthood for his tremendous contribution to cricket.
