英国国防战备与工业国务大臣路克·波拉德（Luke Pollard）近日针对媒体的负面报道向记者发难。
在近期一系列负面头条新闻出现的背景下，波拉德在接受媒体采访时表示，他已经“厌烦了记者和纸上谈兵的将领诋毁我们的军队”。目前，随着国防争议和预算压力不断加大，波拉德的言论反映了英国政府在国防政策上的紧绷状态。
由于数十年的削减和项目延误，英国武装部队被描述为严重削弱。本周对英国政府及其国防计划而言是艰难的一周。据天空新闻报道，英国军事首长们被要求在今年想方设法节省数十亿英镑的开支。此外，有建议称英国国防部将为“志愿联盟”（Coalition of the Willing）倡议买单，而不是使用财政部储备资金。
英国广播公司（BBC）本周也概述了英国军队的现状，追溯了历届政府执政期间的数据。与此同时，英国2025年《战略国防审查》的作者之一、前工党国防大臣及北约前秘书长罗伯逊勋爵指责工党政府首相基尔·斯塔默在国防资金规划方面存在“腐蚀性的自满”。该规划原定于在拖延已久的《国防投资计划》中发布。
UK Minister for Defence Readiness Luke Pollard takes aim at journalists for negative press, amid a string of headlines in recent weeks.
Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry, Luke Pollard MP speaking at a UK Defence Industry Roundtable with Gulf Partners in March. Credit: UK MoD/Crown copyright
UK Minister for Defence Readiness blasts “journalists and armchair generals” as defence rows and budget pressures mount
UK forces are described as severely weakened after decades of cuts and delays
Senior Labour figures have accused the government of complacency on defence funding amid the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan
Rattled doesn’t even come close to it, listening to the words spoken by UK Minister for Defence Readiness Luke Pollard, who in an interview with BFBS exclaimed that he was “sick and tired of journalists and armchair generals talking down our military”.
It has been a bruising week for the UK Government and its defence plans, with reports from Sky News that military chiefs are being asked to come up with billions of pounds in savings this year and also suggestions that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will pick the tab for the Coalition of the Willing initiative, rather than using Treasury reserve funds.
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The BBC this week also outlined the state of the UK military, charting the figures through decades and governments of all political positions.
Elsewhere, one of the authors of the UK’s own 2025 Strategic Defence Review, Lord Robertson, himself a former Labour Defence Minister and Secretary General of Nato, accused Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer of “corrosive complacency” regarding defence funding planning, due to be published in the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan.
Naval Technology has also called the UK Government and Prime Minister Starmer out on the wording of defence-related statements in the House of Commons, that fail to accurately portray that the failures of military planning and funding spread across decades and governments of both the left and the right.
It appears the message has been given that UK ministers should go on the offensive, blaming journalists for doing their job in highlighting the myriad failures, without favour or prejudice, that governments of all persuasions have overseen while in office.
“I’m sick and tired of journalists and armchair generals talk down our military. We know that we have inherited an Armed Forces hollowed out by the last government,” said Pollard in the BFBS interview.
The facts: UK military at lowest ebb
What is without question is that the UK military is at its lowest ebb for generations, brought low by two decades worth of defence cuts, both in budget and real terms, as inflationary pressures and ballooning budgets in other government departm