1 Yorkshire Regiment Battle group by Sgt Mark Webster RLC-MOD (OGL)-2
We now know we can't trust the Tories with Brexit. But it's also becoming clear that we can't trust the Tories where the defence of the nation is concerned either.
PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:
Having lost circa 1,300 council seats in the Brexit backlash, it is clear that Conservative Party voters have lost faith in their own party to deliver a clean and proper Brexit.
But while that is going on we have another storm brewing over the leak from within the National Security Council of the possible involvement of the Chinese controlled tech firm Huawei in the future UK 5G network.
This led to a leak inquiry and the sacking of the Defence secretary, Gavin Willamson, with the Prime Minister saying she had 'compelling evidence' that he was the source of the leak.
However, Williamson vigorously denies the charges and wants his name cleared via a police investigation, but the PM says there is no need for one and has also later said that she took a difficult decision to sack him and added:
"This was not about what was leaked, it was about where it was leaked from. It was the importance of the question of trust around that National Security Council table."
But I, like many people, believe that what was leaked is of fundamental importance. Who on earth could think that putting technology potentially controlled by a foreign power into the heart of the UK telecoms system, was the right thing to do?
Apart from an idiot or a traitor that is.
As I said yesterday, none of this passes the sniff test.
And the the chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, Margaret Beckett, is looking for information on it too and has written to the Cabinet Secretary, Mark Sedwill saying:
"… the committee notes your ongoing inquiry into the leak of the National Security Council's decision on the use of Huawei in the UK's 5G telecommunications network. As this directly pertains to our work in scrutinising the NSC, the committee would like to be apprised of the outcomes of this leak inquiry once it is complete."
And if he does not comply, the Cabinet Secretary could be found in contempt of parliament.
Now this is interesting, as according to reports, Gavin Williamson believes he is the victim of a kangaroo court and has told friends that:
"I knew they were coming for me from the moment Mark Sedwill named me in that room.
"The leak inquiry was always going to try to frame me."
Williamson has also sworn on the lives of his children that he was not the source of the leak.
And if Williamson is right then there is something rotten at the core of our government, something rotten that is a danger to our national security.
Many people believe too much has been made of the leak itself in order to hide a decision to allow Huawei into the centre of our new 5G internet.
Writing in the Sun, Leo McKinstry says:
"It is absurd of Theresa May to puff herself up with indignation over the leak, yet remain so complacent about the genuine risks that collusion with Huawei could carry.
"Indeed, there must be a suspicion that the Prime Minister has deliberately and cynically created a storm over the NSC leak in order to distract attention from her potentially disastrous plan to allow Huawei access to our new internet system. Williamson has been sacrificed to save her own skin."
"It is not the NSC leaker, but May who is the real threat to national security with her cavalier approach to the dangers of Chinese spying."
One glaring omission in all of this for me though, is that while everyone says that using Huawei to provide us with such equipment would almost certainly damage our links with The US, NATO and the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, why is no-one asking whether it would also risk our involvement with the EU defence system being set up that we are still being plugged into, despite Brexit. And the PM also wants the UK involved in the EU Galileo satellite network, would our connection with Huawei damage that as well?
And it turns out I am right to ask. Because The Register reported back in March that the EU is not averse to a member state using Huawei, but the US is.
And, as we're being set up to take EU defence procurement rules as part of the EU defence forces under May's Withdrawal Agreement surrender treaty, using Huawei would, of course, be OK.
So, the PM appears to be following the EU lead to start taking the UK away from the US and away from NATO and into the EU army.
Who'd have thought it? But why is no-one asking these questions?
Sources:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8996562/gavin-williamson-sir-mark-sedwill-leak-inquiry/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/03/26/euro_5g_plans/
