the ben wallace grant shapps comparison was not - shapps, and the ben wallace grant . flattering when it started. — shapps comparison was not flattering when it started, henry, _ shapps comparison was not flattering when it started, henry, was- shapps comparison was not flattering when it started, henry, was it? - shapps comparison was not flattering when it started, henry, was it? i’m. when it started, henry, was it? i'm t in: to when it started, henry, was it? trying to remember, i think it was in the space of a year grant shapps was transport secretary, home secretary, business secretary, energy secretary and then defence secretary. so, lots of ministers have moved around a lot recently, but he really has moved round and awful lot. he is not a former soldier, as ben wallace is, as ben wallace was very keen to be seeking to become a big part of his personal brand, i guess there is an argument that certainly people in government have made over the years, that that is a better thing, because you're not sort of... taste is a better thing, because you're rrot sort of- -

, ex—armed think wallace johnny mercer, ben wallace, ex-yeah.yd think wallace johnny mercer, ben wallacence. have that sort of experience. robin but keep those views robin but do keep those views coming in. views gbnews.com. coming in. gb views gbnews.com. let's widen out, shall we, let's widen it out, shall we, with our political commentator let's widen it out, shall we, with our stadlen commentator let's widen it out, shall we, with our stadlen andimentator let's widen it out, shall we, with our stadlen and political' matthew stadlen and political commentator emma who are commentator emma webb, who are on this morning. and on our panel this morning. and what you make on that point, what do you make on that point, emma, do you think that we need a with experience in a minister with experience in the forces to make the armed forces to make decisions like this, is this decisions like this, or is this an executive of government an executive power of government that entitled to a that there entitled to take at a time like this? i actually think that's a very important question that's a very

a former defence secretary, a party colleague of yours, ben wallace, said pretty much the same thing,out the mistakes he believed israel was making, and he got pilloried... he did. ..by many people inside your party, and also many people in thejewish community in the united kingdom, who suggest that his remarks were "dangerous" and anti—israel — some even suggested anti—semitic. are you, as a politician, now wary of treading on this territory? so i think politicians have long been wary of talking about israel—palestine. so i was the first chair in a very long time to open an inquiry into the middle east and north africa. and the reason i did that was i gave a speech back injune last year where i said we were going to see the gaza crisis of 2023. now, i didn't think we were going to see it in the way we did. i didn't think it was going to start the way it did. but all the markers were there for conflict. but the problem within the uk politics, and actually even more in america, even more in canada, is that people seem to feel that they have to be divided — you're either pro—israel or y

fighting very well with what it can fight with, because i remember... before the invasion , when ben wallace, the then defense secretary, cut short his leave and came back to britain to actively help ukraine prepare for this full-scale invasion, but there's another problem, that war is about logistics, if russia very quickly receives weapons from iran or north korea, well, we don't have such a quick arrival of weapons, there are many bureaucratic problems, well, it's just that we don't lose from this, but simply it's life, again, the health of our military, first of all and citizens also civilians, well, but now the main thing is to unblock this aid from the united states of america, because... the aid from the european union is also very good for us, but it will not be enough, considering what he said vasyl, help from iran comes from north korea, but i am talking about north korea a little later, and now about the united states of america, the united states will introduce additional sanctions against all individuals and legal entities around the world who help russia circumvent the already

well, you remember that almost a year ago, or many months ago, ben wallace, the british minister, thest thing he understood, that ukrainians want to preserve life young men, but they are more than 40 years old in the army, and today they also heard from the company commander that they have almost no young people now, and they are well over 40, mostly all the fighters near bakhmut, and this is accordingly true. does it actually affect the combat capability of the units, should this solve the issue of mobilization and will ukrainian society agree and under what conditions to such a change in mobilization? it seems to me that at some point in time , our potential rulers lost their sense, sense of the moment, because ukraine actually went through... already through many waves of mobilization, let's remember period of time between 2014 and 2017, then six waves of mobilization were carried out, and such an information campaign was organized , which tried to convince the ukrainian people that it is important, that it allows us to work for our victory, and then, implementing those waves mobil

former uk defence secretary ben wallace spoke to the bbc. kateib says it has suspended forces to "to embarrassment. us presidentjoe biden said he has decided how to return to the attack, in a manner of our choosing. iran warned it would retaliate against any attack on what it called its interest. what we make of all this? mary anne marsh is still with us. and philip rycroft. philip, we've got this morning that the us will not hesitate to strike. at the same time, walking really fine line between making sure the tensions in the middle east do not escalate into a wider conflict, particularly when it comes to iran and the groups that it comes to iran and the groups that it controls throughout that region. indeed, and i think it's a pretty grim situation, just a little bit of glimmer of hope that there is some restraint on behalf of the us perhaps, also a little bit on behalf of iran, not to allow this conflict to escalate. they doubt president biden will feel absolutely under pressure to respond, and my concern is he will have to respond how he

he got ben wallace.seriously thought there was a he'd thought there was a future he'd be sticking around. >> really hard. >> it's really hard. >> it's really hard. >> yeah, he's even bothering >> yeah, he's not even bothering to the next to stick around at the next election. simon clarke has election. sir simon clarke has come and echoed views of come out and echoed the views of many there were serious many people. there were serious rumblings this show rumblings yesterday on this show that cabinet minister that a serving cabinet minister who, way, hearing who, by the way, was hearing is still considering it might actually well, message. actually throw well, my message. >> do it because >> my message is do it because at the end of the day, i would just throw in the party. just throw a nuke in the party. no disrespect, i people no disrespect, i know people within conservative party, within the conservative party, they're people, they within the conservative party, thejon people, they within the conservati

gauze, i think people who support the visit a little confusion, which is what it is, which is what ben wallace talked about. what design does the funds mr. get? and he talked about that as killing that age. if you support it as it as vengeance, you're on the wrong side of history, and i think the only way to stop this. the only way to stop is really what is public barbara as much as what we're seeing in front of our eyes. as far as i'm national to be off to the is in fact for the international law that, that they've come in is worried about. and then i think the i c j. the steps that it might take at the end of this week are crucial in order to intervene. and the site is to say, if god's humanity decided, god, the legal structure that we have to protect people from that kind of a savage state behavior that we wouldn't see. i mean, on his counterpart comments, counsel positive united states eventually blink. and of course, extra state, he's been back in israel and amongst other countries, or are we any place it to any kind of resolution is anything changed by this visit? i mean the photo's as l

ben wallace, his 2.25% of gdp.en wallace, his predecessor , suggested it should predecessor, suggested it should be 3. we hear that we've got the smallest army, i think, since the napoleonic wars. numbers are down. there's a question as to whether we can staff frigates in the red sea. why haven't we sent aircraft carriers ? what's your aircraft carriers? what's your impression situation ? impression of the situation? >> well, i don't think it matters how much spend. it's matters how much you spend. it's how you spend how effectively you spend it. and spend very ineffective and we spend it very ineffective . poorly. lots of . poorly. we have lots of scandals about defence spending, and partly because of and i think partly because of the monopoly position of some of our defence suppliers, we don't get good value and we don't get reliability. this latest story in the telegraph is that hms diamond, which is our ship, which is out there defending the red sea, doesn't have the capability of firing a missile from the ship

meanwhile defence secretary said secretary ben wallace, he said division and another pm would lead certaind to the certain loss of power for the tories. >> meanwhile, pmqs, >> yes. meanwhile, at pmqs, prime minister's question time sir criticised the sir keir starmer criticised the government latest government over their latest round of infighting. >> but he first country, second safely ensconced in westminster, they get to down the real business of fighting each other to death. the country forced to endure their division and chaos. the longest episode of eastenders ever put to film . eastenders ever put to film. meanwhile, this week we discover that britain is going to be the only major economy that no longer makes its own steel that the government is handing out £500 million to make 3000 steel workers redundant , £500 million to make 3000 steel workers redundant, and £500 million to make 3000 steel workers redundant , and that the workers redundant, and that the parents of thousands are being told that his free childcare promise is nothing but a mirage. isn't he embarrassed that the tory

um, and you hear conservatives, including the former defence secretary, ben wallace, saying that thend underfunded by his own government, in which he served as defence secretary. the reality is, if we are serious about the commitments that we make internationally , we have to make internationally, we have to be able to put our money where our mouth is. if we really believe in nato and we are one of the core founders of nato founded under the attlee government after the war, then we have to be able to we can't just keep looking to the americans all the time to, to, to sort of underwrite the international system . um, international system. um, especially i think , as the especially i think, as the situation within america becomes more uncertain about its willingness to, to to, always step up. um, so we have to we have to play our part. and i'm afraid that the government has, has neglected this area . and has neglected this area. and that's why we find comments that sir patrick's making at the moment. >> um, tom, who is an army veteran, says that i suspect that a large number of the cur

you had joe biden a of back, ben a couple of weeks back, ben wallace, all wallace, david cameron allness. of these world leaders, these people who've been behind so many walls themselves, joe biden, the warmongering, i mean, let let me finish, i was going on to the point that according to hamas and actually the un seems to agree with a rough kind of figure that some 8000 children have now died in palestine. and i just don't know how long israel can. >> those are any death of a child is obviously appalling, and are figures from and those are figures from hamas. phrase , you hamas. you hear this phrase, you know, whether it's 1 or it know, whether it's 1 or 8000, it doesn't matter. it's gaza and health. ministry, the health. health ministry, the gaza the gaza gaza health ministry, the gaza health ministry is the arm of health ministry is the pr arm of hamas. made up. hamas. it is a totally made up. >> i said, the un has has >> as i said, the un has has pretty much agreed with it. they said well, course said a thousand. well, of course they they have, they of course they have, because t

i think, you know, the ministry of defence, particularly under ben wallace, was doing a really great i may, very briefly, of course, i listened. >> aubrey is right, that one of the results we may be concerned aboutis the results we may be concerned about is demonstrations on the streets. but this is one of the things that affects my morale. theidea things that affects my morale. the idea that british liberals, because anti—american, because it's anti—american, anti—british, the anti —british, celebrate the cause of houthi rebels who enslave people and massacre people . they people in their country. they are with the are finding alliance with the most individuals and not most absurd individuals and not seeing the hypocrisy and wrongness of that. that's something that affects my morale i >> -- >> but alex, doesn't this happen all the time? sorry, just all the time? sorry, i'm just going to that happens all going to say that happens all the time. >> thank you very much indeed. you've been a marvellous panel. thank very much coming thank you very much for coming in morning. so that in on

>> [wallace has given up with ben wallace has given up with defence. was arguing for defence.this conflict shows that , you conflict shows us that, you know, when the chips are down, our guys have got to get into the firing line. and i'd like to see this as a reminder to the government that they just government that they can't just say, know the i am say, oh, you know, the big i am on world stage . you need to on the world stage. you need to put your money where the troops are. >> yes. i mean , amy, this >> yes. i mean, amy, is this actually a reminder of the value of defence spending in this unstable that we must make unstable world that we must make sure armed forces are sure our armed forces are resourced and paid for? >> yeah . of course. i mean, >> yeah. of course. i mean, ultimately how vital it is ultimately shows how vital it is when need it. you need it. when you need it. you need it. and the interesting thing and but the interesting thing i think i've found about this story fact they're story is the fact that they're letting through russian containers and blocking us

of defence secretaries have begged for extra money from the treasury, most recently, of course, ben wallaceim the money that he wanted to shore up britain's defence. the navy, as you say, is , is in a navy, as you say, is, is in a state basically with this sort of money going to ukraine. there is a pretty much a black hole in in britain's defence forces and in britain's defence forces and in britain's defence budget. will rishi sunak do anything about it, or is he just going to basically leave it until his successor, who will probably be keir starmer? and it'll be fascinating to see what he does in that role, because if anything, the conservative party is on stronger ground when talking about defence. it's, it's got a reputation as being sort of party of defence. you would expect the conservative party instinctively to be investing be investing in the army, to be investing in the army, to be investing the navy. it hasn't investing in the navy. it hasn't really done. so. how will labour fare? will have exactly the fare? it will have exactly the same challenges and potentially its activists w

to see this guy here, lou wallace, i'm sure many of you, the book he wrote right after the civil war, it's the best song, american up to gone with the wind and of course, benfhechr. lou wallace is a fascinating guy, and i wish i had more time to get into it. all of the ins and outs his career. so let's just take a couple of minutes. born in indiana, born to a well-connected indiana family, his father was the acting governor of indiana, served in the me■ycan war, is not professionally military trained. he was a lawyer when the civil war broke using those political in the 11th indiana zhukov regiment fights extreme well at fort donelson in february 1862, under grant's commandotion to mr general. when he was promoted to major general, he was one of the youngest people in the army to be so promoted. and again, not getting into it a whole lot. but lew wallace was not with the rest of the army at pittsburg landing when the battle shiloh starts o 6th, 1862, there are disagreeing parts grant orders. wallace to move to pittsburg there are disagreements on how he got there and how he should have got there after battle was over, grant and halleck together scapegoated