Ms Hammond'The point of this thread is whether his current opinions are valid, or not. I seem to be the only one on this forum who thinks so'. Not at all.I also think there is merit in much of what he says and this is also true regarding his boss !"US Vice-President JD Vance has launched a scalding attack on European democracies, saying the greatest threat facing the continent was not from Russia and China, but "from within".He spent the majority (of his speech) accusing European governments - including the UK's - of retreating from their values, and ignoring voter concerns on migration and free speech.The address was met by silence in the hall, and later denounced by several politicians at the conference. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said it was "not acceptable".(NB News items are currently reporting the large numbers of civilian deaths, including those of children, carried out by Middle Eastern, likely Islamic, immigrants. Perhaps Mr Pistorius should focus more of his attention to this issue).Vance repeated the Trump administration's line that Europe must "step up in a big way to provide for its own defence".This is the most important point he made.European politicians are happy to criticise Trump on many issues but forget that for decades we have been more than happy for the US to pick up the tab for a majority of NATO spending that protects us from Russian attacks.Now it looks as if we are going to have to put our hands in our own pockets and pay for this protection ourselves.Trump sees the US is not getting much from this arrangement.Russia will/cannot attack the US and China is their biggest threat.So the Labour government will have to readdress its spending plans putting defence higher up the list.Good article on this by Andrew Neil ("boo, hiss") in today's MailOnline ("boo, hiss, hiss).https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14403639/ANDREW-NEIL-watershed-Europes-history-decades-lavished-billions-welfare-sent-bill-defence-America-Trump-simply-wont-let-continue.html
John Hawkes ● 148d