THE END OF BRITAIN: FIRST THE NAVY AND NOW THE ARMY

Last week we posted on how far the British Navy has fallen: the Sea Lord has basically conceded to the Somali pirates.

Now these two items:

First:

Almost 5,000 soldiers and officers - or one in five army personnel - are unfit for frontline combat duties, figures from the Ministry of Defence show.

ER UM . . . DOES THAT MEANS WHAT I THINK IT MEANS!?!?!?

BRITAIN HAS ONLY 25000 ACTIVE SOLDIERS IN THE ARMY!?!?

Second:

The British armed forces could be forced to shrink by up to a fifth because of a lack of money, a military think tank has predicted.

The Royal United Services Institute said the number of trained military personnel could fall from 175,000 to little more than 140,000 by 2016.

Its report said the cost of troops and equipment was rising, and major cuts were "inevitable".

The Ministry of Defence said budgets would not be cut at all next year.

The report's author, defence expert Professor Malcolm Chalmers, warned hard choices lay ahead and efficiency savings would not be enough to put Britain's defences on a sustainable footing.

He said even being "cautiously optimistic", intense pressure on government finances meant the MoD's budget was likely to fall by 11% in real terms by 2017.

And he said a much deeper reduction of about 15% over the next three years could not be ruled out.

'Political pain'

He warned the problem would be made worse because the costs of employing troops and civilian personnel have been rising in real terms, as has buying and running equipment.

Cuts to the available budget combined with growing costs meant the next six years were likely to see a reduction of about 20% in the number of service personnel, the report said.

Military capabilities in terms of ships, aircraft and ground formations would also be reduced by a similar amount.

In military terms, the British are of almost no use to the Free World. Pity: they were once the best in the world, and for much of the last century were probably the second best. All that is lost - or soon will be.

This is what the Left would like to see happen here.