What is Britain's real power level?

It's over 9,000!!!!! Haha just had to do a DBZ reference.

Anyway, seriously what is Britain's ability to project power? Is it more powerful now than in 1914 during formal Empire? If threatened could Britain rely upon her former colonies? Her commonwealth? To come to her aid in real and not merely token gesture? And how much influence does Britain still retain over the former colonies, politically, culturally, or through investments?

Another britain bashing thread?

Britain is one of the financial centers of the world and where the money is,the power is.. doesn't have as much clout as before but still does hold some power in the world stage..

Btw you have 737 thousand stars, what the help happened there?

reply to post by Misterlondon


The pound is worth the most isn't it?

And ya, FreeMason, your e-penis is massive. Biggest I've seen. You work out?

Well they decommissioned the Gurkha but they still have the Australians to do all the dangerous stuff for them.

If you have submarine launched nuclear weapons....you are pretty powerful in my book.

*shrugs*

I think Britain is influential but not powerful. Does that makes sense ?
It sets the agenda. But it can't enforce that agenda on others.
The English language, the Westminster type parliamentary system, the rule of law, democracy, freedom of religion, economic & political stability etc ... it exported all that to a quarter of the globe. Or imposed it ... depends on how you view colonialism, I guess.

It has the ultimate influence over USA. Britain has Trident missiles, as does USA. And when a little radar operator in some godforsaken Russian arctic missile center sees a Trident missile on his scope, he won't be able to tell if it has a Union Jack or an Old Glory on it. I guess that way the fate of USA & it's inhabitants is entirely dependant on the whims of the British Prime Minister & the Royal Navy's submarine commanders.

There's me writing up something nice about UK and at the top of this page is an advert for Air France

Probably moral, the Brits voted against war with Syria, most 'right thinking' nations followed suit, even though they were not happy with the Brits.
As regards 1914, the Brits had the biggest navy, and had the most money, two world wars, with two lots of national bankruptcy, mean they now don't have either, especially as the loan's to the French to help them keep in the 1914-18 war have yet to be paid. (there again, perhaps it was worth it to keep the Kaiser away from British shores!)

reply to post by pikestaff


Moral ? Britain has moral authority ? I don't think so.
Blair lost the Brits that hands down.

It doesn't compare to 1914. At that time the UK was a superpower. After fighting to rescue Europe from Germany twice in a row, bankruptcy, loss of empire, loss of primary reserve currency privilege and loss of superpower status followed.

The USA picked up the baton and for the last 50 years has been the primary coercive empire on the planet (contested by the USSR until it fell over).

Our influence comes through our permanent seat on the UN security council and our nuclear deterrent.

Our defence lies on our membership of NATO. We need not rely on the commonwealth for defence as thats what NATO is for. Our influence on former colonies is negligible.

Our ability to project conventional forces globally is limited but will improve with the completion of the new carriers.

FreeMason
It's over 9,000!!!!! Haha just had to do a DBZ reference.

Anyway, seriously what is Britain's ability to project power? Is it more powerful now than in 1914 during formal Empire? If threatened could Britain rely upon her former colonies? Her commonwealth? To come to her aid in real and not merely token gesture? And how much influence does Britain still retain over the former colonies, politically, culturally, or through investments?

I think you need to re-assess your way of thinking.

In the 2kteens it's not about isolated power-bases anymore.

There could no longer be a time when one of the developed western countries would stand alone in conflict. Therefore military power is almost irrelevant... still I am glad we kept onto those trident missiles lol

If it was all down to military power then north Korea would stand up as one of the most powerful nations on earth with their 1 million strong army....

But in reality we know this is not true.

More what is important is just how connected the country is to the global economy and how technologically advanced the country is along with who her allies are.

Whether people like it or not Britain stands up among the top for both economy and technology and shares the ideals of the most powerful countries in the world militarily.

In the end though just like a group of friends, how successful you are depends very much on how well liked your ideals are and whether they concur with others.

I would say that Britain and America share the same ideals and thus America is an extension of Britain and Britain an extension of America when it comes to the world stage.

Taking all this on board, why not ask yourself the same question again taking into account the above.

Korg.

Britian is broken and broke america owes it $160 billion spain&greece /irland another $90 billion .

cuts in the army and navy and outdated nukes plus for the next few years will have to borrow a aircraft carrier if anybody kicks off.

this is not 1914 anymore bud we do not need wars to kill people off to thin the herd down we now have CIVIL SERVANTS for that .

20.000 pensioners die of cold every year and now under 25s will not get any benefits if out of work and a cut in benefits for those that have extra bedrooms .

all we go to war for is so the fxxxxxg ROTHCHILDS can have a diverson to loot egypt of gold and tech .
and china and japan lost a fair amount of gold in ww2 .

war is a racket

reply to post by geobro


Incorrect, and I cannot even fathom out how the bloody hell it works.....

We owe them: They owe us: Difference (on our part):

US - £491.37bn : £708.69bn : +£217.32bn
France - £178.26bn : £192.78bn : +£14.52bn
Germany - £322.12bn : £119.83bn : -202.29bn

So America actually owes us more, and we owe more to Germany......does anybody have any idea how this works?

In fact, we are actually one of the better off countries....poor Greece being one of the worst.

As for the rest of it, we have lost our military might to an extent, but we make up for (some of) it in technology.

We have the best antimissile tech, the best warships, we provide technology to the likes of NASA etc.

Most smartphone and tablet computer chips come from the UK.

We have a lot to be proud of, and we aren't out of the game just yet.

London is the financial capital of the world, so London has a lot of influence and power. All our political policies are made with the city in mind and the rest of the U.K has to adapt to work within these policies.

There was never a recession in the city, but the rest of the country has had to pay the price for their dealings and greed.

The city has always been the power behind the country that forged the British Empire.

Military wise, we no longer need to be that powerful as we are part of the largest military organisation in the world, NATO.

The world has changed dramatically since WW2 when we saw the last hurrah of the old colonial empire, the cost of 2 world wars and the dramatic loss of lives to stopping the Germans just made the handing back over of the countries a much faster and probably better thing than it would of done as with a lot of places we still have good relations. We're still in the world business but not in the major armed forces needed method to maintain an empire which will bankrupt any nation (have fun with the costs USA) which will always crush any empire as once you stop expanding the costs have to be met by whats in the empire not from expanding into new profitable territories

LeBombDiggity
reply to post by pikestaff

 

Moral ? Britain has moral authority ? I don't think so.
Blair lost the Brits that hands down.

I'm detecting a little french / english rivalry..

Wake up and smell the 21st century would you!!

We are not back at Agincourt now you know... smerk...

Korg.

I think we are well past individual country's power these days and now into the power of the multi nationals. All any country's does now is to grease the wheels of its laws to enable multi nationals to have the laws they need or amend existing law to protect their interests.

I don't think any country now, except for the odd one with dictatorhip family's or individuals has sovereignity to do as it wants.

The UK would be termed a great power along with France, Russia and China. When it comes to power projection the UK and France have some ability on a smaller scale on their own. On a global scale they are able to project military power better than Russia or China and anybody else except the US but, that ability is still limited to small task force. However the UK is not alone. It has the assets of NATO, the EU and ABCA (Ameirca, Britain, Canada, Australia) allies as well. For example Frances action in Mali would not have been possible with out NATO airlift capabilities to keep its force supplied. The US has a strategic lift capability that is beyond anything else on earth. The UK can call on that lift as need be. The UK also has influence amongs its former colonies through the Common Wealth. Outside of NATO and ABCA the UK also has defence agreements with the Gulf States, Brunei, and the Five Power Defense Arrangement (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia). The UK also maintains its own nulear deterrent. The UK is also a permanent member of the security council and G-8. Despite the decline of its empire the UK is in a position of great power in the world.

Korg Trinity
[
[
We are not back at Agincourt now you know... smerk...

Or
Evesham
Crecy
Poitiers
Albuera
Badajoz
Salamanca
Vitoria
Waterloo
Mers-el-Kébir,


Sorry just had to

crazyewok

Korg Trinity
[
[
We are not back at Agincourt now you know... smerk...

Or
Evesham
Crecy
Poitiers
Albuera
Badajoz
Salamanca
Vitoria
Waterloo
Mers-el-Kébir,


Sorry just had to

LoL

Korg.