A pistol, rifle and deactivated World War One machine gun were among the items lost or stolen from Ministry of Defence facilities over the past two years.
Yikes! Usually, it's smaller, portable items that careless civil servants lose, isn't it?
Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats show more than 700 phones, laptops, computers and USB sticks also went missing over the period.
Ah. That's more like it. Wait, back up! What have the idiots in the LibDems got to do with this?
The party's defence spokesperson Helen Maguire said the losses were "deeply concerning", especially "at this time of heightened global security tensions".
Helen, sweetie, are you in the right job? You DO know that if the Russians or Chinese invade, they bring their own weapons, don't you?
How much of a threat are these, should they fall into the wrong hands, anyway?
A deactivated World War Two Luger Pistol and Sten submachine gun were both lost in June 2023. In July 2023 an SA80 rife was also lost, along with a deactivated World War One German machine gun the following month, although both have subsequently been found.
Meanwhile, a Glock 19 Pistol was stolen in December 2023.
Well, the Glock's modern so obviously not deactivated but surely re-activating the others is a pretty difficult job, as would be obtaining ammo.
And after all, it doesn't seem as if the modern criminal can't obtain firearms already. Terrorists prefer Henry Ford's invention these days,
The Lib Dems called for an urgent inquiry into how the items were misplaced and what was being done to reduce losses and thefts. Maguire said: "The government is more butterfingered than Goldfinger when it comes to national security.
"The loss of these crucial resources is deeply concerning - especially at this time of heightened global security tensions.
"Sensitive national safety information may end up in the wrong hands, while precious public money is spent on replacements in the meantime. And the theft of dangerous weapons should seriously raise alarm bells when it comes to security."
Calm yourself, Helen. Nice soundbite, I know, but really, we don't even know these things ever left the premises - they could simply be misfiled.
Anyone that can reactive these can also build one. Guns were built in homes during WWII from scrap metal and ammo didn't seem to be an issue either. This part of the legislation is similar to the broken window policy. State overkill. Remember how guns were escorted by armed plod to the Olympic venues and the shooters had to conform to the UK governments pathetic strict rules to compete.
ReplyDeleteGuns are seen at the boogie man in the UK and it is simply because an armed population doesn't walk into the gas chambers. They resist and they will fight and die to protect their families.
Unfortunately, we have been indoctrinated and in the UK the fighting spirit has gone from a large percentage of the population. Hopefully with the changing attitudes there will be a move away from wussiness and snowflakery in general.
The loss of one or two small arms in an armoury that consist of (one would hope) thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of weapons isn't a bad record.
ReplyDeleteI'm more concerned with the scores of illegal arms arriving illicitly in dinghies on the South Coast. By day the trade is humans. by night the trade switches I assume to more illicit items like drugs and guns. There are plenty of reports online of dinghies arriving and young men carrying bags to vans waiting just off the foreshore in quiet lanes.
"More butterfingered than Goldfinger.. ". What on earth does that even mean?
ReplyDeleteIt was the useless LibDems, as I recall, that mouthed to stupid slogan 'Fudge and Mudge', some years ago, and that was quickly dropped once someone pointed out the stupidity of this slogan. The party seems to attract weirdos, much like the Green party.
How do they know when they were stolen. Does someone to round every day/week/month with a tick list.
ReplyDeleteMore worryingly what was on those computer hard drives and USB drives.
Many many years ago during the Falklands thing a big ship, Atlantic Conveyer, sank. The claimed total loss of military kit was many times, many many times more than the ship could possibly have carried.
This allowed our MOD and armed services to write off stuff which had been mislaid for years. Phew!
Same thing happened after a big fire at MOD warehouse a few years later.
And another thing. These losses/thefts are a bagatelle compared with what our revered NHS loses.
ReplyDeleteWhich in turn, taking account of number of employees (Well they do claim to work for us!) is square root of f-all compared with what our Honourable Members "lose".