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SubscriptionsCategory: Defence
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Military Spending on Recruitment Adverts Far Outstrips Teaching and Health
A new investigation by the Byline Intelligence Team and The Citizens reveals the ongoing challenge, and expense, of recruiting personnel to the armed forces
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How Can We Guard Against the Climate Crisis When Defence is Our Biggest Carbon Emitter?
Iain Overton examines the Ministry of Defence’s carbon footprint, and asks whether plans to boost military spending are compatible with the Government’s net zero targets
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Government Spends £1.1 million in First Month of MoD Patrolling Channel
The policy of having the MoD monitor small boats crossing costs approximately £34,000 per day, Sian Norris reports
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From Mercenaries to Trade Envoys: What is Britain’s Modern Military Role?
Pursuing its goal as ‘Global Britain’, the UK uses its military as imprecise weapon of influence, attracting human rights abusers the world over to furnish their reputations, explains Murray Jones
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The Forgotten Russia Report of 2008: How Ukraine is Paying the Price for Our Catastrophic Mistakes
Fourteen years ago, Andrew Levi briefed the Labour Foreign Secretary on the dangers of Putin’s Kremlin. Now the terrifying predictions of that report have been vindicated, it is vital to reckon with our failures
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Tolerating Intolerance: UK Military Failing its LGBTQ Personnel
Murray Jones reports on the Government’s failure to offer information on its acquiescence to the repressive rules of foreign militaries
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UK Officials Rub Shoulders with Sanctioned Russian Arms Firms at World Defence Show
Experts cast doubt on the logic and morality of the Government’s decision to attend a Saudi arms fair alongside firms held responsible for the devastation in Ukraine
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Official Documents Show Government is Falling into Another Russia Trap – With Saudi Arabia
The Byline Intelligence Team has obtained internal official briefing notes showing how the Government is making overtures to Saudi Arabia on multiple fronts
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Boris Johnson Told to ‘Come Clean’ after Hinting he will Ignore Vote to Release Lebedev Security Papers
Exclusive: Labour tells Byline Times that Johnson will be in contempt of Parliament if he hides security service advice he received about the son of a former KGB agent, reports Adam Bienkov
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Boris Johnson Could Block Release of Security Advice on Evgeny Lebedev
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said release of security advice about Lebedev may not be ‘in the public interest’, reports Adam Bienkov
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Human Rights Problem Countries Receive Two-Thirds of UK Military Export Licenses Since 2010
Sam Bright digs into the data to reveal the billions of pounds of lethal equipment sold by the UK to questionable regimes
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‘Pink-Eyed Terminators’: Successive Conservative Governments Have Ignored Official Warnings About the Growing Threat of Nuclear War
TJ Coles reviews the ways in which Russian nuclear escalation has been mapped by experts
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Failings in Key Army Contract Hits UK’s Ability to Fight a Modern War
David Hencke reports on a major impasse in the delivery of new armoured vehicles to the British Army
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As Europe Faces War, is the UK’s Military Influence Waning?
Conflict has broken out in Ukraine and, while NATO and the UK will not fight, it has raised questions about the extent of British military influence in the region
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Watchdog Raises Concerns Over UK Defence Spending Plans
As war in Europe looms, David Hencke reports on the Government’s controversial attempt to modernise our defence equipment
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As Britain Slashes Aid to Ukraine, is Johnson Using the Threat of War as a Cover For his Own Scandals?
The support offered to Ukraine over a looming Russian invasion serves Boris Johnson’s own interests rather than the country in Putin’s sights, says Iain Overton
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Britain’s Immovable Institutions: The Diversity Deficit in the Upper Ranks of the Army
Sascha Lavin reveals new data about the lack of black representation in top army positions, and considers what this shows about modern Britain
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‘They Will Kill Us While We Wait’: A Military Family Trapped in Kabul
As the fiasco of UK Government’s evacuation of Afghanistan is exposed, Byline Times speaks to the son of a family terrorised by the Taliban because their father worked for the British Army
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Toxic Banter on Military Forum Over Kenyan Woman’s Death Exposes Gross Misogyny in Armed Forces
An investigation into posts made in wake of the murder of a Kenyan sex worker Agnes Wanjiru include discussions of how the army will brush the death ‘under the carpet’
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‘A Shocking Disregard for Human Life’: The UK Contributes to the Polish-Belarus Crisis
As British troops fly out to aid their Polish allies, the thousands of hungry, cold and frightened people amassed on the Polish-Belarusian border are increasingly pawns in a populist political game
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UK Weapons Go Missing in Afghanistan
The Government can’t account for thousands of assault weapons, and two military helicopters, that it previously exported to the country, Sascha Lavin reports
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The Fantasy of War: The Far Right and the Military
An undercover investigation by Byline Times reveals military personnel and veterans on far-right Telegram channels, and how the far-right in the Us and UK use military tropes to recruit and spread their message
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Why Did Labour Lose the Military?
In 1945, the armed forces vote helped sweep Labour to power – but in modern politics the military vote is more likely to go to the right
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Military Matters: 91% of Veterans from the Main Political Parties are Conservatives
Disparity in political allegiance among veteran MPs, revealed by the Byline Intelligence Team, raises questions of military representation in British political life
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Human Rights Hypocrisy: Government Approves Sniper Licenses to Countries on its Own List of Concern
New data reveals how sniper licences have been awarded to Bahrain, Bangladesh and other regimes listed on the Foreign Office’s ‘human rights priority countries’ list
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Life Values: How the British Military Calculated the Cost of an Afghan Life
The Ministry of Defence paid out more compensation for property damage in northern Europe than for the death of an Afghan child, reports Murray Jones
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British Military Linked to Hundreds of Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan
Analysis of compensation claims paid by the Ministry of Defence to Afghan families reveals the extent of civilian deaths during 20 years of war
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‘They Are Keeping Us Here to be Killed’: The Loyal Afghans Abandoned by Johnson’s Government
Katharine Quarmby lays bare the gap between rhetoric and reality in the Government’s Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme
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The Digital Dogs of War
Iain Overton considers how London’s biggest arms trade fair reveals the true face of modern conflict – and why civilians will bear the brunt of this autonomous, distanced new form of warfare
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Arms Versus Asylum: In the Shadow of a Weapons Bonanza Live the People Fleeing War
The Byline Intelligence Team attended the opening day of London’s controversial Government-backed arms fair to witness the protests and hear the voices of those who have fled the bombs now on sale
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Ten Examples of British Military Spending Plagued by Inefficiency and Spiralling Costs
As the giant DSEI arms fair gets underway in east London, Iain Overton catalogues 10 instances demonstrating the problems with Government defence procurement
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Ministry of Mystery: Government Doesn’t Know how Many Civilians it has Killed in Wars Abroad
A Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Defence has revealed that the Government is failing to record civilian deaths during military operations
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Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Government Cannot Say if it has Trained Indonesian Police Forces Implicated in Human Rights Abuses
A Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Defence found that the Government does not hold information about who it trains in Indonesia
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MOD Refuses to Say How Many Towns and Cities the RAF Bombed in Iraq and Syria
The decision to refuse a Freedom of Information request that aimed to clarify civilian casualties related to UK airstrikes raises concerns about MOD transparency
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Military Magazines Issued with Ministry of Defence Knowledge Reveal Its Top Secrets
The department has refused to disclose the location of Operation Catallo – while British Army publications have shared details of it
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The UK’s New Elite Regiment and the Evasion of Democracy
Murray Jones of Action on Armed Violence explores whether the specialist forces will simply be allowed to fly under the radar
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Turning a Deadly Blind Eye: Government Forced to Court Again Over Its Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia
UK ministers continue to licence arms for sale to Saudi Arabia when there is a clear risk that they will be used to kill innocent Yemeni civilians, report Bonyan Jamal and Molly Mulready
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UK Military has Trained Israeli and Palestinian Forces
The UK has provided training to both militaries, as well as approving millions of pounds in arms sales to Israel, reports Sam Bright
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Johnny Mercer Sought to Whitewash this Country’s Human Rights Abuses – his Departure as a Minister is Only a Good Thing
Iain Overton dissects what the Veterans Minister’s farewell reveals about the man himself and a wider right-wing shift in British politics favouring the military
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Boris Johnson’s Toxic Domestic Posturing Over Nuclear Weapons is Threatening Britain’s Global Leadership Status
The Prime Minister’s strongman antics make a mockery of his ‘Global Britain’ mantra, says Ben Donaldson
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The Futility of ‘Global Britain’
Mike Buckley’s analysis of the Government’s foreign and defence policy review explores how moving away from Europe leaves the UK with unrealistic ambitions with regards to the rest of the world
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‘Discarded As Freaks’: LGBTIQ Veterans Dismissed for Sexuality Can Now Reclaim their Medals
Duncan Lustig-Prean helped lift the ban on LGBTIQ people serving in the military – he tells Molly Greeves why he welcomes the move to return the medals of those who were made to leave the Armed Forces
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Government Turns a Blind Eye as UK Trains Some of the World’s Most Brutal Security Forces
Steve Shaw reports on the British politicians who condemn state violence at the hands of authoritarian regimes while allowing UK police and military to train the very forces responsible
