David Vance SubstackRead More
Yes, I know it is embarrassing, in fact it really is a proper national humiliation. I am talking about the catastrophic failure of the British Government to respond effectively to the attacks on the RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus!
Let’s see if we can piece this together as so much has happened so quickly!
Firstly, RAF Akrotiri is not some distant outpost; it is a major hub for British operations in the Middle East and a visible symbol of UK power projection. We have 35000 people based there. When an Iranian made Shaheed‑type drone struck the base, causing limited damage but forcing an emergency response, it marked a clear escalation in the conflict. It showed that Iran, or its proxies, were willing and able to hit a British target linked directly to Western operations against them. It was clearly an act of war!
You would expect, as a minimum, a decisive and coherent political response.
No such luck.
Instead, the Starmer government tried to have it both ways. Ministers allowed the United States to use British bases, including Akrotiri, for “defensive” strikes against Iranian assets, but then insisted that Britain is still “not at war”.
To any normal person, if armed drones and missiles are flying from your territory as part of a campaign against another state, you are involved in that war whether you choose to use the word or not. The careful legalistic language Starmer used simply sounded very evasive. And that’s because he WAS being evasive.
Remember how Starmer initially rejected US requests to use the bases, only to reverse course after a flurry of Iranian attacks on Western and Israeli interests? The timing, with the Akrotiri strike landing just as the shift became public, made the government look reactive and just totally out of its depth. The sense was one of a leadership being dragged along by events, not one shaping them.
Our relations with Cyprus have added another layer of failure. Successive UK governments have promised Nicosia and local communities that the bases are primarily there for stability, humanitarian operations and regional security, not as automatic launchpads for regional war. Using Akrotiri for strikes on Iran without clear, advance political groundwork has strained that trust. Cypriot voices treating the incident as a serious security shock only highlight how flat and unpersuasive the British line has been.
And then there is the issue of HMS Dragon. This destroyer had been touted as a visible symbol of Britain’s commitment to protecting its assets and allies in the Eastern Mediterranean. Yet it still sits in UK harbour and will not even set sail for the region until next week. It will then take almost a week to get there. One of the reason for this delay is that the maintenance team working to prepare it only work 9-5pm, Monday to Friday. That’s an arrangement put in place since Labour came to power.
Instead of arriving quickly as a clear deterrent and an extra layer of air‑defence and radar coverage, it has become a joke. It’s a case study in how Whitehall can announce a headline deployment while failing to line up the logistics, rules of engagement and political will needed to make it count. The message sent to friends and adversaries is obvious: even when Britain decides to move, it moves too late and too hesitantly for its presence to make a difference.
The failure to act quickly and decisively shows this Government up for what it really is – a hostage to “International law” and the Muslim base that votes for it.
