Defence Budget Shortfall

Welcome today. It's Sunday in Washington, and Trump claims the pens are out and the paperwork is ready. The field days were a fiesta of good times. The Prime Minister on Labour's 18 billion dollar hole. The lads in the commentary box, of course. Richard Arnold Stateside, Steve Price in Australia. Boy, do we have a poll out of Australia to tell you about this morning? Anyway, seven past six. I would love to be back talking about the Warriors, of course, but they lost both games since I've been away. Saw the Panthers a couple of hours after arriving in London, saw the Sharks in Singapore over the weekend. Can I just say that my theme has been consistent for all the good we're doing for all the fizz of the season for all of the prospect? What we need's a kicker. I said this because at some point we would lose by two or four points, and those two or four points would be missed opportunities because we didn't have someone who kicks at 85%. Nathan Cleary is 84.3%. That's what we need. Pompey, who I would have used all season, missed the critical points, could have gone to extra time, and who knows what would have happened after that. Season's still fine. Don't panic, we're still top four by the end of it. We're still going to the playoffs. We'll still get a home game. But we could still win it all. But it's the little things that count in a tight competition. I keep saying this. Why doesn't anyone listen? It's the little things that count in a tight competition. Losing to the Panthers wasn't really a thing, given how tight that was, but we've now lost two by two. Anyway, can't mention all of that because we lost. But the Cowboys next sub will be right. Now, to some quick observations on travel. One, the world is wonderful. Hectic, but wonderful. London, Edinburgh, this is where we went. London, Edinburgh, and New York, as well as Singapore. Three of the globe's great cities. Guess which one we went to isn't. Anyway, travel reminds you how small we are. Checking our news sites periodically as we did. Have you noticed we seem fixated in this country with crime and weather? I mean, there's a gargantuan amount of stuff going on out there in the world at the moment, but the news alerts seem fixated with courts and rainfall. We might want to broaden our horizons a little bit, I thought to myself. I can report Britain as a troubled angsty place with a buy-election this Thursday that will lead to the end of the Starmer Prime Minister ship. Luxon, even in his worst and wobbly days of public acceptance, looked like a combination of Gandhi and Taylor Swift compared to Starmer. To call him a dead man walking is to make a dead man walking seem lively. There was a race row after a seek nutter stabbed some poor kid. The cops didn't believe he'd been stabbed, and he died as they put the cuffs on him. After that, Belfast exploded, and just as we left the defence minister quit blaming a lack of money to defend the country. That's how bad Britain is at the moment. As introspective as we might be at times, and we are, Britain is a mess. And we aren't, which makes it good to be home.