UK, the failed test of the Trident nuclear missile becomes a symbol of a country that does not feel well – Corriere.it

From our correspondent
LONDON – A stunned Britain, with its tattered armor, the spots on its stern and its dangling trident, gazes dejectedly at the sinking missile before it: Today's cartoon from telegraph It tells in more than a thousand words the state of mind of a country Last, a complete failure It led to panic and soul searching.

It turns out In January, a test of a submarine-launched nuclear missile was a failureIn a literal sense: the submarine launched the Trident from a Vanguard submarine, instead of flying 6,000 kilometers over the Atlantic Ocean, He ended up in the water hundreds of meters away from the marine uniteveryone Under the supervision of the Minister of Defense Grant Shapps, who came to witness first-hand the amazing maneuver.

Failure excites him first and foremost The ability of nuclear deterrence has been called into question Great Britain, at a historical stage in which we find ourselves facing Russian and Chinese threats: but above all, the atomic arsenal is one of the last vestiges of London's claim to great power status. If this does not work, the rating will be downgraded immediatelyEspecially since the entire British armed forces are facing difficulties and the generals are speaking openly about the fact that Britain is no longer able to remain in the first level of military powers (with the United States, Russia, China and France), and is even sliding on the same level as Germany and Italy. But there is more: The shrinking military capacity is a reflection of a decline affecting all levels of society.

This was announced last week At the end of 2023 the British economy It ended up stagnatingThese are not abstract numbers, because middle-income families are now 16% poorer than their counterparts in France, Germany or the Netherlands, and the typical British family is around €10,000 poorer per year than their international counterparts. “Reminia” (the crazy ones Remains(Stay in Europe, as they call them here) point the finger at Britain's exit from the European Union, but the reality is more complex: Since the 2008 financial crisis, Britain has been trapped in a spiral of low growth and low productivityThese are the causes and treatments that economists are still wondering about. What is certain is that the brutal austerity policies imposed by the Conservative government after 2010 have wreaked havoc on public services: one consequence is that The legendary National Health Service is collapsing Britain now has one of the lowest cancer survival rates in the developed world.

The image they add to Schools are collapsingBad roads, dead-end justice, and a deteriorating public sector. In the last 15 years, little investment has been made, either at the state or private sector level, also due to the climate of uncertainty caused by Brexit. The result is a weak infrastructure system (Trains in England are a nightmare) and little innovation on the part of companies. But it is the same part of society that seems sick: unemployment at its lowest levels – just 3.8% – hides the fact that now… 5.6 million people They are not even looking for work and Campania of subsidies (In certain areas of the devastated north, such as Blackpool, one in four workers lives on public assistance.) Of this do-nothing army, half of them suffer from long-term illnesses that leave them unable to work.

It is no coincidence that King Charles' declining health is seen as a sad metaphor for the decline of old age experienced by an entire nation. Doubtless the English make a national sport of self-pity, and sometimes forget their own strengths: but that remains anyhow. The country that last year attracted more than a million legal immigrants in search of a better futurewhere hundreds of thousands of foreign students flock to universities that remain among the best in the world, and where the city remains a global financial center that has not been affected at all by Brexit and is already continuing to break records, in the heart of… London is the most cosmopolitan and fascinating city on the planet. But the trident's splash into the ocean became the mirror in which Great Britain saw all its ills.