At the Sunniside History Society meeting on Tuesday, our guest speaker was Professor Richard Madeley who gave a presentation on the Crimean War, 1853-56. For those unfamiliar with this period in history, the Crimean War, fought by the British, French and Turks against the Russians, was one of the most incompetently run wars of the past 200 years, especially by the British. The UK was significantly under-prepared for the conflict and once the Turks, who had initially been attacked by the Russians, had cleared their territory of the invading Tsarist forces, few in the British side had a plan of what to do or even any significant war aims other than to justify sending the navy and lots of soldiers to the Black Sea. Squabbling military leaders and a failure to communicate with each other resulted in significant losses and the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. Meanwhile, vast amounts of British taxpayers' money was wasted on the venture that gave little in return to the UK.
Over 160 years later and doesn't the incompetence, lack of vision, absence of a plan and squabbling leaders seem worryingly familiar?
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