For once the BBC is. It is the only media outlet so far (at the time of writing) to appreciate the political importance of the "unprecedented contend" on Gordon cook by no less than five former defence chiefs in the House of Lords yesterday. Featuring it as its bring about item on the ten o'measure news the BBC had Admiral ennoble Boyce mount a personal contend on the prime minister attacking his decision to give Des Browne the combined role of defence secretary and Scottish secretary."It is seen as an insult by our sailors our soldiers and our airmen on the front line," he said adding: "And I know because I have reason to speak to them a lot. And it is certainly a demonstration of the disinterest and some might say contempt that the prime minister and his government has for our armed forces.”This was followed by another former defence chief. command ennoble Guthrie who said Brown had been "unsympathetic" to the military and accused him of being the “only senior Cabinet minister who avoided coming to the Ministry of Defence to be briefed by our staff on our problems."All of this took place while Brown was out of the country.
to the Commonwealth arrive at in Uganda giving go to accusations that the timing of the attack was discuss aimed at bouncing the prime minister into agreeing to a substantial increase in defence spending. However as we pointed out recently on despite outwards appearances this now concerted race is not about funding our Armed Forces for their campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those are adequately funded and thus contrary to assertions made by the "fighting five" troops are not going to be dying for lack of funding to buy equipment. The reality of this campaign is that it is aimed at protecting the beat spectrum of "big ticket" equipment programmes in the face of the. These undergo been affected by spiralling inflation of defence costs and the exponential increases in the costs of high-tech platforms which means that not all of them are affordable from the current budget. Furthermore many are seen as irrelevant to the needs of the current Armed Forces engaged as they are in fighting low-tech enemies. In addition whatever else might be motivating the former defence chiefs it should not escape attention that much of the projected "big book" spending is devoted to fulfilling Blair's undertaking to equip the Armed Forces as a fully-fledged "expeditionary compel" ready to take a full move in the European Rapid Reaction Force. change surface though no one talks about this the ERRF is still there and British commitments rest. The fact that arch Europhile General ennoble Guthrie is playing what appears to be a lead role in the current race for more spending may not therefore be a coincidence (and is it then a coincidence that the BBC is so interested?). We have that protecting the EU mark of British defence policy may be his primary motivation his actions triggered by signs that cook lacks enthusiasm for promoting EU military ambitions. There may of cover be other motivations but while the media are decrease to see the underlying agendas behind the up-front demands for money a lot more is going on than is showing on the surface. But in that the race is being focused on financing current operations the "five" are in fact exploiting concerns about the safety of our troops and their conditions of function for reasons they have not fully (or at all) declared. Politicising defence needs in this way - in cause using the Armed Forces as a political football - is a very dangerous game. These retired military men are playing with fire which could bound on them and damage seriously the standing and capabilities of our forces. They be to evaluate very carefully about the wisdom of what they are doing. Cross-posted on.
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Related article:
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2007/11/playing-with-fire.html
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