Defence cuts

[Osem]

At a time when our forces are clearly overstretched and HMG doesn't look like giving up on the curious notion that the UK is still a top global military power, is now the right time to make cuts?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8413135.stm

Especially when this sort of massively costly ineptitude seems to be a regular occurrence:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4061330.ece

The Ministry of Defence has spent more than £500 million on eight Chinook helicopters that have never been flown as a result of “one of the most incompetent procurements of all time”, an audit has concluded.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/c...ghanistan.html

In fact, far from being mortified by the sheer magnitude of their ministry's incompetence, officials have awarded themselves £47 million in bonuses for their performance this year.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8413789.stm

The NAO report highlighted the serious cost of delays such as that involved in the project for the new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier:

It has been put back to save £450m over four years - but auditors say that will eventually increase costs by £1.12bn.... ...the cost of the 15 biggest military projects had increased by £1.2bn in 2008-9 alone, and £733m of that was down to deliberate delays.

[Taf]

Short term savings, long term losses.

Typical Labour mindset.

[spanna]

Yep keep putting off the pain til someone else has to pay it

[Taf]

Which is always us.

[SMG]

We have not been a global power since WW2. What we do have, are "Specialist" forces, which are the envy of the world. We do have the ability to deploy a small unit anywhere in the world.

This is only due to the professionalism of our volunteer forces. It has nothing to do with government policy. Whitehall would have us defenseless if it interfered with their pay rises.

We dont have the equipment to mount large campaigns anymore. Even 16 Chinooks wont be available for 3 years. Then a good half dozen of our existing choppers will be knackered. Too little, too late. Thats the way the governments of history have always played it.

Meanwhile, we continue to bury our children.

[Sirius]

I am amazed this Government has not come up with some form of 5 year plan to improve the country bla de bla bla yet

Easy to make cuts when you have a government with no one in it that has served and therefore clearly doesn't know what the hell they are on about. This government manages day in and day out to wind me up about something new and i am heartily sick and tired of them and just wish they would all go away (being polite so not to upset mods ).

Lions lead by donkies....

[frogstamper]

And if this government had made say a billion extra available for Afghanistan in the present climate I've no doubt all the above posters would be complaining GB and Labour are putting us into ever more debt.
Come on guys if any of you honestly believe the Tories are not going to cut defense, your in for a shock, Liam Fox has already mooted the idea of canceling the two new carriers.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by frogstamper

And if this government had made say a billion extra available for Afghanistan in the present climate I've no doubt all the above posters would be complaining GB and Labour are putting us into ever more debt.
Come on guys if any of you honestly believe the Tories are not going to cut defense, your in for a shock, Liam Fox has already mooted the idea of canceling the two new carriers.

Right now, what the other parties may/may not do doesn't concern me half as much as what this 'government' is doing and has done. Presumably the institutionalised MOD failure and waste on the scale cited above doesn't concern you...

Blair and Brown got us into this war and they deserve the flak for so doing in just the same way that they deserve the blame for getting us into the severe financial mess we're in. Like it or not our next government's actions have already be determined in large party due to the abject failure of this bunch to do anything other than spend, borrow, spend, borrow, spend, borrow.....

[ntluser]

Originally Posted by Sirius

I am amazed this Government has not come up with some form of 5 year plan to improve the country bla de bla bla yet

New Labour have always been bad at long term planning as evidenced by reversals of policy because things had not been fully thought through eg. the 10p tax rate fiasco.

Thinking back to the invasion of Iraq, we had nightly reports of the "shock and awe" tactics because they had planned out the war.

Unfortunately, when the war ended it became obvious that they had not planned the peace or indeed the reconstruction.

With the latest financial crisis, there was no proper banking regulation and the economy became a casualty of the banking free-for-all.The result was seat-of-the-pants action as the government struggled to get the situation under control and even now such control does not really exist.

It is all part of the muddle through philosophy rather than have fully thought out plans dealing with all contingencies.