Looking After Our Forces the Swiss Toni Way

The government has been insisting for months that the defence budget is on the rise, that Gordon Brown loves the forces, and the very idea of defence cuts is absolutely absurd. But a leaked document passed to the Sunday Times shows that to be complete and utter tosh.

Des Browne, the part-time defence secretary, has lived up to his reputation among the forces, who have dubbed him Swiss Toni after the Fast Show's used car salesman, telling Parliament last July that the defence budget would rise by 15 per cent in real terms to £34bn this year. The increase represented “the longest period of sustained real growth” in defence spending since the 1980s”, Browne claimed, citing this as “evidence of the Government's commitment to defence” and to the forces.                                          

            

                       Swiss Toni                               Des Browne

It will probably not be too much of a surprise to readers of this blog to learn that - according to the leaked document - the real defence budget, the actual cash the MoD could use to buy new equipment and keep the forces is more than £3bn less than £34bn and the rise year on year in real terms is just 0.6 per cent. The document has been leaked ahead of a key meeting this Thursday of the Defence Management Board which will work out the details of the defence cuts before presenting them to ministers a week later. The difficulties they face are immense, partly because of underfunding and partly because so much of the cost of a large number of very costly programmes have to be paid for this year.

These include the new Nimrod MRA4, the second tranche of the Typhoon fighter-bomber, new destroyers and submarines, not to mention preparations for the new nuclear deterrent. The collision of the lack of funding and the expensive equipment plan is so acute it is known as "the train crash" within MoD main building and has created a £1bn black hole in the budget.

If that didn't make things difficult enough, Gordon Brown has ordered defence ministers to ensure that no major defence programme is cut, not because he thinks the forces need them but because but because it would expose all those claims that the government cares about defence as completely bogus. So the cuts have to be made by stealth with a number of expensive programmes pushed back in what the leaked document warns amounts to "mortgaging the future". Meanwhile, ministers will announce a series of relatively inexpensive subsidiary contracts plus those new programmes that cannot be pushed back to future financial years to make it look like all is well.

The announcements designed to disguise the cuts are expected to include a series of relatively low-cost contracts for the programme to build the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers like last week’s announcement of a £34m programme to prepare the Rosyth dockyard to build the carriers. But the start date for actually building the carriers will be delayed for two years to save cash, while the Royal Navy will be largely confined to port and will lose all four of its Type-22 frigates plus one of its newer Type-23 frigates.

The RAF will see progress on its new future strategic tanker aircraft programme but faces a number of major cuts, including the loss of two of its Tornado GR4 ground attack squadrons and the closure of a number of bases. The army will finally get new armoured vehicles – repeatedly put off due to the cost of new ships and aircraft - but they will be in lower numbers than expected and army bases will have to close.

Yes this was what Swiss Toni meant when he told MPs that the 0.6 per cent increase "continues the longest period of sustained real growth in planned defence spending since the 1980s; that is evidence of the Government's commitment to defence and to the men and women who serve with the utmost bravery in our armed forces." You can judge for yourself how committed the government is to the armed forces and whether our troops were being entirely fair when they named Des after a dodgy used car salesman.

Comments

[William29]

Even the incompetent get lucky occasionally - One begins to wonder if this is not wanton destruction of the defence of the realm. Let,s screw it up before we get heaved out. Is it the old socialist hatred of anything that just might be considered excellent - grammar schools, publics schools and therefore the military .

[Peter Hood]

What is happening is bitter and sad thing that I thought I would not see repeated. Is it better to starve the NHS and be protected from attack, is it better to starve the forces and have a less than efficient NHS?

The next 12 or so months will likely be bitter and sad. I wonder if politicians will ever learn.

[James Pawlak]

I wonder if the UK's Forces will have enough ball ammo to put down the upcoming Islamic attempt at a takeover of the Kingdom.

[William29]

James

I remain confident - the MoD has been talking balls for years. It is the fancifull idea that there will be any UK forces to throw the bloody things !

[Daz, New Zealand]

Mike,

In Britain, the problem seems to be that the culture of spin, lying to any normal person, is now so ingrained in the Government that they can not differentiate fact from fiction. So when David Miliband says that there is an overwhelming case for remaining in Afghanistan, he doesn't actually believe it himself and, more importantly, nor does Gordon Brown. They seem unable to grasp the situation which them have got themselves, and the rest of us, into. As with many western politicians, I think their pc-minds are either unable to cope with the scale of the threat that we are now facing or just want to give up. They seem to believe that the war will go away if they pretend that it doesn't exist. Why else would Britain have a part-time defence minister and peace time defence budget. And with 2000 active Islamist terrorist suspects in the UK, how long will it be before defence and security services have to face an internal security crisis, which could potentially make Ulster look like a picnic.

But you're not alone, here in New Zealand our 'defence force' also faces meltdown. We have no combat arm to the air force, our army is just two under strength infantry Battalions equipped with 100 massively expensive LAVIII that we are currently unable to deploy or even crew and maintain; resulting in 30 being mothballed. And the RNZN has shrunk to just 2 frigates and some unarmed support and patrol vessels, all of which we struggle to crew. Our national defence strategy seems based on the hope that nobody can find us on the map!

The sham that is the UN and failure of NATO to get its act together, together with the overall lack of resolve, or even awareness, shown by western populations will only encourage the likes of Russia, Iran and China to become more belligerant in the future scramble for power in the new world order. However, with co-operation between the Anglosphere countries and like minded countries, realistic policy and resolve we can still avoid a very grim future.

[Rodger Rodger]

At this rate the UK will be contracting out all it's fighting services.
Come on, you politicians, either get the troops out or stump up the gear.

"Give us the tools and we will do the job".