The British army has been ordered to halt non-essential training exercises in an effort to save money. Troops preparing to be deployed or on deployments, those who are on standby or in a quick-reaction role will continue to train as normal. But collective training exercises for UK-based units are being suspended for most of this year amid budget pressures.
I assume any training the Army gives its recruits is essential...
Andy Burnham is under pressure to increase defence spending to 3% of national income by 2030, rising to 3.5% by 2035.
Well, this is the wrong direction to go, Andeh...
The chancellor, John Healey, resigned from Keir Starmer’s government as defence secretary in June, in protest against what he argued was the then prime minister’s failure to adequately fund defence.
And we all cheered a principled member of Starmer's government at last. We should have known better!
But in his new post in No 11 Downing Street, Healey has made clear he will wait until next year’s spending review before presenting a plan to meet Labour’s pledge of devoting 3.5% of GDP to defence by 2035.
Guess it wasn't such a deeply held belief in the necessity of our armed forces after all. Just another ruse for promotion.
3 comments:
Personally, I would like defence spending as a percentage of GDP to fall - because GDP was soaring. But with Labour in power, I can't see the two criteria going hand in hand, just the former, not the latter. It wouldn't be any better with the Tories, I'm sad to say.
I wonder how long it will be before the response to an attack on this country will be a recording of, "We surrender" in Arabic, Russian, or Mandarin?
Successive governments over the last 30 years have shamefully ignored the first principle of government, in order to follow their political path. It's a shame that EBay is not allowed to advertise lampposts and piano wire at the same time.
Penseivat
Well, if the intention is to increase spending from 3% to 3.5%, simply increase everybody's wages by 16.6%. Job done.
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