Defence Budget in a Critical State
March 27th, 2008 by Defence Team — Articles, Overstretch
Commenting on today’s Defence Committee Report on Defence Equipment, Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary, Nick Harvey said:
“This highlights the critical state of our defence budget and the continuing burden of expensive, unwieldy and inefficient procurements.
“With three key procurements already forecast to cost almost £3 billion more than the original cost, seven of the largest equipment programmes experiencing slippage in 2007-08 of over six and a half years, and Key Targets unlikely to be met, the DE&S needs to get its act together quickly to avoid even greater slippage and costs, which could irrevocably damaging our future capabilities.
“At a time when service personnel on the front line need vital resources this report will come as little comfort.
“The time is long overdue for a new Strategic Defence Review that reassesses what we need, when we need it and how it can be delivered without it devouring a budget that is already pushed to its limit.”
3 comments ↓
No carriers means no navy. For an island, no navy means no defence.
Scrap the third tranche of the Eurofighters, scrap the Nimrods, scrap heavy artillery, scrap the pageantry, but for goodness sake don’t scrap the carriers.
Perhaps we don’t need to play on the world stage to such an extent? It seems the more involved we get in the turmoil of other countries, the more lives are lost, the more the cost increases and the more vulnerable we leave ourselves.
I abhor suffering and wish we could solve the world’s problems - but we can’t. So much of what we do in the name of ‘defence’ is the reason we then go on to need more defence as we become someone’s enemy.
There is a lot in our country that needs solving before we can claim to be beacons of a great democracy with any right to inflict our way of life on others. Our military have tortured prisoners, our government waged an illegal war on Iraq and here at home, we have much that would benefit from the attention and money we spend going out into the world. We need to sort our problems at home.
For me, the government is like a bad husband - each month I give ‘him’ my money expecting the ‘family’ will be cared for - instead, ‘he’ hangs out with a bad crowd, buys a gun, attacks the neighbours and then tells me I have to endure losses of my civil liberty as I am now at risk because of all the enemies ‘he’ made!
I want a divorce.
When I pay my tax, my requirement if that first it will ensure the needs here are met with:
- the children well schooled by teachers who are paid fairly in classes of a size where they will be noticed
- the elderly given the dignity a decent pension can provide
- ease of access for our sick and suffering to a free and suitable health service that is well managed/funded
- security here in the land I want protected…not being diluted/wasted in futile or illegal wars
I want government to stop taking us in the wrong direction - stand still, look around and finally start fixing the things that are broken ‘around the house’.
If you do not like the decisions which the government make (too little and too late) then change the government. My concern is with the care of families and the after care of servicemen when they return. Commanding officers quite rightly concentrate on their units deployed on operations. It is the care of servicemen on their return, affected by their service and the care of families when servicemen when are deployed, which gives me concern. It should not just be left to charities to pick up the pieces.
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