I'm no fan of politicians, but I think we're wrong in lumping ALL of the blame onto the Government (either this one or the last)
According to all the pre-announcement
PR, the point of SDSR was to solve the entire problem for Defence: not just the cut in our budget for the future (7.5% I understand), but also the £36Bn 'black hole' that Bernard Gray reported last year.
Now according to my calculations, 7.5% of £34Bn (last year's Defence budget) for 10 years, adds up to 'only' £25.5Bn. So the MAJORITY of the problem stems not from the 'global financial crisis' or from 'labour's financial mismanagement' (depending on whether you're Red or Blue), but from the MOD's ineptitude in controlling its own long term budget!
If only there had been a top civil servant in MOD who could have teamed up with a top, non-partisan, military officer! They could have stopped the train wreck that everyone had seen coming for the last 5 years! Perhaps we should establish such posts...