Gainesy
3rd Oct 2004, 16:11
From The Times, October 2.
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
THE Conservatives reversed their policy to freeze defence spending yesterday, and announced a scheme by which efficiency savings made by other Whitehall departments would be handed over to the Armed Forces.
The only ministries exempted would be health and education, Nicholas Soames, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said. The deal for more money for the “grossly overstretched Armed Forces” had been agreed by all his fellow shadow ministers, Mr Soames said. As a result, a Tory Government would spend £2.7 billion more than Labour on frontline defence up to 2008.
He accused the Ministry of Defence and two key agencies — the Defence Logistics Agency and the Defence Procurement Agency — of wasting huge sums in bureaucracy. A lot of “sacred cows were going to be slaughtered”, he said.
With the money from other government department’s savings and efficiency moves at the MoD, Mr Soames said that he would reinstate the four battalions of infantry that Labour announced in July that it would axe. This would increase the Army by 5,000.
Mr Soames also said that he would scrap the idea of merging the smallest regiments into larger formations, as outlined in July by General Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff.
Mr Soames, a former Defence Minister and former 2nd lieutenant in the 11th Hussars, said: “We find ourselves in profound and respectful disagreement with the Army Board. We’re not going to cut the infantry at a time when its obligations have never been greater.”
The Tories’ announcement came after a review by David James, the former boss of the Dome, who has identified potential savings across Whitehall, including £1.6 billion from “back office elements of the MoD budget”. The other £1.1 billion to be earmarked for defence would come from the rest of Whitehall.
[End Quote]
Anybody believe him? (Soames that is).
By Michael Evans, Defence Editor
THE Conservatives reversed their policy to freeze defence spending yesterday, and announced a scheme by which efficiency savings made by other Whitehall departments would be handed over to the Armed Forces.
The only ministries exempted would be health and education, Nicholas Soames, the Shadow Defence Secretary, said. The deal for more money for the “grossly overstretched Armed Forces” had been agreed by all his fellow shadow ministers, Mr Soames said. As a result, a Tory Government would spend £2.7 billion more than Labour on frontline defence up to 2008.
He accused the Ministry of Defence and two key agencies — the Defence Logistics Agency and the Defence Procurement Agency — of wasting huge sums in bureaucracy. A lot of “sacred cows were going to be slaughtered”, he said.
With the money from other government department’s savings and efficiency moves at the MoD, Mr Soames said that he would reinstate the four battalions of infantry that Labour announced in July that it would axe. This would increase the Army by 5,000.
Mr Soames also said that he would scrap the idea of merging the smallest regiments into larger formations, as outlined in July by General Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff.
Mr Soames, a former Defence Minister and former 2nd lieutenant in the 11th Hussars, said: “We find ourselves in profound and respectful disagreement with the Army Board. We’re not going to cut the infantry at a time when its obligations have never been greater.”
The Tories’ announcement came after a review by David James, the former boss of the Dome, who has identified potential savings across Whitehall, including £1.6 billion from “back office elements of the MoD budget”. The other £1.1 billion to be earmarked for defence would come from the rest of Whitehall.
[End Quote]
Anybody believe him? (Soames that is).