Forces chief faces a new battle on third front - the economy.

[Sand4Gold]

I'm afraid it'll have to be a Link:

Forces chief faces a new battle on third front - the economy - Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4922905.ece)

CDS looking a bit 'stretched'; probably thinking "it's about time I took my pension".

History tells us he won't win the battle with a Labour Government when it comes to 'Credit-crunch' funding of the Armed Forces.

AA

[Pontius Navigator]

Some say that his contract was extended to make sure that General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the Army, who has been more vociferous in his criticism, did not get the top job. “I was asked to stay on and that’s it,” is all he will say. “The decision on my appointment is not one that’s made by me.”

Dissembling as a typical politician.

“I was asked to stay on and that’s it,” is all he will say. “The decision on my appointment is not one that’s made by me.”

What he did not say though was that "the decision to accept was one made by me."

[Chugalug2]

To have one RAF senior officer at the top of the food chain generally regarded as a waste of space might be seen as a misfortune, to have two is more than carelessness it is symptomatic of the depths to which the higher command of the Royal Air Force has sunk. Rather like the dodgy banks and their dodgy bonus earning chiefs they are all tarred with the same brushes of incompetence and self aggrandisement. To the CDS and the CAS I would merely quote Oliver Cromwell:

You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.

[Ray Dahvectac]

Ministers love him.
Says it all really. He is not there for your benefit or mine. Another couple of years as CDS - perhaps he will leave at the same time this excuse for a Government are ousted.

[Jackonicko]

Sir Jock has been better for the services as a whole than Dannatt would have been, and certainly better for the RAF.

Perhaps he has not been effective enough in stamping out the carriers and JSF which are so badly distorting the defence budget, but......

I'm not convinced by Torpy, but nor do I think he deserves Chugalug's Cromwellian condemnation.

It's political animals who will do best for the forces with their political masters. Folk like Dannatt are empty vessels who get peoples' backs up and who actually ensure that their demands are ignored.

[althenick]

Perhaps he has not been effective enough in stamping out the carriers and JSF which are so badly distorting the defence budget, but......


Jacko

Do you know something that the rest of us dont? Has Sir Jock intimated to you in any way that he would like to get shot of these 2 projects?

AL

[Archimedes]

I think you're a tad harsh on CGS, there, JN. He demonstrated that he wasn't going to roll over and accept everything thrown at him by the government in the way in which Walker and then Jackson did or at least appeared to.

I'd suggest that he had to make a statement of intent, and while certain politicians and civil servants may indeed have been irritated by him, he has been taken seriously.

The idea that he is somehow unwilling to engage in the dark arts of politics is frankly silly - he knows the limits, and has ensured that while he's given them a kick (and the govt's backside in the process), he's not gone beyond them.

Stirrup has followed a different tack - notably by being the first serving senior officer to express the view that the forces are overstretched. Sadly, because he did so in a way his audience (politicians) would understand (asked if the forces are overstretched, he came out with the 'You might think that, but I couldn't possibly comment' line which politios know means 'Yes. Several times over, in fact'), he was largely ignored.

[Jackonicko]

Archie,

I don't think that the politicians ignore Stirrup, at all. By playing a sensible, long game, I think he's been the most effective CAS and then the most effective CDS we've had for many years, and I think we owe it to him that things aren't VERY much worse.

And my one and only MP friend thinks so, too!

Allthenick

I know lot's that you don't know.;)

As to what Sir Jock has intimated to me, I haven't spoken to him since he was CAS.

[Archimedes]

JN - I meant he was ignored by the press rather than the politicians, who knew exactly what he was saying. Either someone at the Torygraph failed to realise that he was sitting on a 'CDS damns government for overstretch' story, or he assumed that the readership would appreciate that it was a 'CDS damns government for overstretch, but does so politely' story. Which they didn't.

IIRC, when his comments were mentioned here some time after the event, several posters unfamiliar with House of Cards/Francis Urquhart were fairly vitriolic in saying that Stirrup had missed a golden opportunity to give the MPs a clear, straight answer, failing to realise that CDS couldn't actually have given a clearer, straighter answer to a politician...