What proportion of UK Government spending is spent on defence? Well, judging by the Treasury figures yesterday less than SIX percent.
In terms of efficiency, by which I mean money having an effect on the cutting edge/coal face, does the MOD rank amongst Government departments? They're all good at spending public money, but to little effect.
Weasly - do you think that terrorism is the only threat to the UK? Really?
So you gather intelligence. What then? Are you going to send the terrorists a strongly worded letter telling them to bahave or they'll be sent to bed without any tea? I suspect that you would want the means to do something about it. Like the Armed Forces, perhaps?
And the Forces do gather intelligence. Not many know that it was infact a Nimrod R1 that detected four Mig29s airborne in Serbia, only to have 3 shot down by F15s being controlled by AWACS (who iniitially did not see the threats become airborne). Again most people are unaware of the MIOPS (Maritime Interdiction Operations) being carried out by naval forces from a variety of nations, including the UK, in places such as the Med, Arabian Sea, and other places.
Gathering intelligence is something the Services do all the time.