Cut civil servants. Definitely. Like I said on an earlier thread, here are the facts:
On scanning the recent Armed Forces Pay Review Body Report, I was intrigued to read that there were 131 military officers of 2* rank, or above. I also noted there were 3700 equivalent ‘Senior Civil Servants’, who seem, incidentally, to be paid more than their military equivalents. I assumed the 3700 figure meant across all departments of government, not just MOD.
Here,
www.mod.uk/aboutus/keyfacts/numbers.htm total military numbers are given as 205,700 (ok, 2001 data – but wtf?). This gives a ratio of 1 senior military bloke for every 1570 serving personnel.
For the Senior Civil Servants, taken from here,
http://www.civil-service.gov.uk/stat...fing-oct03.pdf I note the total number of permanent & casual full time equivalent Civil Servants is given as 522,050.
This gives a ratio of 1 Senior Civil Servant for every 141 Civil Servants – more than 10 times the equivalent military ratio.
Which does this highlight more: Armed Forces efficiency or Civil Service profligacy?
And how is the notion of rank/grade equivalence sustained? Civ Servs' span of control and scope of responsibility is always less in their stay at home, stay alive, 37.5 hour week.