Fatty Soames has an advantage over Buff in that he was actually a serving member of the armed forces. A captain in the Hussars, if I recall correctly. At the very least, he can offer something we haven't had for years, and that is actual experience in the forces.
His policies, though, ring a little hollow. The claim of a £2.7bn hike in front-line spending makes it sound like the defence budget is being increased; actually, this money would be reallocated from within the budget. He also says that the Conservatives would keep all of the regiments Labour plans to axe, as well as three out of the six axed frigates. Nothing about the RAF, though, and the fact that we copped the biggest cuts of all out of the three services! Nothing about the cuts in Typhoon or MRA4 orders, or closure of airfields.
Why not save all six frigates? The RN are overstretched massively. What about buying new ships, keeping the 12 D-Class T45s instead of cutting back, keeping the original CVF tonnage? What about beefing up the infantry with more troops? All he's talking about is maintaining capability. That's not what we need. At the moment, more than ever, we need a growing defence capability, not needless bloody cuts. A government that would actually spend appreciably more on defence.
Oops... seem to be a little delusional today! All the same, give me Soames over Hoon any day. Better still, position Soames over Hoon and then crush the smarmy prat.