Navaleye,
“Post Cold war” you numpty!
Now get back on your sun lounger and have a good look at what happened to the defence budget post cold war under the Tories, in fact from before the end of the Cold war!.
It fell year on year in real terms from 1987 until 1996, during which period they brought you such wonders as “Front Line First” and the “Defence Costs Study”.
From 1990 to 1997 the UK defence budget fell 30% in real terms. "The defence vote is safe with the Tories", yeah right!
The current defence budget grew 7% in 2003 and 18% in 2004, compare this to Thatchers 3% increase at the height of the cold war.
Engineer (retard)
RAB was a Tory concept, first mooted seriously in 1993 and formally proposed in a White paper in 1995. The whole of UK Govt moved to RAB in 2001, not just the MOD.