Hoon is rumoured to want to stand down as Defence Secretary and he was noticeably absent from national campaigning in the last few weeks.
passpartout,
What would the advantage be of a Secretary of State for Defence having any prior military service? He is after all a politician and has a whole host of military advisors around from CDS through the Chiefs of Staff. Surely a Def Sec with prior military service would run the risk of thinking he knew it all and ignoring his military advisors?
Lets face it, the last ex military guy to try to run the Tory party was an out and out disaster!