jayteetoo,
“…the Labour party was known to be anti-forces……”
Urban myth I am afraid old chap! The Tory party has been just as bad for the forces as Labour, in fact the only party who we could say with any certainty have NOT been “bad” for the forces in recent decades are the Liberals as they haven’t actually been in power to enable them to do any harm! Labour had their 1974 and 1968 cuts, the Tories had their 1957, 1973 and 1981 cuts and both parties have been equally as guilty in reducing defence expenditure since the end of the Cold war, though as least it has been rising over the past few budgets, though manifestly by not enough.
As for there being an outcry if “they” had tried to cut the military by direct means, total tosh! All parties in power in the last Century have consistently cut back the military, sometimes at the height of super power tensions, and barely a murmur of protest outside those directly involved was heard
I think that GlosMikeP has it spot on, there is no conspiracy to reduce the forces or attack them, there is just rank incompetence in managing very large sums of money. We see it in Education, the NHS, ANY Government IT system you care to name and defence and the forces are no different.
I doubt if any particular party would have done things significantly differently over the last decade or so, there is precious little to choose between them after all.
Blair going SHOULD make a difference as his particular style seems to be at the root of much of the discord we see at present, Gordon Brown has gone out of his way to support the security and military needs of the country in several high profile speeches in recent years, he could well make a difference, I doubt that Cameron would.