The bottom line, we, as a nation, cannot afford to run an armed force as large as we currently have. The problem comes when we have a prime minister who's foreign policy involves committing british troops to every trouble spot in the world, whilst having a chancellor who is unwilling to increase expenditure on defence (you don't win votes by spending on defence unless the public can see, or imagine the enemy marching up their street). Whilst these two pull in opposite directions it will always be the folk in uniform who get stretched. What's needed is to lose one of these characters, which would appear to be exactly what's happening in the near future. So Mr Brown, what are you going to do when you sit down in the big chair? no more excuses then, if you argue with yourself, they'll cart you off to the funny farm and rightly so.
