According to the news this evening, Des Browne has the backing of each of the individual heads of the Armed Services
Browne said once the decision had been taken to allow the individuals to talk to the media, this raised a second question: Should they be allowed to make money out of selling their stories?
This second question was considered by the Navy over the same short period.
The Navy concluded that payments were "Permissible" under Queen's Regulations, and that in this particular situation it was "impractical to attempt to prevent" them.
This was the position presented to me in a note sent from the Navy's HQ in Portsmouth to my office on Thursday afternoon, and which was put to me on Good Friday. I accept that in retrospect I should have rejected the note and overruled the decision.
If that's true and either the 2SL or FSL made the decision on behalf of the Navy, wouldn't that make it difficult for them and maybe the heads of the other two services to say they have no confidence in Browne because he failed to over-rule the Navy's bad decision?
