Prime Ministerial and VIP traffic
I see that Prime Minister Brown made a "sudden" visit to the British Military overseas in recent days.
Now, without breaching any operational security or making political capital, I am just interested in whether such trips are arranged exclusively for the VIP in question or does the VIP "piggy back" onto an existing transport?
If the former, does the cost come from the military budget or does the sponsoring government department pick up the bill? How much might such a flight cost? No, I am not a journalist either, just an intrigued person on the sidelines as it seems a little wrong when defence budgets are very tight and from what one reads elsewhere that air transport resources are stretched, that dedicated resources are tied up. I also read that mostly the average troop on the ground is not so impressed by the VIP visits /(unless Royalty) and would perhaps have preferred extra supplies, etc.
Anyone in a position to fill in some blanks ?