RANT MODE ON. Please do not think I am an apologist for the Government - I am not - their latest measures have just cost me £16000 per year. However, people talk on this thread of them failing to make tough decisions - does anyone seriously think that axing Nimrod and Harrier, making servicemen and women redundant et al was an easy decision. People also talk of a root and branch review - that's what I believe is going on at the moment; the biggest review since the MoD came into being in the 1960s - everything is up for scrutiny. We have to shoulder some of the blame because for too long we have had VSOs and Senior Civil Servants who have shied away from telling the politicos what a mess the Defence Budget has been in; they have simply been content to push the problem a couple of PRs to the right so that the wheel doesn't come off on their watch. It will take time, because to rush it will result in more of the sort of B****x that we've had to put up with for years now. Circumstance will inevitably change, and this will cause parts of the process to start again i.e. you won't sell some very expensive hardware to an oil-rich country, so that reasonable assumption that you made a few weeks ago that there would be X billion coming in via Defence Sales to help fill the black hole is now no longer worth the paper you wrote it on - back to square one chaps". There is also the inertia to get over - the sceptics who say "yeh yeh, we've seen this all before". I really believe that this time it's different; the country is pretty much bankrupt. When the previous muppets came into power all those years ago they inherited a strong economy with money in the bank - and look how they left it. Yes, they are good for the Armed Forces - because they spend money they haven't got, just as they do for the Health Service, and Social Service et al. RANT MODE OFF - and I hope I haven't upset anyone. CB