If that was Brown's excuse then what was MT, Major, Blair and Camerloons ?
Don't believe there has even been much difference.
You're probably right about there not being a great deal of difference. I can't really comment on MT and Major - before my time, although I did hear the stories of how in the early 80s MT instigated quite a big rise so military pay caught up after years of being ignored.
For Blair you can also read Brown owing to Brown controlling the purse strings both as Chancellor and later when he became PM and continued to meddle in the Chancellor role. Anything Cameron et al say will be coloured by the current financial situation, so it would be very easy for him to curry favour and say if only we weren't broke then we'd give you a decent pay rise. But hand on heart, I think you are right, there is precious little difference between them all and even in the good times we will be lucky to get a rise that matches let alone exceeds inflation.
That said, I did hear a comment the other day that the X Factor is up for review this year, so that could be a way of helping out without the bad publicity of a 'large' public sector settlement. Somehow I doubt it though.
Oh and watch out for the announcement next week about the revised State Pension. Many on final salary schemes which are contracted out of SERPS - and I believe the military pension is included in this, will find themselves subject to what is effectively a 1.4% tax rise as they raise the NI contributions for previously contracted out schemes to fund the new State Pension.