Stop gap? we've had a gap now for a number of years, why would we pay to stop it before the "Big splurge"?
And by the way, there is STILL NO MONEY.
Jayand
You wouldn't - you'd pay to buy it if that is what the new force mix needed.
Beg to differ on the money point though - my point is that now there IS money, and we get a choice: Pay down the national debt in the short term and have even more money to play with later, or keep the high interest payments and make do with little defence investment.
Current chancellor wants the first option. That's slightly different from there being no money.