Broken Army - Newsnight 6th Sept

[mutleyfour]

Anyone else see the special edition of Newsnight dedicated to in its terms "The Broken Army"

Strangely they implied that it was the MOD that requested to deploy on two operations and not the Governments insistance.

General Mike was on there suggesting a minimum 10% hike from the treasury across the board in not only wages but kit.

A large chunk was spent on the "Covenant" and why American servicemen and women are applauded and yet we hang our heads in almost shame...surprisingly nobody could answer why this has occurred.

[mutleyfour]

Heres a link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/2007/09/broken_army.html

[DarkBlueLoggie]

You can watch it again online from the Newsnight homepage - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm

[teeteringhead]

There's a fascinating, erudite - if rather long - article on Tim Garden's Website (http://homepage.mac.com/tgarden/iblog/B2067696994/C1978092609/E654004902/index.html)that explains why Defence spending must always rise faster than inflation for the same product. And it makes sense to me....

.....God that man had a brain......

Maybe Gordipops should read it...

[tucumseh]

“Defence spending must always rise faster than inflation for the same product”.



The MoD and the Treasury acknowledge this themselves. We used to get budget hikes tied to the DTI Indices, not “inflation” (whichever inflation figure you use). Inflation would be, say 5%, but the DTI Index for Aerospace manufacturing would be 12%, so related projects would get that higher figure. When this ceased, it was a very effective cut in the Defence budget, yet hidden from almost everyone. (I’ve simplified this, but you get the idea).

As the years passed, the effect was compounded. Whole projects were cancelled to cope with the imbalance. Also, this is one of the reasons for many projects being “over budget”, which is a completely different thing from being over a fair and reasonable cost.

[catbert]

I worked for Jack Deverell in his last job as CINCNORTH, I'm sure he was delighted that the BBC captioned him as a Major General!:ugh:At least they corrected it by the end. A nicer man you could never meet and I thought his comments about honour, duty etc were the high point of the discussion. He knew more about man management than any senior officer I have ever met, so had no chance of being CDS. Nice to see that Lord Drayson was aware that the RAF and Navy are pretty stretched as well, must be from his experience "on ops" as he put it. I guess the Army are getting their retaliation in first ahead of the publication of the CSR.

[Al R]

Just took the time to read (a few times!) Lord Garden's piece to digest it fully. For my info as much as anything, did he resign in frustration or did he leave for more philosophical reasons? If the former, I suppose some will draw conclusions that if he can do it, why can't others (Jackson and the current RAF Board of Directors etc.)? You needn't raise a song and dance about something, but you can still make your point.

[Chugalug2]

AI R, from his Telegraph obit:
In 1996 Garden faced a dilemma. He had been identified as a potential holder of the highest positions in the RAF and MoD but he also saw stimulating opportunities to pursue an academic career.
In the meantime, his wife had developed a successful career in education and politics - she stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the 2005 election - and as they decided that their future rested in London, Garden took early retirement from the RAF in April 1996.
His formidable intellect, carefully considered opinions and wide experience in the politico-military arena were much in demand and he became an adviser on foreign and security policy.

As one who has called for this gesture from the present incumbent on various posts, I have to admit that Lord Garden's resignation from the Royal Air Force was a tragedy for this country and a disaster for his service. I have no doubt that he would have subsequently felt compelled to resign on principle anyway, but his going would have made more of a stir and hopefully drawn attention to the parlous state of much of our front line manning and equipment. Now he is taken from us while lesser men preside over the continuing dismemberment with no sign of letting go! :ugh:

[Al R]

Yes.. I read that and it seemed a bit vague.

[Chugalug2]

Yer pays yer money, and yer takes yer choice AI R. Is the Independent's offering more to the point?

Garden was appointed to be Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies for the 1994 and 1995 courses before being offered the job of Air Member for Personnel. "In what rank?" he asked. "What difference does it make?" came the reply. "About £20,000!" But the appointment was conditional on Sue giving up her career to join him in Gloucestershire. He found this unacceptable and he took premature retirement from the RAF in 1996.
It was bizarre that the sharpest Whitehall warrior then wearing light-blue uniform should be prevented from continuing inexorably to become Chief of the Air Staff, and then Chief of the Defence Staff, for not upholding social niceties that went out with Noël Coward. He would certainly have made a better fist of preventing the severe mismatch between defence aspirations and resource allocation that exists today.
There is one thing surely for certain, his going was truly our loss!