David Cameron, the pension and that 2% defence budget.
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Leon, at the risk of pointing out the obvious, you may recall that ships with HMS in their title didn't actually cope with missile hits any better. And they weren't loaded to the roof with jet fuel and cluster bombs! But £2,900 million ought to buy a reasonable fire defence system.
To translate that to a serious point, does it matter? IS/Taliban/pirates offer no serious threat to her and if we decide to invade Russia, all the damage control systems ever invented won't allow her to survive a nuclear missile.
To translate that to a serious point, does it matter? IS/Taliban/pirates offer no serious threat to her and if we decide to invade Russia, all the damage control systems ever invented won't allow her to survive a nuclear missile.
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And a lot of my mates were on the Conveyor.
According to this...
UK GDP 1980-2010
UK GDP has risen from £200M to £1400M
I'm no economist but 3% of £200M is substantially less than 2% £1400M isn't it? (£6M & £28M)?
But according to this...
Public Spending Chart for United Kingdom 1980-2016 - Central Government Local Authorities
...defence spending has risen from £10M to £40M.
I have no axe to grind here but all of the information should be available for discussion should it not?
Maybe I'm just carp at maths.
UK GDP 1980-2010
UK GDP has risen from £200M to £1400M
I'm no economist but 3% of £200M is substantially less than 2% £1400M isn't it? (£6M & £28M)?
But according to this...
Public Spending Chart for United Kingdom 1980-2016 - Central Government Local Authorities
...defence spending has risen from £10M to £40M.
I have no axe to grind here but all of the information should be available for discussion should it not?
Maybe I'm just carp at maths.
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"...its Billion not Million"! Turin might perhaps be forgiven, considering the casual way the government toss these enormous figures about -most folk simply can't relate to them to anything meaningful. Perhaps kit should come with price tags with all the zeros. Or better still a comparison."..this missile costs a nurses salary for twenty years"
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From the Nato Web site on the 2% rule post Wales Summit
Hit the indirect funding Tab.
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/to...ectedLocale=en
So the commitment was not to stay at 2% but aim to. If we do dip below we give ourselves a decade to get back!
Hit the indirect funding Tab.
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/to...ectedLocale=en
- Allies currently meeting the two per cent guideline on defence spending will aim to continue to do so;
- Allies whose current proportion of GDP spent on defence is below this level will halt any decline; aim to increase defence expenditure as GDP grows; and will move toward the two per cent guideline within a decade.
So the commitment was not to stay at 2% but aim to. If we do dip below we give ourselves a decade to get back!
Perhaps kit should come with price tags with all the zeros.
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Poor taste.
Poor taste to show the burnt out picture of the AC and use it in your argument. it'll be like last week to some people who read these pages so watch and think about what you post and mock.
I heard the intelligence agencies integrated budget described as 'equivalent to an MOD rounding error'. In other words, even if the SIA vote was included in the MOD allocation, I doubt that it would make any difference in the overall percentage of MOD expenditure
Notable that on today's Andrew Marr Show AM asked Osborne why there was no longer term commitment to the 2% minimum. He squirmed and evaded the question. If it had been Paxo, he would have continued until there was blood or tears on the studio floor. Marr, being too much of a gent, merely moved on to another topic.
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I'd very much like more money spent on defence but the link referring to a £6billion "shortfall" is erroneous. Just because the economy booms, or because somene insists (insanely) that drugs and prostitution has to be included in the figures, does it mean we have to go out and buy a load of kit that we weren't planning to buy just to get to the magic 2%?
Greece are beating the 2% figure (lovely boys!) ...unfortunately that amounts to a level of air power roughly on a par with Bruntingthorpe.
Greece are beating the 2% figure (lovely boys!) ...unfortunately that amounts to a level of air power roughly on a par with Bruntingthorpe.
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I think you are assuming there isn't already a shed load of kit that we do need but keeps getting deferred because the money keeps getting reallocated. There will be stores currently snail crawling through the manufacture/repair lines that are in a low availability state in the supply system. They will be trickle delivered because the money isn't there to pay the Contractor faster. The more time a store spends with the Contractor, the higher the unit price tends to be to cover the time dependent overheads.
We could actually spend to save but that rarely gets past the glib slogan stage.
We could actually spend to save but that rarely gets past the glib slogan stage.
I heard the intelligence agencies integrated budget described as 'equivalent to an MOD rounding error'. In other words, even if the SIA vote was included in the MOD allocation, I doubt that it would make any difference in the overall percentage of MOD expenditure
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No other budget has to meet an arbitrary (that doesn't necessarily mean unimportant) external target, skydiver.
If the 2% really is crucial, there's an easy way to meet it. Vote labour. With the economy back to where it was with Balls running it, we could cut a couple of major programmes and still be spending over 2%.
If the 2% really is crucial, there's an easy way to meet it. Vote labour. With the economy back to where it was with Balls running it, we could cut a couple of major programmes and still be spending over 2%.
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"because somene insists (insanely) that drugs and prostitution has to be included in the figures,"
not so insane - in the nearest couple of towns to HH Towers a substantial number of people seem to be able to afford Range Rovers, Bentley's, large houses,and lots of jewellry without means of visible support. We don't even see them at the Golf Club - not even on Hoodie Day!!!!
that cash (and I'm sure it is largely cash) is keeping a lot of legit business going - so every reason to include it in the figures
not so insane - in the nearest couple of towns to HH Towers a substantial number of people seem to be able to afford Range Rovers, Bentley's, large houses,and lots of jewellry without means of visible support. We don't even see them at the Golf Club - not even on Hoodie Day!!!!
that cash (and I'm sure it is largely cash) is keeping a lot of legit business going - so every reason to include it in the figures