Defence Review Result at End of October
 

Defence cuts decision to come early
Date: 03 August 2010

A decision on where the axe will fall on the armed forces has been brought forward, the defence secretary said yesterday.

Dr Liam Fox confirmed that an announcement following a major review of defence spending will be made in the last week of October. The decision was previously expected to be released at Christmas.

Dr Fox said all sectors were being considered but no decisions had yet been made.

He said: "We have some difficult decisions but the crux decision is what are the risks we are willing to take for Britain's national security. We will make most of the difficult decisions in September, I will then take the sum of that to the national security council and make my announcement in the last week of October." Dr Fox said a fixed budget had not yet been set by the Treasury and negotiations were "ongoing".

Last week, Chancellor George Osborne announced that the full £20 billion cost of renewing the UK's Trident nuclear deterrent must be paid for out of the defence budget.

Dr Fox said he could not confirm whether major defence projects such as the two new aircraft carriers currently on order would survive the review.

Let's make Friday 22 Oct the biggest Happy Hour 'since records began'.

No surprise - it's the same week that the Spending Review across govt will come out (20 October).

Wyler: Top plan. And with some style & panache, I trust!

S41

Where is Guy Fawkes when you need him.....!!!!

Cuts - fair do's all round ???
 

I hope that when the British government announces what it's going to cut, the Treasury's manning will also be looked at, with similar percentages to the other departments.
People with access to "certain quarters" and/or media sources might well start a campaign to make sure that the bright young (?) things wielding their swinge edicts have to defend their own positions as well as attacking other people's ... If there are no cuts in the Treasury's staffing, the overall governmental staffing ration will be seriously out of kilter - if it wasn't already ...
Quis custodiet, etc ... *
:E:E:E
* Forgotten the Latin for "cut" ...

Peter272 - the role of Incendiarist (Parliamentary) was placed on a 'capability holiday' some years ago, with the aspiration that the position would be filled in due course via a PFI.

Unfortunately, the contractual details have taken longer to negotiate than anticipated, with disputes between the Parliamentary Authorities, the MoD and the preferred bidder over who, exactly, bears the risk in this arrangement.

Wyler - splendid idea.

Squirrel 41

Easy on the panache - that is French for Shandy!!

JigP

Actually HM Treasury is comparatively tiny, and has a pretty taut budget to ensure that it sets a good example for the rest of HMG. You may not like them, but it's time to look somewhere else.

S41

Small & taut
 

Nice to know that, S41, but surely they're in the same boat as the rest of the Ministries, despite their "taut Budgie" ? (ironic badinage)
After all, those no doubt excellent and devoted experts could always find gainful employment alongside those "instant answer" writers for a certain Economy magazine ? (more of the above ...).

Thats a pretty good idea. Why dont we arrange for the party to end all parites. Each mess should arrange a happy hour for the Friday evening ( Stag please Gentlemen).... so that we can drown our sorrows.....

incidere? ..........................

Quote: Thats a pretty good idea. Why dont we arrange for the party to end all parites. Each mess should arrange a happy hour for the Friday evening ( Stag please Gentlemen).... so that we can drown our sorrows.....

We don't fly Spitfires front line anymore and we now have really good women fast jet crew and working in other areas, why on earth would you want to exclude them from their mess? :ugh:

Am I in a different military?! Surely 'stag' means 'no partners'... But I agree that a tri-service happy hour megalash is a great idea :ok:

Would that be drinking your sorrows in a heavily alcohol subsidised mess environment??? Enjoy it while you can!

Cheap, yes. Subsidised, no. And yes we will enjoy it.

Hahah!! Splendid - we have an Arnhem Dinner night at Odius that night!! What an excellent bash that should be then. Quite Apt too. Got our arse kicked there and we'll be having our arse kicked by HMG that day too! ;-)

StopStart

That is not the Latin for "cut"...unless you're Jewish of course!!! :eek:

Stopstart....loving your work.

I myself, pay my OWN mess bills to substitute my OWN beer.

...chisler!

Ralph

Who mentioned Spitfires? Do we let women near the jets these days?! Dearie-me, it's political correctness gone mad - what if they all got pregnant at once?