Brown and Chilcott , round 1.. 10.am Fri - written by Tankus
Brown faces accusations of starving the military of funds while he was chancellor , in order to undermine Tony Blair .
“Sir Kevin Tebbit, the Ministry of Defence’s top civil servant at the time of the invasion, told the official Iraq Inquiry that Mr Brown “arbitrarily” ordered the cuts in spending”.
“In a withering assessment of the “doomed” state of the military, the recently retired Lt Gen Sir Graeme Lamb said that the SAS had been denied even Vietnam-era equipment that could have saved lives.
Resources remained insufficient to fight current and future conflicts, with much of the Army’s equipment “either broken or lacking”, he warned.
SAS chief says MoD has ‘blood on its hands’
Sir Graeme’s attack, in a speech to senior officers, is disclosed as Gordon Brown faces questions at the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war.”
http://tinyurl.com/yam6u5j
> Do not forget the real New labour lie. IN REAL TERMS…….
Well, if you prefer the MOD budget in actual pounds rather than inflation adjusted pounds here they are (yet again):
“Total departmental spending” from the MOD accounts (2007/8 on page 21) in a table, in billions:
2003-04 £35.9
2004-05 £37.5 +4.42%
2005-06 £38.5 +2.66%
2006-07 £38.9 +1.11%
2007-08 £42.4 +9.05%
2008-09 est £44.6 +5.27%
2009-10 plan £46.2 +3.46%
An increase of £10.3 billion per year in 6 years – compared to the extra Iraq & Afghanistan operations costs of £1.7 billion extra 2006-07, £3 billion extra 2007-08.
The plain fact is that the MOD establishment (with a supporting cast of industry lobbyists, add weak Defence ministers) preferred to spend the large increase on flashy things like Nimrods, Type 45 destroyers at a billion a throw, Eurofighters … rather than boring equipment for the troops on the ground. I expect Brown will have to say this in more diplomatic ways today.
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