The Guardian This week has highlighted the most serious challenge facing the Blair government, which isn't health, education, or the euro, but defence. Although Robin Cook and Geoff Hoon clearly understand the concern, that getting into Freetown is easier than getting out, they don't mention the deeper problem, which is how it is all to be paid for. In no other field is there such a frightening dissonance between ends and means, between the government's theory and practice, between interventionist rhetoric and cheese-paring reality.
Every new mission shows up the fact that the armed forces now operate on a shoestring.
Our armed forces were being run down well before the end of the cold war and the supposed peace dividend. You can see this on an everyday basis. This country has fewer men under arms today than it did in the 1780s. All those reductions have been made to save money. Defence spending has been on a falling curve.