The Guardian The Ministry of Defence is an easy target. Britain's armed forces are seriously overstretched. Recruitment is falling.
Retention remains a problem.
The cost of military equipment is rising faster than inflation. Badly needed weapons systems are late, existing ones do not work. Yet the future of the armed forces is rarely, if ever, mentioned. The reason is that defence is low in the public's spending priorities and politicians know it. Even the Conservatives, the forces' traditional friends, have not committed themselves to a rise in military expenditure.