MORE TROUBLE AT DEFENCE?

Tory supporting paper The Mail on Sunday reports today that Liam Fox’s ministerial team at the Defence Ministry is a hundred per cent behind him in his fight to retain the funding necessary for the armed forces to retain current strength.

It appears that the three Tory ministers, Gerald Howarth, Peter Luff and Andrew Robathan are prepared to walk if Mr Fox doesn’t get his way against George Osborne. (The other ministers in the department are Liberal Nick Harvey and Tory Lord Astor.)

Last month a letter from the Defence Secretary to the Prime Minister, complaining about the draconian cuts, was leaked to the press, possibly with the tacit agreement of some of the ministers. Cameron was said to be furious about the leak and Osborne was incandescent that Fox was going over his head.

Fox at that time was supported by retired and current military chiefs. Now it appears his ministerial team two of whom have military backgrounds, is with him, whereas “a” Conservative MP is quoted as saying that Cameron and Osborne are a different breed of Tory with no connection to the armed forces.

Of course this is an article in the Mail on Sunday, and as such comes with the health warning “this article may have been written to sensationalise the situation and may have absolutely no connection whatsoever with the truth”. But if it is true, it means either a painful about turn for Osborne, or an embarrassing walk out by the Defence Team. We kind of expected it to be the Unions that were doing the walking out this winter... not ministers.

The trouble, I suppose, is that we are all for the cuts that will affect other people and against the ones that will hurt us. Mr Fox and his team are no different to anyone else in that respect.

MoD ACCOUNTANTS NEED TO SMARTEN UP

Each year, coming up to April time, our place, like most others is buzzing with auditors looking over the company’s financial accounts. Every penny must be accounted for, whether it has come from government or EU, whether from Lottery Funds or from contracts with the private sector or government. Not a penny piece can be unaccounted. It’s a lot of work to make sure that the auditors can find every single receipt and it’s much to our part-time accountant’s credit that the auditors can sign off the accounts every year.

So it was with some dismay that I read today in the Independent that the Ministry of Defence's accounts were today "qualified" by the Whitehall spending watchdog after it was unable to account properly for more than £6 billion of equipment.

So, “qualified” means that they could account for all (like we can) except for £6b .... Oh well, that’s alright then. What’s £6b between friends?

But the worrying thing is it is the fourth year in succession that the National Audit Office (NAO) has “qualified” the MoD's accounts. According to the NAO despite efforts by the MoD to tackle the issue, there remain "systemic and deep-rooted" problems with its asset management system.

It seems that the problems are worse than had been thought. In trying to track down missing equipment the team has uncovered fresh difficulties. The MoD, it seems, cannot account for the whereabouts of £5.5b of spares and other stocks; £752m of military equipment including firearms and £184m worth of Bowman radios (around 6,000). How on earth do you lose 6000 radios?

Where are all these things? Have they been stolen? Have they been sold? By or to whom? With around 90,000 Civil Servants you would have thought that a tracking system could have been installed in the MoD.

It’s high time Liam Fox found out why his accounts can’t be properly signed off. Signing the accounts off with qualifications is not good enough. it doesn't concentrate the minds of the management in quite the same way as an outright refusal, which is what would happen to a private sector company.

WHAT A NICE FAIR COUNTRY WE LIVE IN

A soldier who was seriously wounded in Afghanistan in a case of friendly fire might lose out on a £25,000 insurance payout because he carried the Carling Cup on to the pitch at Wembley.

Private Dave Tatlock, 20, was spotted by the private insurance company ABACUS before the match between Manchester United and Aston Villa.

The guy was left temporarily paralysed after being hit by shrapnel two years ago and doctors said that he was unlikely to walk again. However he can now get about a bit, limping and in pain, with a stick. He lost the use of his calves and has severe nerve damage. He has no use of his left foot, wears a splint to walk and can move his right foot only slightly.

At Wembley he was seen limping unaided up from the tunnel to deposit the trophy at the side of the pitch, while a helper walked behind him with a crutch. Maybe a dream for him. Not much to ask when you have given your mobility for your country.

Kevan Jones, a minister at the Defence Department, who recently clashed with Joanna Lumley, said that MoD officials would demand explanation from ABACUS. He said he would be asking them to rethink their decision.

I’m not sure why a lad going to war with our Army has to take out personal insurance. It cost £56 a month from his meagre private’s salary and you really would have thought that a semi-civilised country could have managed to guarantee that, in the event of injury the country would look after their guys.

By strange co-incidence tonight I got round to watching the “Despatches” programme where seedy MPs and a Baroness prostitute themselves for £3000- £5000 a day, and something really strange hit me.

Maggie Moran, who tried to get away with £22,000 for the dry rot in her boyfriend’s flat was featured. Of course in the newspaper coverage she got little space because having never been anything of any import she was a lot less newsworthy than people who had once been something.

The programme documents how Moran, looking fit and well, turned up for an interview with the “set-up” company and offered her services “starting tomorrow”. Meanwhile she has not been present in the Commons for over 6 months, and when the presenter phoned her office for an interview, posing as a constituent, he was told that she was ill.

So in summary, on the one hand there’s this 20 year old lad who was sent to Afghanistan by the government, got shot up, is in a situation where, below the waist he’s pretty messed up, who had had to take out private insurance, and because he managed to limp a few steps (with someone following him with his crutches) his insurance payout is in jeopardy. On the other hand we have this MP who tried to fiddle money (and nearly got away with it) to do up her lad’s house, and who has, since she was caught, never put a foot in her constituency office or the House of Commons and is being paid full wages and will get over £50,000 stepping down money and her pension... and she’s caught out (again... is she a tad gullible or what?) and what’s going to happen to her? She probably won't go to the Lords.

What the hell kind of country do we live in?

I’ll just repeat the name of the insurance company by the way in case anyone missed it

It’s ABACUS ... now where are my insurance policies?

There is an update in the comments (below) taken from Abacus's website. I thought it fair to publish it alongside the story I wrote. The information in my post was garnered from The Times. I imagine that they checked their facts before publishing.

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TROOPS TO BE SACKED WHILE WE FILL THIS BUILDING WITH PEN PUSHERS

Well, whoever would have thought it of the British Civil Service? Apparently, due to poor financial management the Ministry of Defence faces a crisis.

A “black hole” of some £80 billion no less, has been discovered. And the MoD’s answer is to pay off between 300 and 500 troops despite us being at war.

No, I swear to you, this is not April 1. According to The Times: “Despite the conflict in Afghanistan, the Armed Forces are preparing for swingeing cuts to procurement programmes and personnel under a strategic defence review, after the election".

WHAT?

As I understand it we have troops out there in Afghanistan, badly equipped from a lack of massively expensive kit like helicopters and tanks, down to the lack of bullets and boots, and the fact that their rations are pitiful. They also spend far too long at the front, return far too often, and are suffering incredible stress. Stress which is exacerbated by the conditions their families live in back home (well not senior people obviously. This IS Britain), and with all that (and more) going on they are going to pay off between 300 and 500.

Nope. You really couldn’t make that up, so it must be true.

The Army responds by saying that it is closer to full strength than it has been for years, (possibly due to healthy recruitment became of the recession and the DWP bullying unemployed lads), but that seems to me to miss the point that the full strength is not enough when you have a war going on, and when so many of your numbers are not able to fight due to war induced injury and illness.

According to the Public Accounts Committee matters have worsened to the point where the MoD will have to take difficult decisions, such as to cancel whole equipment programmes. So our troops will be even worse equipped, if that’s possible.

OK Brown, or indeed Cameron, or possibly even Clegg, if he holds the balance of power: this is the message from Munguin’s Republic, but I’ll bet it is echoed by people all over the country.

If we can’t afford to be involved in stuff like this, then withdraw, or at least draw down our commitment to the level that we can afford. Start looking very carefully at what can be cut.

But look at the top, the frills, the ...........Do senior officers need mansions or drivers? Must they have massive expense accounts? Need there be so many (I heard there were more Admirals at the MoD than there are ships in the British Navy)? Why so many staff in the MoD, especially when they seem to have mismanaged the organisation into bankruptcy?

Start cutting from the top. Whatever you do, do not, at any price, cut from the bottom. Britain is a small, and thanks to Labour’s recession, very poor country. There’s a limit to what we will stand being done to our troops so that you ministers can continue to sit at President Obama’s right hand, where you most certainly do not belong!

Pictured: The Ministry of Defence Building in London and the tri-service badge which I reproduce here with acknowledgement to the British Crown Copyright (as I am instructed to do).


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