“Slow Bob” at his best, after being told by his boss the date of the election had so much trouble remembering it was a secret that he blurted it out on Live TV.
Remember this is the man supposedly in charge of the defence of our nation.
Let’s hope he can keep Defence Secrets a little bit more hush.
Never mind other secrets are not for us to hear, The Post Mortem results for David Kelly are to remain locked away for 70 years, seems like somebody has something to hide.
The article looks at explores the impact the crash of sterling last year on the defence budget and also the FCO budgets. It includes the above video which contrasts the statements by Lady Kinnock and Gordon Brown.
According to the Times
The Defence Secretary admitted today that he was being forced to take hard decisions to ensure that the plunge in the pound’s value would not hinder the war in Afghanistan.
Bob Ainsworth said that the exchange rate was causing difficulties for both his department and the Foreign Office (FCO) as ministers were accused of drawing up a secret hit list of embassies to be closed.
The charge follows the disclosure yesterday by minister Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead that the FCO was facing a £110 million budget shortfall as a result of currency fluctuations.
Speaking at a display of upgraded kit for frontline troops, Mr Ainsworth said
that the budget for Afghanistan remained the “overwhelming priority”. However, he said: “It doesn’t take a genius to know that if the pound exchange rate changes then that gives us issues. It gives us difficulties and we have to deal with those difficulties.
With the pound having lost 20-25% against other major currencies this must mean we are going to have a very hard struggle in 2010 unless extra money is put into the budget, an unlikely event when according to such sages as Lord Mandelson we need to make cuts of 80 billion.
Also Gordon Brown, saviour of the world, has yet again not quite told the truth again. As the Times quotes this passage from the House of Lords.
“It is a fact that counter-terrorism and radicalisation projects in Pakistan and elsewhere have been the subject of these cuts that the Foreign Office has been obliged to make.” A fall in the value of sterling hits FCO spending as it makes the cost of its operations abroad — paid for in foreign currency — more expensive in relative terms.
Her comments provoked concern on all sides of the House. Even Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, a fellow minister and Leader of the Lords, said she had to “confess to my surprise”.
She said counter-terrorism funding in the Home Office was ring-fenced, adding: “So if it can be ring-fenced in one department, perhaps it could be ring-fenced in another department.” Labour’s Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, a former foreign office minister and defence procurement minister, said Mr Brown’s statement yesterday — introducing a package of measures to improve security — and Lady Kinnock’s remarks did “not add up to a very coherent point of view”.
Yet again we have empty words and promises from Gordon Brown, who is again going back into his true La-La land mode and ignoring the facts.
RAF Kinloss generates millions of pounds for the Moray economy
The BBC reports on the not unexpected, but sad news, that over 100 jobs will be going at RAF Kinloss. With the phasing out of the doomed Nimrod MR2,these job losses have been on the cards, along with an estimated 250 Raf posts as well. The delays and cutbacks in the MRA4 programme mean that posts will certainly not start to build up again until at least 2012.
Of course as Slow Bob, Mr Ainsworth, told us the decision to withdraw the Nimrod MR2 early “has been taken for financial reasons”, and as he stressed it was in no way connected with the loss of Nimrod XV230, which crashed in Afghanistan in 2006 with the loss of 14 lives.
Never mind those nice Labour politicians have announced some plum contracts for the more right thinking Labour supporting areas such as Glasgow, Teesside, Bradford and Manchester, to balance out these jobs losses in a nasty, filthy rural non-Labour supporting area.
A day after the government announced it’s intention to raid the coffers of the defence budget to fund Afghanistan, despite its assurances they would found the war from Treasury reserves, we get the unconnected news that the Government Response to the damning report into the loss of Nimrod XV230 will be released today.
Any disbelief that the early phasing out of the Nimrod MR2’s is connected to this is purely in my mind. The report released in October’s independent review into the 2006 crash in Afghanistan accused the MoD of sacrificing safety to cut costs.
The investigation ruled the incident, caused by a fuel leak, was preventable.
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth apologised to victims’ families at the time of the report, and will now make a statement to the House of Commons.
The critical report, by Charles Haddon-Cave QC, said the Afghanistan crash occurred because of a “systemic breach” of the military covenant.
And a safety review of the Nimrod MR2 carried out by the MoD, BAE Systems and QinetiQ was branded a “lamentable job”.
The highly critical report, by Charles Haddon-Cave QC, said the Afghanistan crash occurred because of a “systemic breach” of the military covenant.
A safety review of the Nimrod MR2 carried out by the MoD, BAE Systems and QinetiQ was branded a “lamentable job”.
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth apologised to victims’ families.
Mr Haddon-Cave condemned the change of organisational culture within the MoD between 1998 and 2006, when financial targets came to distract from safety.
He quoted a former senior RAF officer who told his inquiry: “There was no doubt that the culture of the time had switched.
“In the days of the RAF chief engineer in the 1990s, you had to be on top of airworthiness.
“By 2004 you had to be on top of your budget if you wanted to get ahead.”
Mr Haddon-Cave’s report also criticised two RAF officers.
Answorth is the man who told us the Nimrod was airworthy. He lied then and should go.
Recent Comments