Minister quits the government to race in Le Mans.

Well, I suppose it's a better excuse than "minister quits to spend time with his family". Not by a great deal though, really.

And it doesn't really look good that a Defence Minister is quitting to do something as trivial [in the big picture] as to try to get into the Le Mans race when our soldiers are dying in wars all over the world.

The Labour Party have spent the last decade making wars across the world, sending our military forces out to more and more places - yet without any more money. The armed forces have been stretched, over-stretched, and then stretched again. This has led to a shrinkage in the size of the armed forces, as more and more leave earlier than they had planned.

"Constant deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and the increasing amount of time spent away from home are key factors causing people to leave the Armed Forces, a committee of MPs said yesterday.
The number of officers leaving the Army and RAF early – and also other ranks in the air force – are at a ten-year peak, the Commons Public Accounts Committee said.
The committee disputed the Ministry of Defence’s claim that servicemen and servicewomen being deployed overseas were “stretched but not overstretched”." (The Times)

A ten year peak. And yet, despite all the problems known to be existing in the armed forces already - lack of funding, over-stretching etc. - what is Gordon Brown's first act as Prime Minister? To leave the bumbling Des Browne in position - and to give him another job [Scottish Secretary] to go with his Defence brief.

The MoD are "routinely" breaking their own “harmony guidelines” - the length of time which service personnel are supposed to be guaranteed at home between overseas operations. If the MoD is routinely breaking its own guidelines, they can be nothing less than severely overstretched. The armed forces have operated at a capacity above the highest level envisaged in defence planning since 2001 - that is six years spent working at 110% [or higher]. Yet this government has failed to do anything about it. No extra money, no extra personnel.

Labour have consistently and continually completely and utterly failed to give the armed forces what they need to do what they have been told to. Every Defence Secretary under Tony Blair shares this blame - and most especially Geoff Hoon. And Gordon Brown's announcement that Des Browne will be both Defence Secretary and Scottish Secretary - he can't do one job well, so why has he been given another?! - shows that he plans to continue this systematic neglect of Britain's armed forces.

Sources: The Times

"The Scottish Parliament has voted against renewing Trident nuclear weapons - the first time Holyrood has taken a clear position on the issue.
The motion, backed by 71 MSPs to 16, with 39 abstentions, also congratulated the majority of Scots MPs for voting against a replacement system.
But it acknowledged that renewal was the responsibility of Westminster." (BBC)

So why do it?! What is the point?!

Defence is not a devolved issue. Members of the Scottish Parliament have no more say on whether Britain renews Trident or not than any other citizen of the UK. They have no more say than I or you, and their opinion means no more on this issue.

Britain cannot and must not lose its nuclear deterrent. To do so would be utter foolishness. It is a strategic necessity in the modern world - and without it, Britain would have less power on the world stage.

It is nothing to do with the Scottish Parliament whether or not Trident is replaced. In the discussion it was proposed that Holyrood should use its powers to prevent the movement of nuclear weapons on Scotland's roads and seas. But since this is a defence issue, I don't think they have any.

The Scottish Parliament should concentrate on dealing with the issues that they control - preferably without requiring more and more English money - but that seems unlikely as they just keep on doing it. If they want to prove that Scotland can survive independently, disown the Barnett formula.

Source: BBC