Your party has been in power for a decade. There's a problem. So what do you do? Blame the guys before you!
The accommodation provided for some of the Armed Forces is a disgrace, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, admitted yesterday.
However, in a speech to the conference he blamed the poor housing standards on the “legacy” that the Government had been bequeathed when it came to power ten years ago...
To meet the growing criticisms, Mr Browne announced an additional £80 million to provide more bachelor flatlets to replace ageing barracks dormitories. However, the Ministry of Defence said that the money would have to be found from the department’s budget. The cash will be raised from “reinvesting” revenue generated from the sale of disused barracks and air bases.
Mr Browne also announced a £140 council tax rebate for all members of the Armed Forces serving six-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. (The Times)
This is getting extremely weak. When Labour have been in power for a decade, they cannot then blame the Tories whenever anything goes wrong. Whether or not the "legacy" that Major's government left was poor military housing standards really doesn't matter very much. Browne himself has had more than a year, and a Labour government - financially controlled by the man who is now Fuhrer - have had more than ten years in which to put it right. And they haven't. They have completely and utterly failed to do anything about it. It is not possible for them to blame the Tories any more.However, in a speech to the conference he blamed the poor housing standards on the “legacy” that the Government had been bequeathed when it came to power ten years ago...
To meet the growing criticisms, Mr Browne announced an additional £80 million to provide more bachelor flatlets to replace ageing barracks dormitories. However, the Ministry of Defence said that the money would have to be found from the department’s budget. The cash will be raised from “reinvesting” revenue generated from the sale of disused barracks and air bases.
Mr Browne also announced a £140 council tax rebate for all members of the Armed Forces serving six-month tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. (The Times)
The only people to blame for the disgraceful accommodation in which you house the military are Labour ministers. They have taken Britain to war so many times in the last decade, and underfunded the armed forces at the same time so much so that they don't even have the equipment to fight wars any more! Labour have failed the armed forces in every single way, under-funding, under prioritising, and over-mobilising.
And now they are going to throw even more of the MoD's money away in a pointless exercise. The "council tax rebate" of £140 which Des Browne announced isn't at council tax rebate at all. it has bugger-all to do with the councils, but comes directly from the MoD's coffers. It's not a council tax rebate at all, but an extra 140 quid. Which, I am sure, most members of the military would far prefer that £2.5m to be used to supply them properly whilst in the field. After all, what does £140 mean if you're dead cos you ran out of ammo?
And as Liam Fox, Shadow Defence Secretary, points out, the partial "rebate" they're getting doesn't even compare favourably with that given to criminals in prison!
The nature of this measure will be divisive among the Armed Forces because it discriminates between personnel on different operations... It will put further pressure on the frontline budget because no new money is being made available by the MoD...
The fact that prisoners pay no council tax while our boys on the frontline do, shows how low a priority the Armed Forces are under Gordon Brown.
There is no doubt that, in the end, there is just one person who can take most of the blame for this: our Glorious Leader, Gordon Brown.The fact that prisoners pay no council tax while our boys on the frontline do, shows how low a priority the Armed Forces are under Gordon Brown.
Source: The Times
