Ahead of Armed Forces Day, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has set out five priorities the Government must meet to better support Britain’s service men and women.
We must never forget the enormous sacrifices which our service men and women make on our behalf every day. I know from visiting them in Afghanistan that their selfless dedication is truly humbling.
“Armed Forces Day is a chance to show our gratitude, but also to reflect on how we can best support our troops. This Government has failed them too often. That is why I am setting out five priorities Gordon Brown must meet if he wants this day to be more than just a gesture.
“First, our forces in Afghanistan need a strategy they can believe in. If military commanders need more troops for this operation, they should have them. We must not ask them to do this difficult job without committing the resources they need to do it properly.
“Second, we need our front line troops to have the helicopters and armoured vehicles they so desperately need. Progress on replacing the poorly armoured Snatch Land Rovers has been painfully slow, and British forces are still desperately short of the helicopters that fighting in Afghanistan requires.
“Third, the Government must provide decent housing for forces families. For too long families whose loved ones are risking their lives abroad have been rewarded with disgracefully substandard housing.
“Fourth, there needs to be a much greater emphasis on providing the best physical and mental healthcare for both serving personnel and veterans. Our troops are under greater strain now than they have been for decades, yet too often they don’t get the help they need.
“Fifth, we urgently need a Strategic Security and Defence Review to ensure our forces can fight the wars we face today and tomorrow, not the Cold War conflicts of the past. The way we treat our service personnel must be at the heart of this review.”
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5 Comments
Point 2, Nick needs to step away from the detail and see that what’s needed is an adequate defence budget. More heli and more mine protected vehicles will just take much needed funds away from other things.
I’m sure that someone will come up with the Trident argument, but in practice that doesn’t release significant cash, and it’s not as if the MoD will see that money anyway if the project is cancelled.
The defence budget is inadequate for our current commitment levels, the deployment rate across all three services is too high and people are voting with their feet as a consequence. With that in mind point 1 is a non starter unless overall personnel numbers are increased, again across all three services.
However he’s trending in the right direction, neither of the other two main parties are much concerned about the people that are put in harms way to suit a political agenda.
That fifth point makes me uneasy. It’s at such “strategic reviews” that you find the lobbies that consistently drum up support for our useless Type 45 destroyers, the continual quest for replacing Trident, the megacarriers, the Eurofighters that we’re buying but can’t sell fast enough… All these provide scant few jobs for the billions and billions that are poured into them, and all are ineffective for our needs and at least a decade or two out of date. He seems to have recognised this, but I would at least expect the party to conduct a smaller-scale one first to identify some priorities other than scrapping these other commitments. For example from my limited viewpoint the British Army has in the past 20 years excelled itself in actions with small strike forces, in air/armour operations where un”friendly fire” are minimised, and as garrison troops. We should seek to restructure our forces with a more specialised role – the idea of unilaterally engaging another force is hopefully dead in the water, so we should seek to fulfil in the future the best roles that we can in concert with others.
Yes, we urgently need helicopters, better armour, and better housing and care. I am so happy to see Nick Clegg explicitly put out our proposals compared to the Conservatives implicit assumption that they will “take care of the armed forces”
A good issue for Norwich North. Can’t imagine the peacenik Greens being up for much of this.
We should not send our troops to war in which they have no hope in winning. That is why they are coming home from Iraq, and why also they ought to come home from Afghanistan. We have been there for 8 years and things are getting worse!
It is not fair to sacrifice the lives of our troops for no worthwhile and acheivable objectives.
Geoffrey sounds like Harold Shipman saying, a little cough… here’s something which should help.