The Editor,
The Times,
1, Pennington Street
London, E98 1TA
2nd July 1007
Fax: 020 7782 5046
Sir,
Our new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has shown his contempt for our armed forces by appointing not one, but two part time ministers to that great department of state. Not content to appoint a Secretary of State, Des Browne, who has responsibilities for Scotland, he has now re-appointed Lord Drayson as Minister of State for Defence Equipment and Support, with an added responsibility for in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
Our armed forces are currently fighting two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Theirs is a twenty-four seven job. Young men and women are daily suffering horrendous physical and mental injuries while others are making the ultimate sacrifice and paying with their lives. They make do with inadequate and underperforming equipment, and are desperate for helicopters and vehicles able of withstanding blasts from the OEDs which are a daily threat to their lives. The least they deserve is a twenty-four seven Ministry of Defence and Secretary of State, as well as full time ministerial team whose eyes are very firmly on the ball.
With these appointments the Prime Minister has shown his contempt for the military, and it bodes ill for the Department’s spending settlement in the autumn. Instead of downgrading ministerial commitment for the current wars we are fighting, perhaps he should think about setting up a War Cabinet to address the daily issues of what fighting a war really means. We had one during the Falklands War twenty five years ago.
Caroline Flynn-MacLeod
Director, First Defence