A damning indictment

strapworld

Mr Hoskin,

An excellent blog. I see the equally excellent Patrick Mercer has commented. I copy his remarks below! WHY IS CAMERON NOT LEADING THE ATTACK ON THIS TODAY?

But I am absolutely sure we have been given the same press release about the new vehicles many times. The first some many months ago! Typical of this diabolical government reissuing press releases to make them look efficient? BUT when our men and women's lives are in danger it is the greatest hypocritical insult.

You state, in your second paragraph that the Snatch vehciles are now being superceded..is that a FACT or just Labour 'spin'? We need to know. How many have been deployed? where are they? have the men and women at the sharp end got them or are they being used by the top brass only? as was the case in Iraq with the Land Rovers!!!! I know because my son served there and had to go out time and again in the 'snatch' vehciles whilst the Top Brass had the better Range Rovers etc!¬

The admirable Tony Mercer said:-

"Mr Mercer criticised the government's provision of equipment for the armed forces, accusing them of a "lack of empathy". "The government is guilty of a lack of urgency a lack of empathy with the men and women they place in harms way." He added: "These deaths could have been avoided by urgent, thoughtful and direct action by the MoD". Mr Mercer also accused the government of "foot dragging" and "a lack of directness" over replacing the Snatch Land Rovers. He said troops "Will continue to die as long as these unsuitable vehicles are deployed". 10:11 BBC News
Later Mr Mercer questioned reassurances from the Ministry of Defence that the lives of troops were a "prime concern".
"If lives are a prime concern then why haven't we taken the money and bought vehicles that are avalable off the shelf ... and equip out troop so that lives will be protected much better," he said. He also warned that the government was "in denial" over the level of manning in the armed forces."There aren't enough fighting men to do the job then allow those self same men to rest, retain and see their families," he said.

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In your second

Pat

The next time our Supreme Leader visits Afghanistan he should be taxied around in a Snatch Land Rover.

After all, as he is in awe of men and women of courage and is prepared to send them out in antiquated and dangerous vehicles it is only right that he should receive the same level of care from the Government as do our Troops.

But alas I fear that the Supreme Leader is from the, "Do as I say, not as I do," Gang.

Kevyn Bodman

Yes, Cameron and the Shadow Defence Secretary should be attacking the government on this.
Is this another indication of Cameron's lack of 'cojones'?

Remenber what a wimp Cameron was in sacking Patrick Mercer rather than standing up to the mendacious PC squealing that Mr. Mercer is a racist.

Nicholas

And they are now proposing (useless Milliband, ghastly Malloch-Brown) that we send our under-equipped troops to Congo too.

the Laughing Cavalier

The chronic underfunding of HM Forces stems from Brown's antipathy. They do not support or vote Labour. Thus, the Defence budget was deliberately undermined by this most partisan and unprincipled politician. Money could be found for every left wing shibboleth, expenditure on QUANGOs and salaries for the Nomenklatura ran out of control while the monies allocated to Defence shrank to the lowest peoportion of GDP in 70 years. All the while the Services were required to fight Blair's wars and act as the military wing of Oxfam. Pat is right, the next time MacBroon heads to Afghanistan for a photo opportunity he should be given a tour of the front line without body armour in a snatch landrover. What's good enough forour soldiers should be good enough for the man who writes books about bravery.

TrevorsDen

Yet again govt stupidity is used as a means to attack the Tories. UNBELIEVABLE.
Conservatives have been attacking govt procurement policies for years.

In fact some decent mine protected vehicles ar at last being purchased - see either EU Referendum or Defence of the Realm.

The deeper issue is the generals wish to keep their hugely expensive and totally wrong headed pet FRES scheme in play not just govt incompetence

David Lindsay

"Gross negligence", indeed.

Sending them off to Afghanistan after an attack from Saudi Arabia.

And sending them off to Iraq after no attack, or threat of attack, at all.

Hayward Maberley

Mr Lindsay,
An elaboration on your salient points plus some others that may be of interest.
Why were all those Saudi citizens flown out of the USA, in airspace that was supposedly shut down to ALL civilian air traffic?
Why was not shock and awe visited on the House of Saud and its Wahhabi Salafi supported regime from whence came 15 of the terr'ists involved in the incidents of 11 September?
Why were those Mossad agents,from Fake Furniture Removals not held just as others have been as terr'ist suspects?
Why was there a strange lack of instant Air Force response to all those planes suddenly deviating so dramatically from their allotted airspace?
Further back why was there no heed paid to the FBI Agents report on the trainee pilots with strange ideas of what flying was all about?

John Miller

BBC news just said a Labour shithead said there has been 10 billion pounds invested in hardware in the last three years.

This must include the Eurofighter or aircraft carriers and therefore must be misleading at best and a lie at worst.

strapworld

Trevors Den. please get the facts correct.
EU Referendum and Defence of the Realm were responding to the press release that such vehicles had been ordered! Have they been received? are they in service? If so how many? Christopher Booker in the Sunday Telegraph does not believe this government. Neither do I.

As for the Conservatives. I accept that Dr. Liam Fox is one of the better shadow's BUT on this issue CAMERON should be leading. He isn't and I believe it is because he has no inkling of what leadership is about.

They are letting this terrible government, that lie themselves out of every situation, get away with murder. Literally.

TGF UKIP

Strapworld and Kevyn Bodman, as the Cameron Tories are disgracefully pledged to spend no more than Labour on the Armed Forces they cannot lead on this issue.

Just watch the squirming by Fox or any othe Tory spokesman when being interviewed. As soon as they criticize Labour for this sort of thing all Marr, or whoever, has to do to puncture them is to point this out.

What an apology for a British "Conservative" Party they are.

Jack

I consider it sheer hypocrisy for Mr Mercer to accuse the Government of a lack of empathy with the men, when he helped to put them in harms way, with his vote to invade Iraq in the knowledge that Iraq was no threat to the UK.

For a very long time Mr Mercer knew that there aren't enough fighting men to do the job and so if the lives of troops were a "prime concern" to him, then why vote and support unnecessary wars, that imperil us all?

Over 100,000 Soviet troops with all the equipment needed took part in an invasion of Afghanistan and regardless of their military might the Soviets withdrew in 1989. So what makes us think that our small tragically ill-equipped army will make any difference to the outcome which will likely prove to be a waste of lives and billions of taxpayers money like the Vietnam war.

It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder. Albert Einstein

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them! Albert Einstein

I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. Albert Einstein

War is murder and so-called "collateral damage" the destruction inflicted upon innocent civilians or the blood of the innocent upon the hands of this nation is an abomination to God and every civilised being.