Leaked slides connected to Gray's defence procurement report are very damning 

JohnOfEnfield

New Labour ALWAYS blame some one else. To blame the Conservatives after 12 years in power is beyond credibility.

Everyone else understands this of course & this argument damages New Labour yet again.

Tankus

I'm sick of nulabour bringing up the Thatcher years as a justification/excuse of their utter incompetence. It happened in another century for god sake.

Go now

Lee Hannaford

Game on...I say!
Lets see them wriggle out of this. They will no doubt. Conservatives fault you see.
However I will say this. Passing a 1 week course in Project Management DOES NOT MAKE YOU A PROJECT MANAGER! It will however show that targets are being met when DE&S presents it annual report and states that it has more "Proffesional Project Managers" than ever before. Gen Donoghue may well be spitting feathers but he is as complicit as the politicians. Power corrupts. And you wonder why he was asked to stay on another year. 29,000 people to look after a £14 billion budget. Do you know the Infantry only have 23,000 men. Makes you think doesn't it!
Spitting feathers? It should be us, the taxpayer, the voter who should be spitting and a lot more than feathers!! Go to Abbey Wood - see the new buildings being built, see the empire increase in size.

TrevorsDen

We are 12 years into a Labour government. How can the last Conservative administration be to blame for issues now? No matter how bad they were they have had 12 years to make progress - instead things are worse and it is Labour who have thrust are armed forces into 2 major wars.

Am I right to assume the MoD are happy to let things slide and grow in cost because the budget will not let them run to time?

TomTom

I thought Peter Leven was supposed to have overhauled MoD Procurement under Thatcher. What exactly has been going on ?

It is clear Parliamentary scrutiny is required to put the Civil Service under pressure and threat of exposure

mac

The defence procurement bureaucracy has always been a ramshackle dog's breakfast, despite several rebranding and restructuring exercises since Rayner first set up the Procurement Executive in the early 1970s.

A Fancy Dan hierarchy, expensive offices and supposedly 'smart' procedures don't mask it's fundamental inefficiency and amateurism; salesmen from any defence contractor worth its salt hardly need get out of fourth gear to earn rich pickings but hey, who cares, the taxpayer picks up the tab.

And matters won't change any time soon, whichever contemporary guru is invited to change all the names again: the Civil Service's brightest and best simply don't opt for a career in the MOD.

Malcolm

Gosh, proper journalism on Toenails' blog!! If I were you Nick I think I'd find some excuse to ditch the rest of your holiday and get back to your desk a bit smartish - LK should have you very worried indeed....

James

Last Tory government. OVER 12 YEARS AGO! Beyond contempt, beyond satire. These people are desparate and dangerous. Next Spring cannot come soon enough. The question is, will Dave be a Ted or a Margaret.

Chuck Unsworth

Anyone who has the slightest knowledge of defence procurement will fully understand that the appalling political interference of the past decade has done immense damage. The lack of continuity of policy, the lack of policy itself, and the staggering failure of understanding has been disastrous. How many Ministers for Defence have there been in that time? And not one of them with the slightest real understanding.

Still, the Defence Industry is doing remarkably well. Now, in which constituencies are all those jobs based?

Andrew K

For future reference:
Spitting feathers = thirsty
Spitting tacks = angry

Seen it

The forces constantly want the latest new toy, rather than invest in what they currently have, leading to big procurement projects which are often optimistically forecast to initiate them and then go spectacularly wrong.

Kevin

It certainly is true that a number of MOD procurement projects have been stuffed up by the previous Tory Government, you can add Astute to Nimrod and Chinook; it was delays in placing the order that meant engineering staff at Barrow were laid off.

The current Government haven't helped matters though, when the cost overruns and delays with these programmes were discovered the Treasury sealed its purse and insisted on cuts to the orders instead of stumping up the cash and Brown has never been a supporter of Tony's wars.

Kevin

Chuck John Hutton certainly was a Minister of Defence that knew what he was about, it's probably the reason why he didn't last very long; a Minister of Defence that knows his business is incompatible with Gordan Brown's Government policy.

Karla

I wouldn't trust these people to run a corner shop; they are clearly not up to the job and should be shown the door. Incompetence on this scale reminds me of pre-revolutionary Russia. May God have mercy on their souls (for they would have to contemplate the consequences of their actions for the years to come).

john p reid

i agree it is stupid to blame the party that was in power 12 years ago,I felt that way when the tories were blaming labour for its mistakes in 1991

Roger

Brown sees most ministries as an opportunity to expand his client state, he has no interest in the outcome.

TomTom

The current Government haven't helped matters though,

They came to power in 1997 with a Defence Review which ring-fenced Eurofighter to please BAe unions.....and which project is now having to be offloaded to Saudi Arabia because of a funding crisis ?

Ray

Of course, the "last Conservative government" (of which Quentin Davies was a member) could have just saved the taxpapyer a packet had it simply bought military equipment off-the-shelf from the Americans.

However, I can imagine the squeals of outrage from Labour MPs in constituencies hosting major defence contractors had John Major done so.

Kevin

1997 SDR was never adequately funded.

The funding crisis with Typhoon project is happening because the Government simply will not increase defence spending by an adequate amount, it will leave the RAF with a much reduced fast jet fleet as a result.

The Navy is suffering the same way to get its new carriers, retiring ships to pay for CVF when this should of been paid for by the budget.

The 1997 SDR was nothing but a great piece of PR for the new Government with little basis in reality.

Mackay

The writing was on the wall when the Government caved in to Saudi pressure over the "Al-Yamamah" contract.

When a country loses the power to scrutinize its own defence industry then it loses the ability to defend itself properly. The debacle in Afghanistan is an indication of this state of affairs.

David Logan

The problems are inevitable because politicians love to announce big new projects bringing jobs to whereever but are not willing to spend the money. The result, as per the carriers, is constant delays during which time specifications get revised and costs increase exponentially. What is needed is political discipline and Ministers willing to say that the procurement budget has been spent for the next 10 years and that any additional kit needed for wars like Afgahnistan need to be met from new money not the existing budget. Brown's refusal to allow that when Chancellor is the major cause of these problems.

saddleworth

David Logan's posting highlights the gap that has always existed between politicians' hot air and delivery. The more incompetent this government has become the wider has become the gap. Government is really about delivery and not spin and must be judged on delivery and not the manipulative PR policies that Blair/Brown seem to regard as government

Lord Boyders

I like the fact that Quentin Davies blames a former Conservative government, he was probably in it, how does he have the front?

John

It is challenging to achieve sustained excellence in acquisition/procurement in defence. It requires extraordinary performance from those concerned. MOD has achieved some success with UORs [Urgent Operational Requirements]. In contrast there is a history of classic failures in many areas which have been well reported. But such instances are far from a new phenomenon. History shows a string of calamities going back well into the inter-war [WW1 and WW11]years.

If you wish to be futher alarmed then please glance through the excellent works of historian Correlli Barnett [especialy “Audit of War”] and the sharp observer of Defence Acquisition, Bill Kincaid – it is all in his ‘Dinosaur Quartet’ [the latest, 2008 being possibly his best, “Changing the Dinosaurs Spots” subtitled ‘The Battle to Reform UK Defence Acquisition’]. And as you scan through these significant books – recall the words of Santayana, ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’

What is so alarming and worrying is the fact that little seems to have changed, or indeed seems likely to change. It appears that Lord Drayson started well but then quit to race his cars. He has now returned!
So please, no more books or reports on this subject, just some sustained action that will result in a flow of quality equipment to our extraordinary servicemen and servicewomen. To paraphrase that flamboyant mover and shaker, Sir John Harvey-Jones, let us 'make it happen'! Leading! That is what it is all about!