How to lose the battle for Britain

Now that Mr Geoff Hoon has put his Hutton embarrassments behind him and emerged shining like a new pin, some of us hope that he will address his day job. Britain’s defence planning is in a dreadful mess. Unless the Secretary of State acts effectively, the services face a grim future — and they know it.

Curiously enough, the issues have nothing to do with Iraq and the alleged equipment shortcomings which have attracted so many headlines since a critical National Audit Office report was published. It was indeed tragic that Sergeant Steve Roberts lacked the latest model of body armour when he was killed. But in the big picture, the British army fought its Iraq campaign with fewer equipment problems than it has experienced during any war in its history. These are the wrong charges to throw at Geoff Hoon.

The real issues — which amount to a major scandal — concern the continuing funding of the armed forces, amid a grievous current spending gap which the Treasury has no intention of filling; and weapons programmes for the next generation, costing tens of billions of pounds.