Is the defence budget the most chaotic in all Whitehall? George Osborne said as much last October — and he’s still dealing with its hellish intricacies now. The main problem, as so often in military matters, is
one of overcommitment. Thanks to various accounting ruses on Labour’s part, large parts of the MoD’s costs were hidden in the long grass of the future. It was buy now, pay later — with Brown
doing the buying bit, and the coalition doing the paying. The number that William Hague put on it last year was £38 billion. The
MoD was spending £38 billion more, over this decade, than had been budgeted. Even after the cuts, elements of that overspend were likely to remain.
Which is why this story from today’s Telegraph is worth reading in full. It tells us how David Cameron has decided to deal with this year’s MoD overspend: rather than asking for more cuts to make up the £1 billion shortfall, he has granted the department a reprieve.
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