Liam Fox is in the most invidious position. It is hard enough to secure significant
budget cuts against vested interests that maintain anti-competitive procurement; and being at war deepens the task. Cuts of 10 to 20 percent must be made but at the same time Fox acknowledges, in
an interview with the Telegraph, that:
‘We have to keep sufficient land forces to hold territory if required, we have got to maintain enough maritime power and we have got to maintain air power to maintain air superiority.’
Like all defence secretaries, Fox is trying to contain the warring service chiefs, their temperaments exacerbated by the coming cuts. Fox is even handed. There are 25,000 men and a large number of tanks in Germany, Fox says:
‘We have to look at where we think the real risks will come from, where the real threats will come from and we need to deal with that accordingly.
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