You Do the Fighting, I’ll Do the Talking

You can imagine, I think, the outrage there’d have been had Tony Blair or, god forbid, Gordon Brown slapped down the service cheifs in this fashion. But there was the Prime Minister, exasperated by repeated complaints from the heads of the Army, Royal Navy and RAF that their resources are perilously close to snapping-point, telling the press he sometimes feels like saying “I tell you what – you do the fighting and I’ll do the talking.”

As I say, the Tory press would have torn poor Gordon to shreds had he dared suggest any such thing. As it is, the Telegraph’s editorial yesterday was relatively restrained but still sided with the military against the civilian leadership. (Imagine, meanwhile, the rumpus that would follow if Barack Obama – or his predecessor – were to slap David Petraeus in such fashion!)

Given that the Conservatives were so pleased with General Sir Richard Dannatt’s public challenges to the last government’s policy they made him a peer of the realm, they can hardly complain if his successors in uniform adopt the same approach.