Posts Tagged ‘Defence’
Gordon Brown’s record – Conservative “Vote for Me” campaign
Michael Gove has launched a new poster campaign putting Gordon Brown’s record at the heart of the election campaign.
These posters arrive alongside a new analysis of Labour’s time in power, and you can view both by clicking the links below.
Speaking at the launch, Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove said:
“Gordon Brown is asking people to vote him in for another five years but he and his tired Government will just make things worse.”
“He has doubled our national debt and squandered billions of pounds selling off Britain’s gold at rock bottom prices. He has taken billions out of our pensions system and doubled the tax rate for the poorest workers. He has let down our young people by causing record youth unemployment, and overseen an increase in the gap between the rich and poor. And he has let 80,000 criminals out of prison early, leading to 1,500 crimes being committed by people who should have been behind bars.”
“We can’t go on like this. The choice at this election is five more years of Gordon Brown’s tired government making things worse or David Cameron and the Conservatives with the energy, leadership and values to get the country moving.”
… and here are some other things Gordon Brown did…
Cut the Defence Budget at a time of war – and got caught out denying it!
Gordon Brown misled the Chilcot Inquiry, Parliament and the public when he claimed that ‘the defence budget has been rising every year since 1997’
(Hansard, 10 March 2010, Col. 291).
He was later forced to admit that ‘I do accept that in one or two years defence expenditure did not rise in real terms’
(Hansard, 17 March 2010).
Figures from the Ministry of Defence show that the defence budget actually fell year-on-year in real terms on four occasions since 1997 – in 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2007.
(Channel 4 News Factcheck, 10 March 2010).
Taxed jobs as we were emerging from recession.
Last December, Gordon Brown’s Government announced a tax on jobs – a 0.5 per cent rise in the rate of National Insurance Contributions for both employees and employers. This comes on top of the
rise in NICs announced in the 2008 PBR, meaning a total planned rise of 1 per cent. This is a tax on all businesses and on every person earning over £20,000.
The Federation of Small Businesses has estimated that this could mean up to 57,000 jobs are lost. (FSB,
Press Release, 24 March 2010)
Increased spending on quangos by £10 billion.
The cost of unelected and poorly accountable government bodies has soared by almost £10 billion under Gordon Brown. In his first year as Prime Minister, total expenditure on so-called
“executive non-departmental public bodies” rose from £37.0 billion to £43.0 billion in 2007-08 – a 16 per cent rise
(Cabinet Office, Public Bodies 2007, p.10; Public Bodies 2008, p.10).
Figures for 2008-09 revealed quango expenditure rose by another £3.5 billion to £46.5 billion – a 7 per cent rise
(Cabinet Office, Public Bodies 2009, p.6) making a mockery of his claims to deliver a new politics.
Brought boom and bust to the NHS – which led to NHS cuts.
Despite massively increasing spending, Gordon Brown has been guilty of a ‘boom and bust’ approach to the NHS finances, forcing NHS Trusts into cuts and wasteful short-term spending. Between 2005 and 2007, 14,500 jobs were cut from the NHS as Trusts struggled to recover from deficits
(NHS Information Centre, NHS Staff 1998-2008, 25 March 2009).
And since 2004, the number of beds in the NHS has been cut by 21,500 – the equivalent of 12 per cent
(Department of Health, Bed availability and occupancy 2008-09, 30 September 2009).
Accident and Emergency departments and maternity units up and down the country have faced or are facing cuts and closures. And things are only set to get worse, as one of Gordon Brown’s own health advisers said that ‘the days of the District General Hospital are over’
(Professor Sir Ara Darzi, NHS London, A Framework for Action, 11 July 2007).
Let truancy rise to record levels.
In 1998, Gordon Brown’s Treasury set a target to reduce truancy rates to 0.5 per cent
(HM Treasury, Comprehensive Spending Review, Public Service Agreements 1999-2000, December 1998).
But the figure now stands at 1.05 per cent – up 44 per cent since 1996/7, well in excess of the Government’s target, and at a record high. 67,000 pupils skip school without permission every day
(DCSF, Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2008/09, 25 March 2010).
Paid couples more to live apart than together.
The tax credit system penalises parents who live together, giving families a financial incentive to split up.
The IFS has highlighted the fact that a couple with children earning £20,000 between them could be more than £5,000 better off in terms of benefits and tax credits if they split up.
(The Sunday Times, 4 March 2007).
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Labours betrayal of our armed forces – Military chiefs accuse Brown
The truth of Brown’s attempt to cover up the amount of defence spending is starting to come out. The armed forces are now quite clear on the position that Brown’s Labour Government cannot be trusted. Despite huge professionalism and bravery on the part of our armed services the armed forces cannot depend on this Government. Every military person needs to wake up fast to what Brown and his cabal of misfits have done and how Labour has turned its back on them and our nation.
Labours disrespect for the armed services is staggering and their appalling record and betrayal of our military personel cannot go unpunished. I would urge every soldier, sailor, and air force member of the armed services to assist the rest of the people in this country to throw this dredful Labour Government out of power as soon as the General Election takes place. Only then can we begin to properly fund and support not only our fighting men and woman but ensure we get the support that their families deserve as well.
Jim Ferguson
This graph (hat tip to Burning our Money) gets closest to the truth about Labour’s record on defence spending (click on the image to enlarge it):
For the reasons pointed out by BoM, because defence costs have risen faster than inflation the second graph is most relevant. At a time of two wars Labour has cut the buying power of our armed forces.
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Yesterday Gordon Brown told the Iraq inquiry that he gave the military all they needed. Liam Fox hit back, accusing the Prime Minister of being “evasive” and pointing to contradictory statements issued by others.
Today, Mr Brown gets both barrels from retired military chiefs in The Times and Telegraph.
“He’s dissembling, he’s being disingenuous. It’s just not the case that the Ministry of Defence was given everything it needed. There may have been a 1.5 per cent increase in the defence budget but the MoD was starved of funds.” – Admiral Lord Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff up to the start of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, quoted in The Times
“To say Gordon Brown has given the military all they asked for is simply not true. He cannot get away with saying I gave them everything they asked for, that is simply disingenuous.” – Lord Guthrie in The Telegraph
“The real truth is the Armed Forces are underfunded.” – Major General Patrick Cordingley, quoted in The Telegraph
Speaking on Radio 4 at 8.15am this morning, General Sir Richard Dannatt backed his former colleagues in the armed forces. The whole of the armed forces had been robbed to provide the basics for combat operations, he told listeners.
In its leader column The Telegraph makes the obvious conclusion:
“What they do know is that there are soldiers who would not have been killed had they been better equipped and whether that was the Treasury’s fault or the MoD’s is neither here nor there. The Government must be held to account; and Mr Brown has been at its heart for 13 years.”
Tim Montgomerie
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Brown cannot see the financial repercussions over defence
As you would expect I am no fan of Gordon Brown or this lunatic Labour Government. However I am seriously of the growing opinion that Gordon Brown is simply in denial over much of this failed Labour Governmenst’s lack of ability and understanding in dealing with what is crystal clear to the vast majority of people all across the UK.
This is symptomatic of Brown and his lack lustre cronies and hangons in the cabinet who between them wouldent know common sense if it jumped up and bit them on their behind !
Defence of the nation is paramount in these uncertain times and to have such appalling lack of understanding on simple basics as we can see from the report below is shocking and very alarming.
I dont know who we should fear the most. Al -Qaeda or another term of Labour. Frankly its my honest belief that the latter would be more of a threat to and do more damage to Britain. Probably already have !
Jim Ferguson
Brown still in denial over defence black hole
Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox has responded to the publication of the Government’s defence Green Paper.
“Bob Ainsworth deserves genuine praise for his attempts to find a cross party consensus. This Green Paper indicates that the MoD is coming out of denial but the Prime Minister is not”, he said.
Fox criticised Gordon Brown for “undermining a Secretary of State on the front page of the Times”, contrasting the Defence Secretary’s defence cut backs in December with the Prime Minister’s announcement of defence increases this week.
He also criticised the Prime Minister’s office for “briefing that any project that has job implications for the Prime Minister’s constituency will be spared”.
Fox said he agreed that France and the United States are likely to be our main strategic partners, but added that there were two tests: ”Do they invest in defence? And do they fight? Too few European allies pass both these tests.”
And he called on the Government to “give honest answers about the implications of the cost overruns in the years ahead”, given that – unlike the Opposition and the House of Commons - it has access to all the costs of the contracts and penalty clauses for the major programmes.
Later on, Fox called on Gordon Brown to apologise for misleading the House of Commons. At Prime Minister’s Questions he repeatedly made the allegation that the Conservatives pledged to cut defence spending at the 2005 election, when the manifesto was committed to a £2.7bn increase in frontline spending.
Read Liam Fox’s speech in Parliament in response to the Secretary of State’s statement
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Labours Financial incompetence costs the Armed Forces
The economic mismanagement of the Armed Forces by this Labour Government is staggering. However while its totally wrong for them to have botched things in such a fundamental way what is totally unacceptable is putting the lives of our fighting men and woman at risk due to their incompetence.
The sooner we get rid of this Labour Government the better.
Jim Ferguson
Shadow Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox has criticised the Government’s cuts to Britain’s defence capability.
“Today we see that the Government is trying to fight a war from the core defence budget”, he said. This is despite Gordon Brown and Bob Ainsworth saying that the Treasury reserve is covering the cost of the war in Afghanistan.
Fox said the reason for the cuts was not as a response to a diminished threat – “if anything the threat is increasing” – but as a result of “catastrophic economic mismanagement”.”Our brave armed forces are paying for Labour’s incompetence”, he said.
He welcomed the announcement of new Chinook helicopters, but noted that they would not have been necessary if the Prime Minister had not, against all advice, cut £1.4bn from the helicopter programme in 2004.
If it wasn’t for this failure to understand the Armed Forces “those Chinooks could have been on the front line today, saving the lives of our brave soldiers”, he said
“Instead”, he added, “they will not be available until at least 2013 by which time, according to the Prime Minister, we should have substantially transferred security responsibility to Afghan national forces”.
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