RAF Training cuts

[Garry Russell]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12445321

[cstorey]

Utter Lunacy . I never thought that we could see a worse Government than the last one, but I was wrong . At least in the last lot there was one, just one, minister who had actually done a proper day's work - and God help us it was Prescott

[Felixx62]

Perhaps its time for a regime change here....

[Garry Russell]

It gets worse

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12461211

[DarrenL]

Utter Lunacy . I never thought that we could see a worse Government than the last one, but I was wrong . At least in the last lot there was one, just one, minister who had actually done a proper day's work - and God help us it was Prescott

No matter who was in power now the cuts would be the same, perhaps worse or in different areas, it's the poison chalice handed over by the last lot and they wiped their bums on it before handing it over.

[tango234]

no matter who was in power now the cuts would be the same, perhaps worse or in different areas, it's the poison chalice handed over by the last lot and they wiped their bums on it before handing it over.

As above. If the last lot had been more careful with the military expenditure, among other things (ie everything else) the situation would be a lot better than the one we are now it. The present administration has been left to pick up the pieces of something it did not cause and is taking the flak for it.

[AllanL]

Granted the financial mess inherited was always going to make the task tough - but the cack-handed way they have handled things is in danger of making people forget how bad happy smiling Gordon was.

Just in the are of the day job, after claiming that they would be the greenest government ever, in nine months they have managed to do the square root of chuff all to encourage renewables, stalled progress on the Renewable Heat Incentive and screwed up progress on the Feed-In Tariff. Not to mention grabbing all the cash from the CRC scheme which will cost industry and local government £1b a year.

What passes for renewables policy is now disjointed, inconsistent and/or up in the air. It seems Treasury infighting over the cash is being allowed to paralyse every department and any joined-up policy development.

Now these bastions of democracy are trying to ram a referendum for a dodgy voting system down our throats, just as long as they can get a majority even if that is less than 21% of the electorate.

[cstorey]

Cutting excessive expenditure plainly is necessary. However, how you make the cuts is important. The most irrational act so far has been the destruction of the Nimrod airframes , followed by the ludicrous statement from Cameron that if we needed we could borrow aircraft. Even if the aircraft were not used for their intended purposes, they were still the most efficient SAR long range machines that are available, and even if not used for that, they could have been mothballed in case of need. Similarly, the dismissal of almost trained pilots is wholly shortsighted . Even if they were placed on the Reserve, the finished article would add value to the nation . The present situation is redolent of the position in the 1930s, when inane civil servants formulated the view that there would be no war ( or other emergency) within 10 years. With Iranian warships in the Gulf of Suez, who's betting on that!?

[Garry Russell]

The madness is that these cuts are made at a time when the country is already involved in a war that has suffered from being under resourced even before all this.

Cuts are not the only way

Increase taxation by a wide margin on the hugely wealthy would be a step forwards

[Felixx62]

I would like to know how much this pointless war is costing us. Our brave men and women out there are dying and being badly injured. It all seems such a tragic waste for what ?. Im just dreading the next few months when things will kick off once again out there and no doubt more bad news will be passed to us by our media.