Will the famous black hole in the MoD budget ever be filled? It strikes me that it has become the universal excuse for anything to do with reducing defence funding, blaming the previous government is an all too easy excuse. The number is repeatedly said to be £38 billion but the government has never published the make up of this [...]
I saw this article by Aaron Ellis over at Egremont (Tory Reform Group)which is both thoughtful and interesting, as all Aaron’s writing is, but ultimately I think the conclusion he draws is wrong. To paraphrase; the appointment of Phil Hammond to the post of Secretary of State for Defence is a poor choice by David Cameron and will ultimately undermine his [...]
We generally accept that Labour left the MoD finances in a complete mess with a collection of wishful thinking future programmes and all sorts of other liabilities. The figure most often quoted is £38 billion. A figure that Liam Fox and the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government take full credit for eliminating in a swift and decisive manner. All well and [...]
Liam Fox has today announced a series of reforms at the MoD. Of course all reforms at the MoD, at least those in the last several decades, have been prefixed with the word ‘radical’ but these do seem to be pretty far reaching. Only time will tell if they manage to make the MoD a more efficient organisation A roundup [...]
Expect lots of briefing and counter briefing in the next few months as Lord Levene submits his final report on another round of defence transformation. If you cast your mind back to August last year when Lord Levene was appointed to the Defence Reform Unit I predicted sparks woudl be flying round about now, especially in light of continued budgetary [...]
In light of recent news about sacking trainee pilots and Warrant Officers on the Long Service List a recent parliamentary answer offers a good contrast. Angus Robertson, the SNP Member of Parliament for Moray asked the following question, To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many (a) press officers, (b) internal communications officers, (c) external communications officers, (d) communications strategy officers and (e) [...]
Just when you thought the MoD could not be any more ham fisted they manage to completely screw something up so spectacularly it restores your faith in their rank incompetence. Widely covered in the press this week is the decision to abandon the £6 billion SAR-H PFI in the light of allegations of skulduggery and dodgy dealing. The MoD police are now [...]
Back in February last year I bemoaned the lack of engineering technical expertise within DE&S, not that it isn’t there but what is there is obviously in short supply which results in the MoD having to buy in technical consultants or contract specific projects. In years gone by, when the MoD was technical skills rich the kinds of projects we [...]
One hoped that a new team at the MoD and government in general would curb some of the excessive media management that so characterised the Labour government. Sitting and watching the TV or reading the news online this week it would seem that old habits die hard. Splashed all over the media was the excellent news about the new National [...]
I haven’t covered the Defence Reform Unit or the Green Paper on defence industrial issues but will do so in due course.
What sort of operation is Liam Fox running? It’s hard not to have some sympathy with him, dealt a pretty tough hand of cards by the previous shower, presiding over a basket case MoD and held hostage by the needs of the coalition, but, the talk of tough decisions, sacred cow massacres and making every penny count all seems to [...]
It’s bad enough for the Royal Navy that memories of matelots and their iPods are still fresh, accidentally invading Spain, the Astute being pranged by the very tug that came to rescue her, an aircraft carrier with no aircraft and the indignity of sharing ships with the bloody Frenchies, it seems the bad luck keeps stacking up. A Romanian network [...]
Some of these are due for consolidation but this is a list of MoD websites (click to visit) These are the social networking sites the armed forces manage Get clicking!
Some interesting information on MoD sickness related absence The following table shows the number of days lost through sickness absence over a rolling 12-month period. The table includes non-industrial and industrial staff and the staff of the four MOD Trading Funds, but excludes staff in the Royal Fleet Auxiliaryand locally engaged civilians for whom sickness absence data is not readily available. [...]
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