The resignation of the head of UK special forces ,Major Sebastian Morley, over the inadequate equipment UK forces are having to use in Afghanistan and Iraq will, no doubt, be ignored and brushed under the carpet by the government in the same way as concerns about the armour on Scimitar armoured vehicles, fire warnings on Nimrods, dangers of explosions on Hercules aircraft and the lack of body armour for troops have in the past. Now Major Morley highlight the fact that snatch Land Rovers are useless in theatres of war, yet the government seem to be oblivious to it.
The problem is when the head of the SAS is so disgusted with what his troops are having to use, then we really have got problems.
The Ministry of Defense describes Snatch Land Rovers as protected patrol vehicles for use in "low-threat areas." If the MOD believe that Iraq and Afghanistan are low risk areas, then I suggest we move some junior ministers to these areas to be driven about in Land Rovers for a while. I'm sure they'd take action then !
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This is symptomatic of a Government who seem quite happy in deploying our overstretched and undersupported troops around the world, but seem unwilling to honour their )our) side of the Military Covenenant.
Despite wasting Billions of Pounds on poorly conceived / run / managed PFI projects, endless expensive initiatives in the Health Service that fail to deliver any real benefits to the public, despite being able to find billions of public money to bail out private companies who have brought themselves to the brink of bankruptcy, this Government seems unable to find the relatively small amounts of money required to ensure that troops in combat zones have access to adequate equipment necessary for their safety.
How many inquests have we seen where coroners find that Government / MOD failures contributed to the death of troops who are serving their country?
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