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Friday 17 September 2010

Defence Budget Cuts: £9.2 Billion. Foreign Aid Budget: £9.1 Billion

Defence Budget Cuts: £9.2 Billion. Foreign Aid Budget: £9.1 Billion

The ConDem regime has ordered defence budget cuts of up to £9.2 billion (the equivalent of the foreign aid budget) while still expecting the army to continue to fight the regime’s illegal foreign wars without proper equipment.
On the same day that the all-party Commons Defence Committee issued a report which said that cuts to the defence budget will undermine the Armed Forces’ ability to defend Britain, David Cameron boasted in parliament about the foreign aid allocation.
Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Cameron boasted that Britain could “hold its head up high” because the foreign aid budget is not being cut back even though all services to British people, including those of securing the borders and defence funding, are being drastically cut.
The ConDem regime has committed itself to increasing the foreign aid budget from its current £9 billion to £13 billion, despite announcing cuts of 25 percent and more in the police, border and defence budgets. Mr Cameron’s announcement was greeted with praise and admiration by the rest of Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Commons Defence Committee report said that the cuts will “jeopardise troop operations” and the army’s capacity to “sustain current in-use capabilities and therefore current operations could well be put at risk by the proposed cuts.”
In other words, Mr Cameron is not only committed to keeping British troops in Afghanistan, but also to deliberately underfunding them.
This was exactly what the Conservatives, when still in opposition, accused the Labour regime of doing.
Now, however, as the reality of the Tory regime becomes ever clearer, it is apparent that the Labour Party’s policy of underfunding the army while committing it to foreign wars is being implemented with gusto by the ConDem government.
In February this year, for example, Mr Cameron accused then Prime Minister Gordon Brown in parliament of sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan without the proper equipment.
In Commons question time exchanges, Mr Cameron accused Mr Brown of "ignoring the welfare" of the armed forces, pointing out that the Labour government had so underfunded the military that former defence secretary Geoff Hoon had gone on public record as saying that the air force now had fewer helicopters because of Mr Brown’s decisions.
In a staggering display of hypocrisy which has become the hallmark of the ConDem regime, Mr Cameron went on to say that “"We've had soldier after soldier complaining about lack of body armour, vehicles and equipment.”
But now that he is in 10 Downing Street, Mr Cameron has announced cuts to the military which not even the Labour government dared consider – all the while demanding of our heroes that they continue with their mission impossible in Afghanistan.
The British National Party will launch its “Support our troops, bring our boys home” campaign this coming weekend to underline the party’s demand that the Labour and ConDem regimes have abused our troops for their evil and illegal wars.
The only solution to the problem is to end the wars with immediate effect and bring our soldiers home without delay. The BNP will be circulating petitions calling for the withdrawal of our troops starting this coming Saturday.