DEFENCE CUTS

IT seems rather odd to me that the British government is making sweeping defence cuts at a time when the British armed forces are involved in two conflicts in Afghanistan and Libya. It must be terrible if you are serving on the frontline and you discover that there is a real danger that you could lose your job.

The Cameron administration has said that there was an enormous hole in the defence budget as a result of the overspending of the previous administration. For this reason the sweeping defence cuts have proved necessary.

The cuts are obviously going to hit the morale of all the armed services. Savings could easily have been made by finding ways to cancel one of the two aircraft carriers which are presently being built for the Royal Navy. In this way the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, could have been retained along with her Sea Harrier jump jets. Cuts to the army should not be made especially when Britain has 10'000 troops fighting in Afghanistan along with other major hotspots across the globe. If Britain wants to continue to be a major player on the international stage then it needs the necessary muscle. If it doesn´t have the muscle then there is little it can do. These cuts are wrong and need to be urgently resconsidered before it is too late.