Dan Jarvis was previously Security Minister in the Home Office, he now gets the poisoned chalice job. Viewed as a double edged sword by military types…
Jeremy Corbyn has presented his vision of an “independent” foreign policy in the New Statesman today. Apart from complaining about Maduro’s arrest, he suggests about two actual elements of said foreign policy:
“In 2024-25, the UK spent more than £60bn – or around 2.5 per cent of GDP – on “defence”. Starmer has pledged to increase this to a staggering 5 per cent by 2035. Imagine if we spent as much time talking about climate alliances – and how to empower them – as we do about military alliances. Imagine if the money we spent on killing people overseas was spent protecting the planet that we all depend for survival.”
Apart from that Corbyn – who recently founded a now-dead party – suggests abolishing the veto of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and instituting an “expanded, rolling membership on it.” A vision which manages to be entirely vague and clearly disastrous at the same time…
For those following the MoD’s ultimate terrible procurement project Ajax, the MoD has slipped out a pre-Christmas statement on its ongoing difficulties. Only getting worse…
Luke Pollard has just said in a written statement that all trials will be stopped after yet another soldier was injured:
“This additional report of an injury is a serious concern to me so, out of an abundance of caution, and to ensure the safety of our personnel, I have directed a pause on all Ajax trials. This is in addition to the ongoing pause for training and exercising. The pause to the trials will allow time for the individual’s symptoms to be investigated and for the vehicle to be thoroughly inspected. In the New Year, I will assess if trials can be restarted.”
Knowledge of problems with General Dynamics’ Ajax has been commonplace in SW1 for very many years. Five years overdue, a £6 billion waste of time…
The body responsible for maintaining Britain’s nuclear deterrent has launched a new “gender equity working group” to oversee diversity targets. Good to know…
The agency, which forms part of the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) in the MoD boasts of running “some of the most complex programmes in the world” and providing “assured capabilities to the Royal Navy that are crucial to the delivery and maintenance of the Continuous at Sea Deterrent (CASD).” It is now pursuing its own bespoke “Gender Equity Action Plan”…
On 5 July staff were told to “get involved” on the staff internet. If you’re bored of keeping the nukes running…
“The SDA is establishing a gender equity working group to shape and own the SDA Gender Equity Action Plan. We would value representation from male, female and non-binary colleagues.”
Mutually assured inclusion…
Civil servants at the Ministry of Defence have been ramping up their use of free aerobics classes into the summer. Nice for some…
At the MoD’s Main Building headquarters on Whitehall staff are given access to a “Gymnasium,” “Fitness Studio where aerobics classes take place,” and “Stretching space.” Guido’s FoI Unit inquired as to the usage of those facilities. The MoD has only just started recording it…
Civil servant attendance at instructor-led aerobics classes in the bespoke facilities has rocketed from 123 in May this year to 394 in July. Use of the gym has likewise risen from 1,983 to 2,597 over the same period. Better get to the stretching space straight after…
The MoD is concealing the costs of transferring Afghans to the UK under the covered-up Afghan Response Route. Murky…
As Guido revealed last month across all Afghan resettlement schemes the taxpayer has forked out £457,833 on average every month to fly Afghans to the UK. The MoD is refusing however to specify the costs for flights used on the ARR since its inception, including RAF and charter flights. The MoD claims “hostile states, terrorist organisations and ransomware hackers may exploit this information to intentionally target eligible approved applicants” and that disclosing the cost would damage “the contractual and commercial interests of the Department” with charter companies. Baloney…
In a sign of the shambolic state of all the schemes the MoD also doesn’t know how many ARAP applicants have been flagged as risky ‘cases of interest’ – entirely devolving the issue to the Home Office. No communication between the two departments, no accountability…
Former leader of the SNP in Westminster Ian Blackford told Times Radio why he believes Nicola Sturgeon’s claim that she spent no time in the kitchen and therefore didn’t see any of her husband’s purchases:
“She doesn’t have a passion for cooking.”