In defence of the recently announced personnel cuts in the RAF and Army, Liam Fox is on record as saying this will give Britain’s defence the chance to grow in coming years. Many don’t understand the logic behind cutting 920 Army jobs and 930 RAF posts at a time when employment is at almost historic lows and amidst growing tension worldwide.
According to the announcement of impending cuts, the RAF will eventually cut as many as 7,000 persons whilst the Army will cut 5,000 posts. Of those currently being cut, 750 are compulsory redundancies. Even so, Shadow Defence Secretary is not pleased with the cuts, contending that government went “too far” and that their decision was based on a “rushed review.”
As politics would have it, Fox countered with the statement that Labour government is incompetent for making the cuts and that the United Kingdom’s forces would remain strong. Because there is extra money having been allocated in the equipment budget a few years down the road, this will allow for growing capabilities after the 2015 budget comes into play.
In speaking of the previous government, Fox believes the Labour government left behind a nation with “broken finances.” He further alluded to a £38 billion “black hole” in the budget for defence. What seemingly came across as making light of the redundancies, Mr. fox said that being made redundant is always sad but the UK will still be strong enough and have “capable forces.”
In a statement made to assuage worries, the MoD announced that no RAF ground crew or pilots in Libya will be cut during this round of redundancies whilst there are some who have voluntarily agreed to go. Even so, there is a huge amount of controversy at the timing of this decision as nothing has been settled to date in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere in the Middle East for that matter.
