Fighting talk

IF Tony Blair started his premiership as one type of leader, and ended it as another, as he said last week, then it's clear his Chancellor did not make the journey with him. By the end of his decade in office, Mr Blair had been transformed from a Prime Minister cautious on foreign policy to one who was willing and eager to send British forces into action around the world. Gordon Brown, however, never made the same political leap.

That's why the criticisms made in a new book by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the former head of the Army, ring true. During its time in office Labour was dogged by complaints that Mr Brown was reluctant to pay for Mr Blair's wars and when such claims came from soldiers, their families and even coroners they appear credible.

This may have been only one of countless sources of tension between Prime Minister and Chancellor but it was one of the most significant. Few would doubt that Britain's brave servicemen and women suffered as a result.

When Mr Brown finally entered Number 10, he had a chance to dispel the suggestion he was not interested in defence. Instead, it took root

further and when he decided to visit British soldiers in Iraq, on the

eve of the election-that-never-was in autumn 2007, it looked like he was using the Armed Forces to boost his image with an eye-catching photo opportunity.

History, as Sir Richard said, will judge Labour's militar interventions. The picture may be more complex than that painted by the General, a former Conservative Party adviser, but the perception still remains that for many years Britain was forced to fight two major wars on a peacetime budget. To borrow Mr Blair's language, the journey Labour took with the military was left unfinished.