Soldiering on amid the cuts

DANGER comes in many forms, as any soldier can tell you. Britain’s Armed Forces have faced guns and bullets daily in Iraq and Afghanistan but, over the last decade, they have also been put at risk by the stroke of pens in the Ministry of Defence. The latest step-change devised by Liam Fox, which involves a build-up of reserve soldiers and a fall in the number of regular troops, could create a new threat to our men and women serving around the world.

Of course, many of these problems were created by Labour, which failed to equip the Army properly and then shattered the public finances. The further changes outlined yesterday by Dr Fox, the Defence Secretary, could however make a bad situation worse.

Reservists are brave and highly motivated individuals who serve their country while maintaining ordinary jobs – and whose skills go well beyond the traditional Dad’s Army image of part-time soldiers – but they cannot hope to compensate for the troops who will be lost as part of the sweeping cuts to Army spending.

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The coalition’s changes risk turning the British Army, once the envy of the world, into a cut-price operation. It was only in October that it announced plans to cut troop numbers by 17,000 and MoD jobs by 25,000 and since then the problems have increased.

Nato action against Muammar Gaddafi has gone on for longer than hoped and shows no sign of ending while Britain’s economy, on the health of which the Government relies for its spending power, has shown little sign of recovery.

Indeed, the challenges facing the Army could increase further. It is fighting around the world against the franchises of al-Qaida; the Arab Spring brought democracy to millions but has raised the prospect of more disturbances in the Middle East, and British troops are expected to play a part in security around the Olympic Games in London next year.

David Cameron is widely believed to have come to power with the desire that his Britain be less interventionist, rather than more. While our nation seems unlikely to launch more invasions of the kind seen in Iraq and Afghanistan, however, and may now also lack the capability to do so, it remains in many senses the world’s policeman. Until Ministers recognise this, their cuts could pose a risk to our soldiers.