Why wasn't I surprised when I read the journo's report? - because 20 years ago whilst I was doing a tour at the Huntingdon Happy Eater, there was a paper doing the rounds with exactly these proposals. There was a lot of huffing and puffing in an "it'll never happen" sort of way, but the writing was on the wall. The Berlin Wall had been breached and the enemy - aka The Treasury - was demanding the peace dividend.
What sort of proposals affecting the Royal Navy or the Army were doing the rounds at the same time I don't know, but I'm pretty sure the RAF paper wasn't on its own.
What I find worrying, apart from being saddened by what is happening to my former service, is the ever-increasing weakening of the defence of this country by the reduction of the capabilities and resources of all three Services. It appears to me that we are being stripped and weakened, by subscribers of a particular political ideology, to the point whereby we have to rely on other countries for our defence or we roll-over at the very first hint of a threat. I don't think any useful purpose is being served at the moment by any one service slagging off the other two, despite shouts of glee from certain areas of our khaki-clad brethren. I think the point has been reached where all the services should be shouting with one voice "No more cuts".
Comrade Brown has already signalled a further step in achieving one of Liarbours long-standing goals - that of nuclear disarmament - through his recent announcement on the replacement of the current deterrent. How much longer before we reach the point where the only umbrella we have is the one that keeps the rain off our heads?
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