STABBED IN THE BACK

The Tories and Liberals are TRAITORS.

They will fund the banks to the tune of billions, but stab British troops in the back in a time of war.

You people who voted for this government should be ashamed.







* Ark Royal and Harrier jump jets scrapped immediately
* UK to have no working aircraft carrier for a decade
* Army to lose 7,000 troops, RAF 5,000 and Navy 5,000
* Trident renewal delayed for five years, saving £750m
* Cameron insists: 'We'll still be front rank military power'
* Angry Harrier pilot challenges him about job losses

David Cameron today unveiled plans to slash the defence budget by eight per cent and drastically cut numbers in the Army, Navy and RAF.

The Prime Minister told the Commons that the Army will be reduced by 7,000, the Navy by 5,000 and the RAF by another 5,000. Civilian jobs at the Ministry of Defence will drop by 25,000.

He confirmed the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which won the Falklands War, will be retired and its fleet of Harrier jets scrapped with immediate effect.

The renewal of Trident will also be delayed by at least five years with a final decision on replacing the submarine-launched nuclear deterrent postponed until after 2015, saving £750million.

The number of frigates and destroyers will drop from 23 to 19, tanks and heavy artillery will be slashed by 40 per cent and the Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft programme has been cancelled.

Mr Cameron insisted the measures were not a 'simply a cost-saving exercise' and would herald a 'step-change in the way we protect this country's security interests'.
Cameron

Drastic: David Cameron unveiling plans for defence cuts in the Commons this afternoon

Mr Cameron blasted Labour for leaving a '£38billion black hole' in the defence budget by over-spending on equipment.

Opposition leader Ed Miliband was greeted with shouts of 'apologise' as he stood to condemn the plans as 'simply not credible'.

But the Prime Minister declared that the only word the new Labour leader should say was 'sorry' for leaving behind such a mess.

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* 'An insult to the troops': Defence chief asks Channel 4 to drop 'distressing' Harry kidnap drama
* £9billion worth of council homes are inherited by 90,000 people who don't need government help

Mr Cameron insisted Britain would still have the fourth largest military in the world after the cuts and would stay in the 2 per cent target of GDP for Nao countries' investment in defence.

He also stressed the cuts would not affect operations in Afghanistan, which are funded from the Treasury's special reserve rather than the MoD.

'Britain has traditionally punched above its weight in the world and we should have no less ambition for our country in the years to come,' he said.

He added: 'This is not simply a cost-saving exercise to get to grips with the biggest budget deficit in post-war history it is about taking the right decisions to protect our national security in the years ahead.

'But the two are not separate. Our National Security depends on our economic strength and vice versa.

'As our national security is a priority so defence and security budgets will contribute to deficit reduction on a lower scale than most other departments.'

Earlier, armed forces personnel reacted with anger and disappointment as the PM outlined his plans at a headquarters in north London before this afternoon's Commons statement.

As he spoke at the Permanent Joint Headquarters this morning, troops clutched their heads and looked crestfallen.
Defence secretary Liam Fox and outgoing Armed Forces chief Jock Stirrup

Stern: Defence secretary Liam Fox and outgoing Armed Forces chief Jock Stirrup listen to Mr Cameron
troops

Angry: Military staff listen as David Cameron addresses them at The Permanent Joint Headquarters

Harrier jet pilot Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Chris Ward, 37, said: 'I am a Harrier pilot and I have flown 140 odd missions in Afghanistan and I am now potentially facing unemployment. How am I supposed to feel about that, please, sir?'

The Prime Minister replied: 'The military advice is pretty clear that when we have to make difficult decisions, it is right to keep the Typhoon as our principal ground attack aircraft, working in Afghanistan at the moment, and it is right to retire the Harrier.'

Another member of staff queried: 'Why are we spending billions on aircraft carriers just so that U.S. and French aircraft can take off and not UK fighters'.

When Mr Cameron protested that they would have British fighters, he was told 'not for 10 years, sir'.

Later as he met staff in the control room, the Prime Minister said: 'Defence is the first duty of any government and it is a duty, as Prime Minister, that I take incredibly seriously.

'Most important of all, we will make sure that Britain is well defended and we have a set of armed forces that actually are fit for the modern world.'

The move on Trident comes despite Mr Cameron making it an election issue six months ago - and lambasting his then rival Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg for not committing his party to the same policy.

In what the PM told the Cabinet was ‘one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make’, he will also announce that the UK will have aircraft carriers with no jet fighters until 2020.

Two new carriers will be built because penalty clauses in the contracts mean it would be more expensive to scrap one.

But the first will be a £3billion ‘white elephant’ that will never carry any aircraft and will be mothballed or sold after just three years in service.

The cuts will also see:

* On top of fewer troop numbers, the Army will lose more than 100 tanks and 200 armoured vehicles. An armoured brigade will go and the British presence in German will be withdrawn;
* The RAF will lose at least 5,000 service personnel and two RAF bases are to close;
* Navy warships will fall from 24 to 19 and 4,000 personnel will go. Harrier jump jets are being scrapped next year and not F35 Joint Strike Fighters will replace them until 2015;
* Special forces will be handed a funding boost to allow the purchase of sophisticated weapons and communications equipment.

The future of the aircraft carriers was apparently the sticking point in negotiations with the Ministry of Defence and was finally signed off by the Cabinet yesterday.

Britain will now not have the option of launching fighter jets at sea until at least 2019. Defence Secretary Liam Fox said this morning that 'inter-operability' with allies would become a priority.
Ark Royal

On the scrapheap: The Ark Royal moored in Portsmouth today
Harrier

Axed: The Fleet Air Arm's Harrier will go completely in the swingeing round of defence cuts

This raises the prospect of countries like U.S. and France being able to launch jets from UK carriers before our own Armed Forces.

Dr Fox said: 'You need to be looking not to the end of the decade but to the 35 or 40 years of life of the carriers and to have inter-operability with our allies seems to me to be a priority in that period if we are to have effective alliances.'
Cameron

David Cameron leaving No10 today with a copy of his speech on defence cuts

The Defence Secretary said there had only been a 'very limited' ability to fly fast jets from carriers in Afghanistan in recent years and stressed there are other resources.

'We have Tornado, we have Typhoon and the military view at the moment is that because we don't have at the present time any problems with basing or overflights, then Britain is able to project air power in that way,' he told the BBC.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has also signalled Britain will not embark on military interventions alone in future.

'I think it is more likely that we would do it in conjunction with our partners,' he said last night.

The cuts have raised questions about Britain’s ability to defend its interests and provoked anger in Tory ranks that Mr Cameron has bowed to Lib Dem demands to delay Trident.

The delay means Britain’s ageing fleet of Vanguard-class Trident nuclear submarines will have to stay in service longer.

The first submarine is due to go out of service in 2022. But the delay means the first new boat will not enter service until 2028 or 2029.

Downing Street sources say the delay was ‘military not political’ and that there is no need to spend money yet. A No 10 source said: ‘David Cameron’s determination to have Trident is not in question.’

But a senior Tory said: ‘Yet again we seem to be giving ground to the Lib Dems on matters of principle.’
CAMERON ASSURES OBAMA

David Cameron phoned Barack Obama to reassure the U.S. President that Britain would remain a 'first-rate military power'.

A Downing Street source said: 'The Prime Minister talked the President through the Government's new National Security Strategy and outlined the thinking behind the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

'He said that the UK would remain a first-rate military power and a robust ally of the United States.
David Cameron and Barack Obama


'We would be reforming our defence and security capabilities for the challenges of the 21st Century.

'We remained committed to meeting our responsibilities in NATO and would continue to work closely with the U.S. on the full range of current security priorities.

'There was also a discussion of ongoing, close UK-U.S. co-operation on counter-terrorism'

Dr Fox insisted today: 'I do not believe that any of the measures that we take will in any way affect the effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent, nor our ability to have a continuous at-sea deterrent.'

The Prime Minister is also under fire for the decision not to preserve Britain’s carrier strike capability.

Former Navy chiefs Admiral Lord West and Admiral Sir Jonathon Band have both warned that the absence of jets on board the carriers would make it impossible to retake the Falklands if the Argentinians chose to invade.

For the next ten years the UK will have just one active carrier, armed with helicopters, with HMS Queen Elizabeth entering service in 2016.

That will leave the UK dependent on the French or Americans to help in the event of a new Falklands crisis over the next decade.

In 2019, when the second carrier Prince of Wales arrives, the Queen Elizabeth will be put into ‘extended readiness’ - military terminology for mothballing - and may even be sold abroad.

The Prince of Wales will also carry just helicopters for a year before the American Joint Strike Fighter jets come into service in 2020.

Commander John Muxworthy, chief executive of the UK National Defence Association - which campaigns in support of the Armed Forces - who served in the Navy for 32 years, said: ‘The Navy is being decimated. It is unpardonable and history will never forgive it.’

Professor Malcolm Chalmers, of the Royal United Services Institute, added that the delays would affect morale on the new aircraft carriers.

'The full message that's coming from the Government on the aircraft carriers is they wish they weren't in this situation, and if they could have cancelled them and saved a significant amount of money, they would have done,' he said.

'But I think there are going to be real difficulties with the morale of people operating that capability knowing that the Government doesn't really think they are that important.'
SCRAPYARD BECKONS FOR FLAGSHIP AFTER 25 YEARS OF SERVICE

*
Ark Royal
HMS Ark Royal celebrated 25 years in service earlier this year
* The Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier was built at Swan Hunter's dockyard in Newcastle
* Construction on the hull began in 1978 and the ship was commissioned into service in 1985
* Ark Royal entered service on July 1 that year and was commissioned in the presence of the Queen Mother four months later
* The construction cost was £320m but the ship was delivered by Swan Hunter four and a half months ahead of schedule, with some mid-build alterations having been made due to lessons learned from the Falklands conflict
* Ark Royal - motto 'Zeal Does Not Rest' - is the fifth ship to bear the name
* The first Ark Royal, originally built for Sir Walter Raleigh, became the flagship of the English fleet which defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588
* The third Ark Royal took part in the sinking of the Bismarck
* Ark Royal IV was the subject of a well known documentary, 'Sailor', in 1978
* The current Ark Royal helped bring peace to Bosnia in 1993/94 and, following an extensive refit and upgrade in the late 1990s, took part in the second Gulf War in 2003
* Ark Royal is one of the Royal Navy's two operational Invincible Class aircraft carriers
* The ship can support up to 24 aircraft anywhere in the world and provides a mixture of war-fighting, peace support and disaster relief capabilities
* The current ship, at 693ft long, is larger than her two sisters, Invincible and Illustrious
* The current ship was deployed as part of Operation Telic, the codename for the invasion of Iraq, in 2003.
* It now operates as a Commando carrier capable of carrying 400 Royal Marines or soldiers and operating Chinook, Lynx, Apache and Sea King helicopters.




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