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Fox to announce MoD reform

Published 13 August 2010

Minister aims to reduce number of civilian staff.

Defence minister Liam Fox will today set out plans for sweeping changes in his department.

Of particular concern to Fox is the large number of civil servants employed in the ministry, with some 85,000 civilian staff supporting an army of 100,000 military personnel. He has previously said that he would like to reduce the running costs of the MoD by 25 per cent.

In a speech at the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors, Fox will reiterate the need for sensible spending plans for the department, as well as his commitment to transfer more power from the bureaucracy to military commanders.

Along with other Whitehall departments, the MoD is facing budget cuts of between 10 and 20 per cent.

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5 comments from readers

Al Campbell
13 August 2010 at 11:22

'sweeping changes in the department' = cuts = civilian job losses.

Q. And how do they sell it?

A. Simple, they use the word

bureaucracy in their speeches.

Q. Why that word?

A. Well thanks to years of propaganda

drilled into the common man, the

'common' consensus is that

bureaucracy is unnecessary and should

be eradicated.

Q. But bureaucrats are people doing work,

why do they always take the brunt?

A. Well their 'working people' and history

tells us that The Conservatives will

always attack the working people

whenever they're in power. It's just that

they use propaganda terms such as

'efficiency' and 'changes' to mask the

'stanley knives' sticking out of their

pockets.

Q. So the working man is screwed again.

There he was, thinking the

Conservatives would be better than

New Labour.

A. Well, firstly you should blame New

Labour for taking the working man

for granted, and for having a Scottish

leader - that was a big cock up. And

secondly blame the working man for

being tricked. But then again, a change

of government was needed. New

Labour was lethargic.

Q. I guess New Labour should sort

themselves out and come back in the

next election.

A. Well. it's not as simple as that.

The way I see it is that the tories are

going to be in government for the

next ten years at least.

Q. But they are awful! Surely, the working

man will get rid of them in the next

election?

A. Keep dreaming.

Q. And what about David Miliband?

A. Well, if he wants to be Prime Minister

he should drop out of the leadership

because he won't win an election in 5

years, In 10, maybe. If he was smart,

he'd let Ed Balls win this election and

become the New Neil Kinnock, and then

after that, enter Tony Blair, sorry I mean,

David Miliband.

Q. What about UKIP and BNP, they're on

the rise aren't they?

A. Oh, those guys, you see those guys, if

you look closely, you'll see that they set

the bar for the Conservatives with their

fear mongering, so that when an election

comes, the common man, already

rattled with fear, will gravitate towards

the COnservatives. One could say

BNP and UKIP are indirect agents of the

conservartives.

Q. Now you're being ridiculous! Seriously!

A. Well politics is ridiculous too isn't it?

Anne-Marie
13 August 2010 at 15:19

If Fox really wants to cut costs, then the one group he certainly shouldn't want running the admin/bureaucracy is the military.

Service personnel are paid more than a civilian doing the same job, get expenses a civilian would not and even get a local home provided for them at taxpayers expense (even when in central London) which civilians do not.

In short, a member of the Forces costs the taxpayer at least twice (and often rather more than that) what a civilian would to do the same job.

Which is not the same thing as saying that some of the civilians are fit to work there in the first place!

Malachy McAnespie
13 August 2010 at 17:37

1967 Brown and Callahan went around every Gov. Dept. asking people what they did -they found it quite terrifying, but resulting changes were modest.

Spiller
14 August 2010 at 15:39

Ha ha, would be nice if they "reformed", accumalated here and staged a coup to get rid of this nasty, sadistic (Cos we're not "in this together" and they are enjoying their idealogiccal cuts) clueless ConDem government!!

EhtchTee
14 August 2010 at 19:27