In his politics column for the Spectator this week (not yet online), James Forsyth dissects the rows behind the scenes within the coalition government. He argues that it’s not the Lib Dem v Conservative disputes that really matter (one would expect some disagreement, after all), but those between rival Tory ministers — “blue on blue”, in Forsyth’s phrase.
He cites the now-familiar friction between George Osborne at the Treasury and Liam Fox at the Ministry of Defence over who should foot the bill for replacing Trident, and suggests a less familiar root cause:
Some hawkish Conservatives are convinced that Osborne is making the MoD absorb the full cost of Trident because he wants to get rid of it. This is about Osborne wanting to show that the party is modern, they say, that it’s moved on from the Thatcher era. One complained to me that “it’s some bullshit Steve Hilton-style rebranding idea”.
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Hints of disharmony between the Treasury and the MoD were again in evidence today — not so much in Fox’s speech, but in the question-and-answer session that followed. The London Evening Standard‘s Paul Waugh picks two choice quotes that suggest more battles ahead:
In the long term, how will it be paid for? It will be paid for ultimately as it has been, directly via the defence budget. How that budget is funded is a conversation that is constantly ongoing with the Treasury.
Ultimately all our defence capabilities have to be paid for. Which bits are paid, over what timescale, is part of the discussions we are having, and I’m not going to entertain them in public. I have enough time entertaining them in private.
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