Recruitment levels have also sharply decreased, as – predictably – few want to sign up to be sent to fight in deeply unpopular wars. The stretching of troops over Iraq and Afghanistan has led them to not getting enough rest. So-called “harmony” guidelines define the amount of time troops spend on active duty in any one year, but these guidelines are being greatly exceeded according to the report.
Meanwhile, soldiers are not the only resources overstretched between war zones. The rising cost of developing new war machines – the Astute submarine, the Type 45 destroyer and the Nimrod MRA4 – has increased by well over £500 million over the last two years.
However, Quentin Davies MP, who defected from the Tories to New Labour last year, has a different take on the question. He has suggested that morale is decreasing due to soldiers’ public perception. The MP has reviewed public attitudes for the government, and is to officially recommend that soldiers more frequently wear their uniforms off-duty, a measure previously discouraged to preserve their safety.
This, along with his suggestion that troops should return home to grand military parades, are to be recommended by the government as a magic bullet to solve the problem.
In November of last year, there was a brief moment of light amid the darkness that was 2020. Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products free for all. Just as the weekend and the eight-hour-day are now regarded by many as a given, future generations may be in disbelief that...
On 4 November last year, when many of us were watching the aftermath of the American presidential election, the US formally left the Paris Climate Agreement. Written in 2015 at the United Nations’ COP21 climate conference in Paris, the agreement is often considered to be the most significant document of international climate cooperation. Back then,...
To say 2020 was dramatic would be an understatement. The world situation has been completely transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the inadequacy of governmental and state responses. As we head into 2021 it feels like we are entering uncharted territory. To make specific predictions would be unwise. But the Covid-19 crisis raises fundamental questions...
The 2020 crisis we’ve endured isn’t an aberration of the system but, as Alex Callinicos argues, an aspect of its permanent crisis.
