Defence tight-lipped over aircraft reduction reversal

Aye but the problem is the “niche” tasks like air drop .The c130 is proven , the A400 is not as good for those missions. There will be a capability gap if this stupidity isn’t corrected.

As stated by a man who is better informed than the wee experts in here 😆

Sir Richard Knighton

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Interest on debt makes up half the budget deficit. Elephant in the room is spending on the NHS. A never ending pit, which wastes cash at alarming rates. I know a number of people who work in NHS management roles and it is just horrifying hearing their stories. Accountability is seriously lacking.

Defence needs more cash, but then so does every other department. We either pay more tax or accept that there are things that the Government cannot provide. A health service that you don’t pay directly for regardless how much you use or abuse it, is definitely a big issue. No political party will address this though.

The NHS budget as a percentage of GDP has risen from 3.75% in the 50s to well above 7% now. The total tax take by the Government over the last 20 years as a percentage of GDP hasn’t changed much. You can see the issue, more of the pie going to health than ever.

Just my two pennies worth, and no I’m not for complete privatisation at all. Most of my family wouldn’t be able to afford it for a start.

There is a serious need to look at the financing mechanism for the NHS. We could still have a system that is unlimited and free at the point of need, but based on a single payer (i.e. national) “insurance” system and private healthcare providers – it seems to work well in other countries

I completely agree, and you’d have to be exceptionally partisan, or deluded, to think we can go on as we are.
Many European nations, and others, have already realised this as you alluded to.

I think that’s the point – it was added to the national debt, when the normal rule is that only capital expenditure should be financed through borrowing, with current account spending being covered via taxation.

There is pressure on the Govenment to pay down borrowing by an equivalent amount. In the FY to Feb this year, HMG borrowed £132b (don’t forget, a lot of that is just refinancing of previous debt, not new) down by £15.5b on the previous 12 months, so by approximately 5%.

That’s how much extra we are adding to the debt not how much the debt itself is. The issue with the figures is they change heavily throughout the year, as tax revenues all come in around certain points in the year. Need to wait for full year data before understanding if amount borrowing is going up or down.

However doesn’t change the question we have increased tax revenue and adding more and more to the debt meaning more available money to spend, where is it going.

The details of revenue raised and spending are readily available. So much public spending is locked in – pensions, other welfare, NHS- that despite the massive total, governments don’t have much room for manoeuvre.
Two problems might have been avoided- index linked borrowing was a huge mistake and has pushed debt interest cost to >£90b. The practice of long term PFI type finance kept the lid on current cash outlay but pushed the costs into future years.
We have been increasing government debt every year since 2000 and don’t anticipate a balanced budget for several more years.
The costs of the nuclear programmes, Dreadnought, Astute and warheads, continue to grow.
In defence, budgets have been managed by delaying major projects, year on year reductions in numbers of personnel and equipment. But the big decisions have been ducked. It is clear the budget is insufficient for the ambition, reiterated in the IR, to be a global force. The only way out of these repeated and demoralizing crises is to focus solely on what defence needs to do. Having a bit of everything in the aspiration to be a mini superpower can’t be sustained.

Details are there but it is insanely hard to understand exactly what is being brought, as there are always so many parties involved. NHS is a classic example, money goes to the NHS but the government requires that it is spent on private services and so you have middle men arranging deals with private firms. Deals are also accounted differently bases on what is being provided and when etc and so you would need to be a forensic accountant to actually work out if money is really being spent and on what.

I think the most impenetrable budget is defence. The merging of acquisition and support costs in the 10 year plan means it is impossible to work out what it costs say to buy an extra F35.
The big pressures on govt spending are NHS and welfare Including pensions. The USA is facing similar problems with spiralling costs of Medicare and Medicaid and the increasing unaffordability of entitlements ( social security) . These, rather than the enormous defence budget, are what are causing the debt ceiling crisis.
But major changes to defence acquisition don’t necessarily achieve much in the short term, because the design and build of new equipment is taking years even decades.
Even if all major decisions in the last 20 years had been sound and properly planned ( they haven’t), we would still be facing funding problems: the budget is just not big enough for the ambition.

Well, they are flying in Malaysia.