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Defence in the United Kingdom

My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am looking across the Chamber at certain Labour Members, who I think from how they behave now are rather wishing that they had behaved differently in the 1980s. The Chancellor has become increasingly effective in clawing back much of the reluctantly granted increase that the Secretary of State is talking about. For example, thanks to the previous Secretary of State’s inability to stand up to the Treasury, the Ministry of Defence must now pay for its use of the spectrum at a cost to the armed forces of £145 million up to and including this year. That is a clawback by the Treasury which I am sure, had the current Secretary of State been in post, he would have resisted, but unfortunately his predecessor did not have the strength to do so. At least the Minister of State came clean, possibly inadvertently, when he said:"““I have always said that the budget is under pressure: if it were not, we would not be trying to save £2.8 billion.””—[Official Report, 8 November 2005; Vol. 439, c. 173.]" That does not sound like a Minister who is talking about increased expenditure. What is even more regrettable is that, to achieve those Treasury-driven savings, the MOD cuts take place wherever convenient, rather than where it is prudent to do so. I fear that the major project report—