Tuesday, October 02, 2007

It's not about money, any more

We are all used to the Great Clunking Fist re and re-re announcing spending increases. He is now doing it with troop withdrawals:
UK troops in Basra are to be cut by 1,000 by the end of the year, Gordon Brown has said on his first visit to Iraq since becoming prime minister.

but, later on we see:
The figure of 1,000 troops includes 500 already announced in September as a result of the pull-out from Basra Palace, Downing Street said.

Of those, 270 are now back in the UK.

So, correctly, that should be "UK troops in Basra are to be cut by 500 by the end of the year, in addition to the 270 who have recently left and the 230 we have already announced". I would even give you (but clearly not Gordo) grace for, "UK troops in Basra are to be cut by 730 by the end of the year, of which we have already announced 230."

Now, this is just scummy - it was bad enough when he was conning us about the great tax'n'waste rip-off but this is people's lives (and the hopes of their friends and families) he is misusing for pathetically political ends.

Having said that, all it is for most of them is a swap of where to wear their desert-pattern DPM from the increasingly safe Basrah to the increasingly dangerous Helmand. That's the Queen's shilling for you :(

1 comment:

CFD Ed said...

Ah! The old dodge of re-announcing stuff like extra police, more cash to the NHS/Armed forces/Education, again and again and again - and now it seems, troops coming home for Christmas. Good old Gordon Browne, isn’t he great?

Well he does grate…

 
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