Liam Fox, the Conservative shadow defence secretary outlined his priorities for defence. He asked why “the military seems consistently to shrink while the civil service keeps growing?”According to the DASA statistics, the Ministry of Defence civil service population has shrunk from 266,000 to 69,000 in the period 1975-2008, a drop of 197,000. In the corresponding period, the service figures have gone from 338,000 to 187,000, a drop of 151,000.
Not only is Mr Fox wrong in his assertion, but the MoD civilian workforce has as you can see already been cut by almost three quarters in less than 35 years. Our union did agree with one statement Mr Fox made – “You can delegate authority, but not responsibility. Labour Ministers are to blame for the failings at the Ministry of Defence - not the Civil Service or the Armed forces.” – we are not to blame, and should the Conservatives form the next government, we will be asking Mr Fox and his party to honour this statement by not seeking to push the blame onto civil servants.
