Yesterday the Tories published his salary in the list of departmental top earners and got their multiplications wrong (what an Eton education does for one?) and today Con Coughlin in the Telegraph writes:"Sir Jock Stirrup does not deserve the Tories' unworthy whispering campaign"
These are trying times for Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the head of Britain’s Armed Forces. Not only does he have a major war to fight in Afghanistan. He now finds himself having to contend with the deeply unpleasant whispering campaign being orchestrated by the Tories spin doctors aimed at undermining his position.
First we had various stories appearing in last weekend’s newspapers that hinted strongly that Sir Jock’s tenure might be drawing to a close. Today we have the main leader in The Times openly debating who Sir Jock’s successor might be.
It can hardly be a coincidence that this leader appeared the very day that David Cameron summoned his senior ministers and national security advisers to Chequers to discuss the new government’s strategy for Afghanistan (you might have thought they would have thrashed this out before the election).
There are many reasons why the Tories might want to have a change of leadership at the top of the military, not least because Sir Jock has been a key adviser to New Labour (even though Gordon Brown rarely took any notice of what he had to say). Sir Jock has also come in for criticism from senior officers – particularly in the Army – over his handling of Afghanistan, where he has too often been lagging behind the curve of our battlefield requirements.
But that is no excuse for the Tories to treat him in this shabby and unworthy manner. Sir Jock is, after all, Britain’s most senior serving military officer, a position that demands the nation’s – and the government’s – respect. If the Tories really want a change of military leadership, they should get on with it rather than abandoning Sir Jock to the party’s over eager spin doctors.
