The truth will out

- thanks to leakers and whistleblowers.

The report by Bernard Gray, former adviser to Labour defence ministers, makes devastating conclusions. The main one is that the incompetence of the MOD is harming and will continue to harm our current military operations. With friends like these at home, who needs enemies?

It is a story of delay and vast cost overrun. His words were, "£35 billion over budget and five years behind schedule, and could not be afforded in the long run." "How can it be that it takes 20 years to buy a ship,or aircraft, or tank? Why does it always seem to cost at least twice what was thought? Even worse, at the end of the wait, why does it never quite seem to do what it was supposed to do?"

The report, which was leaked to the Sunday Times, has been downgraded by the MOD as a draft, and will be edited and included in a forthcoming Green Paper on defence to be published next year and lead to a full-scale strategic defence review after the general election. The report itself will be published in due course.

The words "long grass" come to mind. Such a serious revelation ought to be changing procurement policy immediately, and thus saving the lives of some of our troops, but clearly (Labour) political considerations are more important.