A fascinating interview with the departing Foreign Office minister, Lord Malloch-Brown, in today’s Telegraph. It comes just days after Gen Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the army, criticised the government for failing to supply enough men and equipment to Afghanistan.
These are the most interesting bits:
On Trident: “I find it very hard to see how the current Trident delivery system – the submarines – survives that review. The plan for renewing them strikes me as (wrong). There’s going to be a very legitimate debate about cheaper means of maintaining a minimum, stripped-down deterrent……Within our working lives nuclear disarmament may have reached the point where they become redundant. It just looms as too big a cost. The key need is a mobile land army able to deal with insurgencies around the world.”
On Gordon Brown grasping his imminent election defeat: “No, I don’t (think he has). That’s one reason why, for all the criticism, he’s a remarkable leader. He has this almost Churchillian faith in his belief that he can persuade the British public he’s the one.”
On Afghanistan and helicopters: “We definitely don’t have enough helicopters. When you have these modern operations and insurgent strikes what you need, above all else, is mobility.”
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey
