News Release 20 May 2010

NEWS RELEASE

20 May 2010: Release time immediate

 DEFENCE CAMPAIGNERS GIVE QUALIFIED WELCOME TO COALITION’S PROGRAMME FOR GOVERNMENT

The UK National Defence Association (UKNDA), which campaigns for more resources for Britain’s Armed Services, has welcomed the Coalition’s “Programme for Government” and in particular the reaffirmation by the Prime Minister and his Deputy that “the first duty of government is to safeguard our national security and support our troops.”

UKNDA spokesman Andy Smith said: “We welcome the commitments given by the Liberal-Conservative Coalition to improve pay, conditions and medical treatment for our brave servicemen and servicewomen, and to provide more support for veterans and service families. The Coalition is placing a strong emphasis on restoring the Military Covenant, which is long overdue.

“However, while we welcome the broad thrust of the Coalition Government’s approach, we feel that firmer commitments should have been given on Armed Forces funding, and a clearer statement made on the need to match funding to commitments and capabilities. We are concerned that the Coalition has chosen to emphasize the Treasury involvement in the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) process currently underway, when in fact our defence and security policy should be threat-driven not Treasury-driven.

“Throughout the past 13 years the defence budget has edged up by little more than 1% a year, which in real terms is a cut, whereas other areas of public expenditure, such as health and welfare, have benefited from huge budget increases – despite the fact that we have been at war almost continually during this time. Ensuring sufficient funding for our Armed Forces should have been the nation's number one priority all along. 

“Defence spending now represents barely 2.3% of GDP, less than half of what it was in the 1980s, and in consequence our Forces today are chronically under-funded and over-stretched. The UKNDA looks to the new Government to redress this imbalance by significantly raising the level of funding available for the defence of the realm.”

-Ends

Media contacts: Cdr. John Muxworthy, email ceo@uknda.org, tel 01264 860693, or Andy Smith, email pro@uknda.org, tel 07737 271676.

 Notes to Editors:

The United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA) was formed in 2007 to campaign in support of Britain's Armed Forces. The Patrons of the UKNDA include three former Chiefs of the Defence Staff – Admiral Lord Boyce, Marshal of the RAF Lord Craig, and General Lord Guthrie - the former Labour Foreign Secretary Lord Owen and former Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies Campbell.  Tri-Service and politically independent, the UKNDA aims to ensure that Britain's fighting men and women are properly trained, equipped, sustained and cared for. The Association's founder-President, Winston S. Churchill, the former MP and war correspondent (and grandson of Britain's WWII Prime Minister), died on March 2, 2010.

For more information on the UKNDA, go to www.uknda.org