Brown rattles off the numerical artillery

For those of you who were following that penultimate session with the Prime Minster, resource account budgeting lived up to its billing.

It is tough stuff but central to the whole story of whether the MOD was getting enough money to make long-term investments in the sort of kit now very clearly needed.

Gordon Brown rattled off figures at a rate that had the stenographer truly taxed… he said they proved real-terms increases in the MOD budget.

The problem was, the MOD thought its budget was going to be much bigger, thanks to the resource account budgeting (see first blog of the day) and so it felt, smelt and looked like a cut to them, and a very big cut at that.

Next session – why did we pull out of Basra when the militias were still in charge and the Americans had to come in and sort them out. A central episode in recent British military history and for many defence experts the nearest thing Britain’s had to a defeat in conflict for a long time.