Our Defence - too important to be left to an accountant

About the only public institution still held in high regard by the British public are our Armed Services. So it is not surprising that the Minister of Defence - an accountant called Philip Hammond (where does the Conservative party find them?) wants to address this issue. It must, after all, be galling to be a member of a profession (politics) which is universally despised -but in charge of one which is universally admired. The solution is obvious - do something to further weaken the Armed Forces ability to do the job it is good at - which is killing our enemies.

Hammond you see is worried - not about the cuts to the Defence budget - needed to fund Cameron's pet Overseas Aid expenditure- nor about whether our severely reduced Armed Forces are effective, or about aggressive Russian posturing on the Ukraine. No he is concerned about something far , far  more important than that. Something so critical to our defence that he thought he ought to make a key note speech about and this is what he said:

" We have, frankly, a big problem. There is a big gap between what our society looks like and what our Armed Forces look like. The image of the military, I think, is still a macho image, the last bastion of male chauvinism. the reality is very different."

Yes Hammond thinks the time has come for women to serve in the 'teeth arms' of the army - namely the cavalry and the infantry.  Well that is an interesting idea but if he had cared to ask anyone in the Ministry of Defence they might have told him that at the behest of the last labour government trials of mixed sex units where carried out and the results where  absolutely conclusive - it didn't work.