1. Party Lines on Andy Burnham's NHS naivety.
2. Subrosa asks where our Afgahnistan aid money goes.
3. Tory Rascal wants to bugger a burglar. At least, I think that's what he said.
4. Andrea Leadsom thinks banking bonuses can be a good thing.
5. John Rentoul berates Gordon Brown for leaving Tom Harris languishing on the backbenches.
6. John Redwood promises to be funny.
7. Tim Montgomerie's seven defences of political blogging.
8. Stephen Glenn on LibDem target seats (and he calls fellow LibDem blogger Irfan Ahmed stupid...)
9. It is safe to say Donal Blaney is not a fan of Ted Kennedy.
10. Alex Massie on Mandelson and the Lockerbie bomber.
11. SNP Tactical Voting has a go at Wikio for their blog rankings.
12. As does Letters from a Tory.
Some amazing admissions from General Dannatt - who "has called for more resources in Afghanistan after the Government admitted key staff shortages are undermining operations"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/6050851/Gen-Sir-Richard-Dannatt-We-need-more-resources-in-Afghanistan.html
he says IEDs "are a major tactical battle that we have got to win".
But the govt seems to be turning its back on the necessary technology (presumably there are no jobs or votes in it like spending billions on pointless aircraft carriers)
The General refers to "a network of planes and unmanned drones that collect images and listen in on enemy forces."
but
"specialist staff are in short supply ... staff shortages of 40 per cent"
The MoD have "cancelled at least one new surveillance system and may abandon several other programmes to save money"
And, "the MoD has cancelled the Soothsayer intelligence system, technology which was intended to eavesdrop on enemy communications"
and
The MoD is "reviewing plans to buy three new Nimrod surveillance aircraft and upgrade other surveillance planes"
and
"there are doubts over the long-term future of the Reaper drones used to spy on Taliban leaders"
All meaning,
"There are mounting fears that limitations in British surveillance coverage in Afghanistan are contributing to the deaths of service personnel in Helmand province"
And to counter the usual suspects ...
"David Cameron, the Conservative leader, accused ministers of paying inadequate attention to the Afghan operation, saying the Government must show more “focus” on the mission there"
Too bloody true!
6. John Redwood promises to be funny.
ReplyDeleteReally?
Have the Welsh Tories booked him to do another turn at their conference?
Many thanks for the link Iain.
ReplyDeleteTo continue the General Dannatt story The Sun is reporting a smear campaign (again) against Dannatt. They don't name names but Iain has written before about the tactics of Kevan Jones.
ReplyDeleteIt's just disgusting how Jones is doing this and being protected by the papers. He should be named and shamed. I'd bet the public outcry would hound him from pillar to post and hopefully out of office. What a low life cretin he is.