Defence spending
Discussion around the level of defence spending over the next Parliament continues to attract media coverage. A Daily Telegraph front page features comments by former Chief of the General Staff General Sir Peter Wall, who argues that the UK cannot respond to Russian threats because budget reductions after the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review were based upon the assumption that there would be a “benign security environment” after combat operations ended in Afghanistan. Discussion around 2% spending is covered elsewhere, with editorial and comment pieces featured in theIndependent and Times.
The Government has said the UK continues to deliver the second largest defence budget in NATO and the largest in the EU and is committed to spending 2% of GDP on defence with decisions on spending after the financial year 2015/16 to be determined in the next spending review.
Over the next decade, the Government has committed to spending £163 billion on equipment and equipment support to keep Britain safe. That includes new strike fighters; more surveillance aircraft; hunter killer submarines; two aircraft carriers; and the most advanced armoured vehicles.
Peshmerga
The Independent carries a feature-style article about the training of the Pershmerga forces in Northern Iraq. Along with several hundred members of the German, US, Italian, Norwegian and Dutch militaries, around 100 British are among the foreign forces operating in region, with around 40 of them instructing Peshmerga fighters in vital infantry skills.
Former Marine
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (6.34am) carried a feature by Sima Kotecha on an anonymous former Royal Marine commando, who plans to go the Syria to fight with the Peshmerga against ISIL. He said he wants to pass on the skills he has been taught to those on the frontline.
The piece highlighted the fact that the Government has made clear on numerous occasions that we advise against all travel to Syria and parts of Iraq. Anyone who does travel to these areas, for whatever reason, is putting themselves in considerable danger.
Image of the day
![Every year on the second Monday in March, 53 countries join together in celebration of the links they share as members of one diverse and dynamic global family - the modern Commonwealth. Commonwealth Day began with a service of remembrance and the laying of wreaths at the Commonwealth Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill in London. Her Majesty The Queen officially inaugurated the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill in London in 2002 as a lasting memorial to honour the five million men and women from the Indian subcontinent, Africa, the Caribbean and Nepal who volunteered to serve the Empire with the Armed Forces during the First and Second World Wars. The Gates also celebrate the contribution that these men and women and their descendants, members of the Commonwealth family, continue to make to the rich diversity of British society. As the Queen’s Life Guard rode by on their way to perform their duties at Horse Guards Parade, and the Band of the Coldstream Guards provided musical accompaniment, Ministers, Commonwealth representatives, service personnel, veterans, and children from the City of London School Combined Cadet Force gathered near Hyde Park Corner for the annual service. [Picture: Crown Copyright]](https://modmedia.blog.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/142/2015/03/POD10March.jpg)