Items of interest to Defence in today’s news include promotion of tonight’s Panorama programme on reporter Tom Martienssen’s experience after being trapped with a team of British Army Gukhas halfway up Mount Everest when the earthquake hit in April.
The trail on BBC Radio 4’s Today reported that expedition member Major Andrew Todd saved the journalist and that Gurkhas on the expedition were then deployed to the worst hit areas to provide relief and assistance almost immediately.
Migrant Crisis
Following the Defence Secretary’s appearance on the Andrew Marr Show, several papers report comments about Britain's foreign aid budget and how it should be used to "discourage mass migration" from north Africa. The Daily Telegraph , The Express, The Guardian, The Sun, and the Daily Mail report that Michael Fallon has called on the EU to go beyond dealing with the symptoms of the migrant crisis and tackle its roots in Africa. He says this would stop the need for the UK military to "fish people out of the Mediterranean" when they try to escape their home countries. The Guardian’s piece references the good work of HMS Bulwark saving 3,000 lives this year but that the ship is being replaced with a much smaller vessel. The Daily Mail’s story on the aid budget claims Britain is scaling back the rescue mission and instead sending SAS personnel to smash the trafficking gangs. A source said the UK was moving away from rescuing people and to the next phase – intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance. The Mirror writes that some have criticised the move. Dr Lisa Doyle, of Refugee Council, says the global refugee crisis has reached historic levels and that Britain should be responding by stepping up, not scaling back its efforts to help people. The story carries Mr Fallon’s comments that Britain needs to deal with the traffickers.
Defence Spending
Some papers write about today’s league table of defence spending from Nato. The Financial Times, and The Mirror and The Times say the UK will come under further pressure to commit to supporting the military as the figures are expected to show that Poland has joined four other alliance members - Estonia. Greece, UK and US - that hit its target of 2% of GDP. Reports carry the Defence Secretary’s comments from the Andrew Marr Show that Britain would be shown to be ‘comfortably’ over the target and that he wants the UK to fulfil its defence commitments. He said ‘no country in Europe is playing such a global role’ and that its commitment of fighter jets and troops are being extended as part of Nato’s work in eastern Europe. But they write that the UK has refused to commit to the spending beyond this year, despite growing domestic and international criticism.
Arms Exports
The Independent writes that a major overhaul of arms exports policy to prevent British-made weapons being used for internal repression and military aggression is being demanded by Tim Farron, frontrunner for the Liberal Democrat leadership. He calls for the law to be changed to require ministers to approve each sale to countries with poor human rights records, such as China, Russia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. He is also backing fresh controls to stop British weapons from falling into the hands of repressive regimes via third countries.
Consultancy Fees
The Daily Mail says the MOD uses too many contractors and consultants. KMPG is the frontrunner for the £30m Acquisition Support Partnership contract, which aims to up skill its workforce will see those trained moving on losing the skills and knowledge. Critics say it is a waste of money as staff will learn skills then move on to other jobs.
An MOD spokesperson:
We are currently undertaking major reforms as to how we do our business and we make maximum use of our staff expertise to achieve our goals. We continue to build on our existing highly skilled professional workforce and aim to develop long term careers in acquisition. Where necessary we engage external consultants to draw on their skills.
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