After seventeen years in the British Army, including serving with the US Army’s 2 Division (Light) at Fort Ord, Calif, and then as a national newspaper defence correspondent, documentary producer and author, I’ve got the additional credentials of having a son just completing Sandhurst and being commissioned into the Light Dragoons.
I was also fortunate enough to have spent most of my military career with the Royal Navy, as part of the splendid 3 Commando Brigade.
I’ve kept a watching brief on military matters since 1989 when I became a civilian – my leaving the military being partly in order to be free to comment from the sidelines.
I believe military affairs to be the most important of a state’s functions, the bedrock of its commercial success, and the foundation of its identity. Governments which abdicate responsibility for their nations’ security, in order to spend more on the comfort of their citizens, do not deserve to remain in power.
Soldiers, sailors and airmen are a nations’ most most valuable servants. Governments which do not honour the men and women who underwrite their every action, deserve to fail. As voters, we must be strongly vigilant on behalf of our Armed Forces, who are not permitted to speak out. Their every action takes place in our name. If they fail, it will be because we’ve allowed it.