Sometimes, calling attention to a stupid move can cause the government to reconsider. As I mentioned several days back, the British Ministry of Defence was considering huge training cutbacks for the army’s reserve formation, the Territorial Army. The opposition in Parliament appear to have forced the government to at least a partial backdown:
Ministers have scaled back planned cuts to the Territorial Army and made concessions over their training after fierce criticism from the opposition.
The Ministry of Defence wanted to cut £20m from the TA budget and halt all training for six months except for those due to be sent to Afghanistan.
But it now says every unit will get one night’s training a month while the TA budget will not be cut by as much.
The Conservatives said the plans were a “shambles” and should be dropped.
The Lib Dems said the government had shown poor judgement and that the move could do long-term damage to the TA.
One night per month is still less than what is necessary, but at least it provides some continuity. Back in the mid-1970s, the Canadian government tried something similar with their reservists. Our officers and senior NCOs paraded without pay for months to ensure that the junior ranks were paid for training. It was a sacrifice on their part that shouldn’t have been necessary, but it did eventually force the government to re-instate something more like normal training activity.
