Dear Chief Secretary to the Treasury,
I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left.
Signed, Liam Byrne

(Outgoing Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury. May 2010)
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Sunday 18 October 2009

Snipping away at Army Cadets and UOTC.

Whilst looking for some information earlier today Mrs Rigby noticed this article in the Telegraph that outlines the extent of the cuts affecting all sections of the Territorial Army.

She notes that amongst other things being put on hold, or reduced, are the youth training branches, namely Army Cadets and UTOC.
£4 million will be cut from funding for school cadet forces. As Chancellor in 2006, Gordon Brown announced the expansion of cadet units, saying he wanted more children to participate in them.
Mrs R knows that some teenagers almost 'live' for their Drill Nights, and will spend hours looking after their kit in the Army-approved way. This alone makes Army Cadets worthwhile, but add in the discipline and teamworking skills they acquire and ... well, it's a heck of a loss, and it's the good kids that suffer.
University Officer Training Corps will also lose £3 million.
Mrs R has heard that UOTC Cadets are expected to carry on "as usual", but will not be paid until next year.

Mrs Rigby has also heard, through the local grapevine, that neither Air Force nor Navy junior training branches are suffering funding cuts, so she is intrigued to know why only the Army is being affected in this way but can't find anything in the online media.

Can anybody help her out?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Because it's the Army that has overspent, not the MOD as a whole.

It is worth noting that the Sea Cadet Corps only gets about 20% of the funding that the ACF receives in any case so would immediately collapse if asked to take a funding cut of this scale.

Leg-iron said...

General Dannat went over to the Tories just before this happened.

The Army is trying to redeem itself now by joining in the anti-Nick Griffin noises. Including General Dannat.

They recognise that they are dealing with a government that is based entirely on spite and revenge.

Labour have nothing else left.

Anonymous said...

This is having a drastic effect on the Army Cadet Force as a whole, it cares for and devolopes over 45,000 cadets uk wide, and the instructors who undertake this task like those in the sea,navy and air cadets give up there free time to help, and all they ask is thier personal expences be re-imbursed and a token re-imbursement of thier time. They have been told this token payment if you will has been suspended, but they are still asked to give up their time for nothing now, where does this end, my son who has been in the cadets since the age of thirteen is getting ready to leave and go onto university, what about all those below him will there be a cadet force at this rate.... when does this all end!!!

subrosa said...

I've heard from a very reliable source, that the Navy is considering cuts of 5000 personnel from next year. My informant is a senior officer and is so looking forward to seeing his redundancy package.