We have...

...always been at war with Eurasia.

Still perpetuating the myth of American superiority

> "With this commitment in advance to keep on paying UK factories to reinvent American wheels"

Seriously, change the record. The American defence industry doesn't have some sort of intrinsic awesomeness that makes them automatically superior, and it makes little sense for us to continue running down what little remains of our own industry to make foreign shareholders rich. We once did and still can make world-beating goods ourselves; I'm not really sure what's to be gained by giving up and saying "we're too crap to manage, let's be forever beholden to our masters and betters in the US instead". So let's not, eh?

Permanent War Cabinet?

Doesn't that mean we have to be permanently at war with someone?

Now where have I heard that before?

Perhaps it's just me

But I didn't read that as solely engaging the British defence industry but rather the industry as a whole. And I have to agree with AC - we're perfectly capable of making top level kit ourselves when the stars align, or substantially improving other peoples kit.

I point to the Lynx as a perfect example of a world beating small utility helicopter, or the Challenger 2 as a world beating MBT, or if we want to go back in time, the Bucanner as one of the worlds premier maritime strike aircraft, or hell, the Baker Rifle as one of the worlds foremost infantry weapons.

Or we could wind back the clock even further to the English Longbow - show me a comparable weapon the United States of America had at that time ;)

Re: Still perpetuating the myth of American superiority

It isn't about superiority, though there's little enough to show for UK defense research spending these days. It is about cost.

The US government blow horrifying amounts of money on their military, and like all good capitalists are willing to let other people benefit from their experience and economies of scale, for the right price.

When it comes to a choice between adequate US equipment at a reasonable price, compared to UK or EU equipment of dubious worth and alarming expense, I know where I'd rather my tax pennies went.

Tsk, tsk...

Wrong interpretation of defence strategy. A more accurate interpretation is, "We will engage defence industry to make sure that the profitability of relevant companies (ones that have Tory presence on the boards and shares etc) will be secured for the long term benefit of the stakeholders. This will be achieved through extensive privatisation of the MoD and will ensure, wherever possible, that equipment decisions are made by companies (and Tory Ministers) not civil servants. To implement this we shall pretend that military people are capable of making good procurement decisions by putting them in charge and then privatising them when those projects inevitably fail."

Voila, enough said!

CyberIntelAIgent Security Operations Theatre Modus Operandi

Keep IT Simple and SurReal ..... Command CyberSpace 42 Control Earth.

Does Anyone know who speaks with Authority for Blighty on Cyber Security and Advanced IntelAIgent Virtual Defence Matters/Programs. Who is the Lead Point of Contact?

Or is it a Ghost Appointment in a Quango Office with Sinecure Positions?

And with Dave the Rave and his Merry Men and Magnificent Maidens Undoubted Fans of El Reg, for the Register is a Star in the Top 20 blog roll on the Blue Blog .... http://blog.conservatives.com/index.php ..... can they never say that they were never asked for their Leader in the Field.

With a permanent "war cabinet"

does that mean they can have permanent "extraordinary executive powers"?

Also, and rather bizarrely, I agree with amanfromMars. I'm not sure that's healthy.

UK prices

We have to remove tax, then remove the income tax workers on our projects pay, then remove the benefits that we would expect some of those workers to claim, then, and only then, can we compare the prices from UK manufacturers to foreign ones.

Of course, that doesn't mean that the foreign product won't be better, which is whole different argument.

Ministry of War

Why not go the whole hog and simply bring back the Ministry of War, with full Timelord apparel?

And how can you have permanent 'extraordinary' powers?

Hang on a minute Davey boy

Isn't that jumping the gun? You've got to get into power first - not exactly a dead cert, despite being up against the lamest duck in generations.

And as for "...everyone in law enforcement will become "cyber literate" under their rule" - is that before or after they're made "law literate"?

As the Tory motto goes: "If you want change, vote for anyone but us."

Distraction

As others have asked- does this mean we need to be at war all the time?

Who is there in the big, wide world that we can take on for a considerable time at low cost and also be 'bad' enough that we can maintain the required hatred of the gullible public?

Is this the way to deal with unemployment -- national service for all young people out of work?

Hmm, whole divisions of graduates who are all officers, ranked according to uni grades, plenty of 'pals' to go off as cannon fodder (hopefully from all the towns where the BNP/UKIP/TPA are popular (apart from money what's the difference) to go and clean the world of -- erm, Muslims most likely as they are the anti-christ.

It's the return to the Days of the Empire and Carry on up the Khyber - but who will be Sir Sidney Roughdiamond and who will be the Khazi?

To Shiny-Headed Dave and his mates -- Fakir Off!

As a great Canadian once said ... “There is No Whore, Like and Old Whore”

Perhaps it is most profitable to just design and redesign.

Field deployment risks embarrassment and loss of credibility. Worse than that, monies that might gainfully be directed towards more R & D spending become lost to manufacturing and support.

Climategate is great. The threat persists in an inconclusive and unresolvable state.

Needs more money.