Boosting military is the right move from government

I JOINED the Army when I was 18 in the mid-1980s and thoroughly enjoyed my service, which I genuinely believe made me a better person in many respects.

- Angus Long

Sadly, I do think that previous governments, over the past 30 years, have neglected our military, in many areas, to the point it's a fraction today of what it was when I joined.

Which is worrying when we have a fierce war in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the squaring up between India and Pakistan, China's increased military manoeuvres around Taiwan, along with Iran and North Korea striving to develop nuclear weapons.

All of which is making the world a far more volatile place today. Then, we also have US President, Donald Trump, wanting to reduce America's predominant contribution to NATO.

As such the UK, along with our European neighbours, have had to make some serious decisions on defence.

So, as a former soldier, I was pleased to see that Defence Secretary, John Healey, has accepted the recent Strategic Defence Review and is committing the government to invest more money in growing and improving our military services.

However, improving our military capability will rely on a number of things other than increasing the defence budget.

So, I will try to highlight what I think these are:

First, recruitment. Military personnel numbers are at their lowest.

Indeed, there are more civil servants in the MOD than soldiers.

So, if we want a strong army we need to recruit.

The recruitment strategy will be key. It needs to be developed and overseen by people who have served or serve in the military, not civil servants or marketing agencies.