The remarkably Eeyorish Bob Ainsworth, who is still Secretary of State for Defence, has today given a suitably defensive interview to the Telegraph.
After admitting that Labour did not do enough to support troops on the front line in the first years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – which I am sure will go down really well in Downing Street – Mr Ainsworth answers the accusation that he is not up to the job of running the Ministry of Defence:
A civilian with no direct experience of military service, he said he could bring a “unique dimension” to the job of Defence Secretary.
“I don’t try to second guess decisions that are quite properly taken in the military chain of command. I don’t try to pretend I am cleverer than a general or the Chief of the Defence Staff,” he said. “But I can bring something else, a knowledge and understanding of Parliament, and of civilian life.”
With enormous respect to Mr Ainsworth, “knowledge of civilian life” would not appear to be one of the more compelling qualifications for being put in charge of the nation’s defences.
Furthermore, given that it is a quality shared with the entirety of the rest of the British population, it would, in terms of uniqueness, appear to be somewhat toward the lower end of the scale.
