ANOTHER NEW LABOUR SHAMBLES!

The welcome news that the New Labour Government has entirely abandoned its plans to impose a £17.5m cut to the training budget of the Territorial Army should come as no real surprise. This U-turn came around after all party efforts to persuade the Prime Minister to intervene and reverse the cutbacks.

On Monday, the New Labour Government began to try to backtrack and the cuts were reduced in scale from £20m to £17.5m. They also changed their mind on plans to suspend all routine TA training for six months and belatedly offered a compromise of one night's training each month for personnel not due to be deployed to Afghanistan.

And finally on Tuesday it was announced that the TA training budget will remain untouched, meaning most units will continue to train one night a week, as well as one weekend a month - and any proposed cuts would no longer take place. This is good news for the TA and band news for the dying New Labour Government - if you ever wanted a simple example of how Gordon Brown is not longer in control then the TA fiasco is a good example.

We have a Government in name only, that is no longer fit for office and has lost all sense of direction and purpose. It does little or no good and is merely bumbling along from one crisis to the next. The sooner this Government is gone the better the better for all of us. Once again Labour (New or Old) has ended in tears and in this case the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Roll on Polling Day!

NEW LABOUR U-TURN ON TA CUTS

New Labour Ministers in the face of widespread opposition inside and outside of Parliament have reduced planned cuts to the Territorial Army (TA) and have been forced to make some concessions over planned cuts to the TA's training. Originally the MoD planned to cut £20m from the TA budget and halt all training for six months except for those due to be sent to Afghanistan.

Now following the latest New Labour U-Turn every unit will get one night's training a month while the TA budget will not be cut by as much. With more than 500 reservists serving in Afghanistan the future of the TA has has rapidly and quietly risen up the political agenda in recent months.

Despite this change of mind the TA's budget this year will be cut by £2.5m less than originally outlined, this belated change of mind is better but is still not good enough. Sadly it is fairly typical of the shoddy way that both successive New Labour and previous Conservative Governments have treated our soldiers over the years.