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The Conservative Prospect: Not an Easy Ride

By Clark Vasey
3 Mar 2010

For more than a decade, defence has been a low political priority with seemingly few votes in it. Over the last few months this has begun to change with increasing casualties in Afghanistan, some specifically linked to inadequate defence funding, allegations of huge waste and incompetence in defence equipment acquisition, and the delay to a report commissioned by the previous Secretary of State for Defence.

The media now seize on defence stories. Whether defence will now make a clear impact on the electorate in the run-up to the General Election is not clear, but major political parties will not want to ignore it.

Clark Vasey is a defence policy analyst and a Director with Jefferson Communications. In our last issue he looked at the Labour view of defence. Now he considers how the Conservatives will manage defence if they win the election.