UK NEWS

WE BAIL OUT BANKERS BUT LET DOWN TROOPS

TORY MP: Patrick Mercer

Saturday July 4,2009

By John Ingham

MINISTERS were criticised yesterday for happily bailing out bankers while failing to provide funds to give front-line troops adequate equipment.

Tory MP and former infantry officer Patrick Mercer hit out after Lt-Col Rupert Thorneloe and Trooper Joshua Hammond were killed by a roadside bomb which tore apart their armoured vehicle – a much-criticised Viking.

Mr Mercer said: “The Government is ready and willing to bail out bankers to the tune of billions while our servicemen continue to patrol in unsuitable vehicles.

“It is a very strange set of priorities when a relatively small amount of money would save soldiers’ lives. If the helicopter fleet was the size it should be, soldiers would be considerably less vulnerable.”

Roadside bombs have killed 24 of the 34 British soldiers already lost in Afghanistan this year.

The tracked Vikings have received extra armour to meet the threat. But last year the MoD admitted the Viking had reached the limit of how much it could be armoured.

The Vikings are due to be replaced in Afghanistan by 100 new, larger and more heavily-armoured Warthog tracked vehicles – but not until next year.

Critics say more helicopters are needed to transport troops to reduce exposure to bombs. Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said: “If you ask anybody in Afghanistan they will tell you our forces there are better equipped then they’ve ever been.

“We’re bringing in as many new vehicles out there as we can.” He stressed that bringing in more helicopters would not reduce the risk because troops have to operate on the ground.

“We can’t conduct the kind of operations we need to conduct in Afghanistan from the air.”