The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

FT.com / UK – MoD ‘missing’ £6.6bn of hardware

In answering a comment recently I wrote that I would not trust the British government to clean my shoes, let alone be responsible for critical aspects of my healthcare. I pointed out what a bad job it did of running other institutions, including the army.

Some readers may have thought me harsh. Yet, in the linked story, we read that one-sixth of the British Army's equipment (including weapons) could not be accounted for by auditors. The Ministry of Defence has "lost" a whole year's worth of defence spending; the best part of £7 billion. How many cities full of Britons worked for a whole year to contribute such a sum?

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the organisation you trust to educate your children, provide for you in sickness, unemployment and disability. You may hope that it will (more or less) support you in your old age. If it were, say, a bank or an insurance company, would you trust it? Of course you wouldn't, but in this case you have no choice. The money you give is extracted by threat of force. You are, in effect, its slaves for months of every year. See how much it values your labour!

Of course, this is beyond mere incompetence. Those valuable items still exist somewhere. Who has all those guns, grenades and other lethal kit? Our enemies, of course; whether foreign terrorists or native criminals. Who else would want them? They have stolen them or bought them from corrupt government employees. Trust me. £6.6 billion of military hardware is not down the back of a sofa. So, not only has "your" government lost your money, it has delivered your foes the means to kill you – at your own expense.

Still inclined to trust it? Still inclined to vote to extend its sphere of activity? If so, you deserve all you get.