Lord Guthrie Speaks Out

General Charles R L Guthrie, now known as Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, has opened taken Gordon Brown to task over the military strategy in Afghanistan. A much respected and well liked General, he was Chief of the Defence Staff between 1997 and 2001 and Chief of the General Staff, the professional head of the British Army, between 1994 and 1997. He notably clashed, over military funding, with Gordon Brown when he was chancellor of the exchequer.

In 2007 he said of the Iraq war " I felt it was right at the time. Now I'm not so sure. In fact I think it was probably wrong".

Today he still feels angry with Gordon Brown.

“As Chancellor, he was particularly unsympathetic to defence,” he says. “It’s certainly not a Labour thing — old Labour were extremely patriotic and some of our best defence secretaries were from the Labour Party — but Gordon Brown doesn’t understand the military.

When Mr Brown was at the Treasury, Lord Guthrie says, he was the only Cabinet minister who refused to attend briefings with the top brass. "I was very upset that he wouldn't come and hear out side. The only time he did was to talk about the future of Rothsyth docks in his constituency."

The Government is, in his view, focusing on the wrong areas. He wants the cheapest nuclear deterrent rather than a replacement for the Trident nuclear submarines. "We need more soldiers - ideally about 25,000 more." Would he go into the jungle with the Prime Minister? "I'd prefer not to."

A damning interview indeed and, although I disagree with having any nuclear weapons, I doubt if Gordon Brown was smiling over his boiled egg this morning. Then again, perhaps he doesn't read newspapers when on holiday, who knows.

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