Charitable Funding of Territorial Army Body Armour Disgrace
"Outrageous" that's the view of Windsor Parliamentary Candidate Julian Tisi after it was revealed that body armour for Soldiers serving with 21 SAS, one of two Territorial Army Regiments within the Special Air Service, has been paid for not by the Government, but out of a charitable welfare fund.
"Its absolutely clear that purchasing things like body armour is the government's responsibility and shouldn't be up to private charitable donations - it is an absolute disgrace that our servicemen continue to have to fund their own equipment either out of their own pockets or through charitable funds intended for other purposes." says Julian Tisi.
The Liberal Democrats have promised a thorough review of defence expenditure, to make sure that the actual needs of the men and women on the front-line are met, instead of prestige projects that may not be appropriate. In particular the Lib Dems are calling for the replacement of the Trident Missile System and the third batch of the Euro-fighter to be looked at again.
Nick Clegg has also said that pay for rank and file members of the armed forces needs to be increased to bring it into line with that of Junior Police Offices and Firefighters.
Locally Julian Tisi has been leading the Lib Dems campaign to get service housing improved. The Windsor Lib Dems Campaign has raised the profile of this issue within the Liberal Democrats and has led Lib Dem Shadow Defence Secretary Nick Harvey to ask a series of questions to ministers about the state of Army Housing in Windsor.