IT is a towering insult to our servicemen and women - whether they are in combat zones or not - that the post of Secretary of State for Defence should be regarded as a part-time job.
Des Browne, who occupies this post, is also scandalously Secretary of State for Scotland.
Now we all know that the Scottish Secretaryship is a run-down job, given that Scotland has its own Parliament and all the trappings of so-called government in Edinburgh.
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So why, if the post has to be continued, not give the job to some fledgling junior minister at Westminster rather than to a man who is carrying a huge burden already as Defence Secretary?
Yet, when this very issue was raised in the House of Commons the other day, Gordon Brown went out of his way (unsurprisingly, I suppose) to demonstrate that Mr Browne is a hard-working, conscientious chap (true, no doubt) and effectively challenged the Opposition to say where they thought Mr Browne had fallen down on the job.
That is not the point.
The British military are at full stretch, even over-stretch with massive and dangerous commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus a presence in many other parts of the world.
There have been many stories of failure to equip our combatant troops properly. Some of these stories may be (only "may be") exaggerated, but certainly some of them have proved to be disastrously true.
Mr Browne has himself said that he carries out all his Scottish work in his own time. Well, that simply isn't good enough, either for Scotland or, far more importantly, for the defence of the realm.
This dour Scotsman with his legalistic brain and jargon, should be devoting all his time to his job as Defence Secretary and not bothering his head with the parish pump politics of Scotland.
I am astonished that Gordon Brown does not see that, and find a promising junior to look after Scotland.
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