Secretary of State for Defence, Liam Fox’s “robust” letter arguing against savage cuts to the Armed forces is a good example of the scale of the problem facing Government in trying to agree Government departmental spending that will balance the books, cut the spending deficit and yet maintain appropriate service levels.

It is right that we periodically review Government spending anyway, and it should be pointed out that this was something that the last Government ducked, because they new the scale of the problem and weren’t prepared to face the political consequences.

It the case of our armed forces  we do have to ensure we continue to modernise and maximise protection for our service men and women. And, of course the structure of the armed forces has to be able to meet modern demands and committments.

Taking all that into account it would seem to be palpable nonsense bordering on negligence that the future of the Trident missile system is not being considered as part of the cuts. With a changing world and different enemies the Conservative insistence that Trident is part of the Forces budget and will not face any cuts does not add up and will only undermine our armed forces potential and security further.

We have limited funds , something has to give, if scrapping Trident is unpalatable to the Tories let’s defer the decision at least and investigate cheaper options in the meantime.

If this spending review is to work and bring people along with it then it has to be about more than pure number crunching, the reasoning has to be rooted in common sense not dogma and for the greater good not pet projects.