Last night's debate, which was a vast improvement on the one of seven days ago, focused on foreign affairs and defence, exposing once more the fact that Labour cannot be trusted to run our Armed Forces. The merits of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are for a separate blog, but when any government sends our troops to war, they have a moral duty to ensure they are suitably equipped, well-paid and properly cared for if they get injured. Labour has failed on all three accounts.
A lack of helicopters, boots that melt in the desert heat, cutting the TA training budget - Labour is guilt of all these things. So I was pleased yesterday that the Conservatives launched their Armed Forces Manifesto - setting out what they would do to help our Armed Forces.
It's full of pretty good stuff. Protecting the defence budget in 2010/11 whilst the Strategic Defence Review is underway, giving our service personnel the equipment they need - not the useless rubbish they've been given under Labour, doubling the money troops get for serving overseas, bursaries for the children of service personnel killed in conflict, extra support for veterans when they leave the forces and a military covenant that enshrines our duties towards our forces.
You'll find it hard to find braver people than the men and women of our Armed Forces and it's time we gave them the respect they deserve. Labour and the Liberal Democrats must now meet the Conservative's commitments to our men and women in uniform.
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