UK NEWS

FORCES UNDER FIRE OVER £2.5M FLAG BILL

SYMBOL: The Union Flag flutters proudly

Monday June 30,2008

By David Gibbs

DEFENCE chiefs have been criticised for plans to spend £2.5million on new flags while troops are being killed because of inadequate equipment.

The Ministry of Defence says “tatty” flags are bad for morale. But senior soldiers, families of serving troops, and opposition MPs yesterday condemned the move.

The mother of Scottish soldier Gordon Gentle, 19, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 after his Land Rover was destroyed by a bomb, said: “This money would be far better spent on protecting the troops from harm and not leaving them in lightly armoured Land Rovers.”

Colonel Stuart Crawford, a former tank commander, said: “I could think of a lot of better ways to use this money.

“I know that it won’t buy very many Eurofighters or even bits of Eurofighters.

“But spending money on things like this all adds up and the Ministry of Defence is notoriously profligate when it comes to taxpayers’ money. Is £2.5million spent on flags really appropriate when we have our Armed Forces fighting two wars?”

Tory MP Patrick Mercer, a former infantry officer, said: “If you are going to have a flag flying then you want it to be clean.

“The whole point of having a flag is for it to be a symbol to everyone and if it’s scruffy or absent then it’s not good.

“But it seems an awful lot of money for what is after all something at the luxury end of military spending.”

The MoD has embarked on a four-year programme to replace 50,000 flags for the Army, Royal Navy, RAF and Royal Marines, The contract has been awarded to Zephyr Racing Pennants, of Kettering, Northants.

Queen’s Regulations require all service bases and headquarters to fly the Union Flag daily.

A typical military-use flag measuring 6ft by 3ft will cost around £34.95.

An MoD spokeswoman defended the need for new flags.

“They do get worn out over time and they do need replacement,” she said. “We do have an awful lot of flags and you don’t want them to look tatty. It’s bad for morale.”

An MoD source said: “There’s more to the military than bullets and bombs. If you took the attitude of nothing but the essentials, then where would the parades and the nice posh uniforms be? You need these things too.”

Four troops were killed in Afghanistan this month while travelling in a Snatch Land Rover, a vehicle widely criticised for its lack of protection against bombs and mines.