MoD Spend More On Dog Food Than On Feeding Soldiers
A BRITISH soldier’s lot is not an easy one, whatever your views are on the war in Iraq. (Pic: Beau Bo D’Or)
While politicians play war games from the comfort of their plush offices, soldiers are out on the battlefield, doing their leaders’ dirty work, often with inadequate armour, sub-standard weaponry and now it appears, without even a dog’s dinner in their stomachs.
Tory MP, Mike Penning, has obtained figures which show that a measly £1.51 a day goes on meals for troops, substantially less than the £2.63 which goes on food for military dogs. Indeed, even prisoners cost more to feed, at £1.87 a day.
Penning also claims that American soldiers are being fed high quality mean while British troops are forced to make do with cheap sausages and chips.
Says he: “‘I cannot believe that soldiers are risking their lives daily for the country, but are not being fed properly. I have spoken to a number of mums who are being forced to send out food to their hungry sons. When I was in the army, my mum sent me a cake but that was as a treat.”
However, an MoD spokeswoman has disputed Mr. Penning’s claims, arguing that “It costs significantly less to feed a dog than a person on operations. The mess rate for across all service personnel is £1.51 a day. It varies for dogs as it depends on the size of the dog and the nature of the work. But it works out at roughly 78p a day for an ammunition dog and £1.20 for a patrol dog. “
An ammunition dog? Don’t tell me they’ve started firing man’s best friend at the enemy?
Posted: 14th, June 2007 | In: Money Comments (3) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
- scotfree on Madeleine McCann And The Wanted ‘James Bond’ Spy
- June on Cockermouth In Cumbria: Those Floods In Pictures
- June on Amy Winehouse To Star In New Patridge Family Show
- Anorak on Amy Winehouse To Star In New Patridge Family Show
- Desperate Dan on Amy Winehouse To Star In New Patridge Family Show
June 20th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Is it a required qualification for an MP to be daft?
I can easily believe that the last time Tory MP Mike Penning did some real shopping he was still a Guardsman in the NAAFI, but even an idiot knows that the more you buy the cheaper it gets. The MOD buy food by the truck loads.
He obviously hasn’t noticed that there are more people in the Services than there are dogs. Simple ecomony of scale applies here.
I’m no MP, but even I was able to find out from the Internet that the MOD’s spending on food for troops does not include procurement, transport or operator margin costs.
If my supermarket stripped out all the costs like that I could feed my own little army on a fraction of my usual weekly food bill.
Mr Penning should get real and spend his time (which we pay for) more usefully.
June 17th, 2007 at 6:43 am
hmmmm I am not qualified to comment on actual expenditures on rations for saber regiments in these modern days times but I distinctly remember that back in the late 60s and very early 70s it cost more - a LOT more - to feed and house our horses (and the few remaining mules) than we spent on combat troops in regiments of the line. The ONLY foodstuff (?) that the, then, Army Catering Corps never skimped upon were the huge containers of BROMIDE, military, dried, powdered mixture, for the use of, that would arrive on RCT Vedford trucks each month in Berlin. The heavy use of Bromide back then was so very pervasive that, once upon a time, the Berlin garrisons had actually run out of it and NO-ONE would drink from the huge urns of tea ‘as it tasted’ funny - so used were we to our daily 24 hours tea rations being comprised mainly bromide with a few tea leaves floating in it - ah yes indeed…those were the days my friends!!!
Chris In Sacramento, California, USA
June 14th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
And I wonder what the average bill in the H of C bar restaurant is for MPs?