Gordon Brown: A silence for the underappreciated, the underfunded and the unarmoured...

Of all Gordon Brown's attempts to change his public image (if not his policies), none have angered me more than this. That Brown - in another vain attempt to paint himself as the statesman he'll never be - has the nerve to pose as the champion of the fighting man is beyond contempt.

Lest we forget the squeeze that this man put on our armed forces while he headed up the Treasury, there are some choice examples to remind us: first and foremost, Government underspending has directly resulted in the loss of British soldiers' lives, from missing body-armour, from fratricide caused by a lack of combat ID equipment, from the lack of casevac and from faulty aircraft amongst other causes.

Training, and the equipment vital to carry it out properly, has also been at a premium since 2001, inadequate funding leading to the cancellation of major exercises as far back as the run-up to the Iraq war, and worsening as the intensity of current operations increased. And this money isn't just held back at source, it's also clawed back later, sometimes with disastrous results: much of the £1 billion worth of funding the Treasury promised for the invasion of Iraq was demanded back just a year later, resulting in the sale of WMIKs at below cost in order to refund the Treasury's money, WMIKs that would later be in short supply in Helmand.

And, considering his praise for the new national war memorial in Staffordshire, it is perhaps strange that only in 2001 was he charging £200,000 VAT bills to the builders of the Memorial Gates monument to Commonwealth servicemen.

These few examples represent only a small sample of the disrespect that this Government in general, and Gordon Brown in particular, have shown our brave men and women in uniform over a decade in power. It's just a little bit too late for all his fine words about the courage and heroism of men he's spent so long shafting.