I an disgusted by the evasive writhing of our Secretary of State for Defence over the issues of his travelling arrangements and links to Adam Weritty.  His Boss, Davy Boy has failed to give him the ringing endorsement he needed to saunter off into bright sunlit pastures so he remains in purdah for the time being.  I am also appalled by the arrogance of the establishment again to demand on absolute documentary proof of any breach of ministerial code before they can take action.  The Secretary of State for Defence met John Allen the Commander of CentCom of the US Forces prior to his deployment to Afghanistan as Commander Iforce.  His “mate” was with him at that meeting, an informal dinner at a steak house Do the Civil Servants really want me to believe that there were no breeches of OPSEC at all in this meeting? That all that was discussed could have been gleaned from the pages of Telegraph or Guardian?  If so then they are backing a loser.  Was there anything at this meeting that could not have been shared with a member of the public?  If so then it is a clear and flagrant breach of privileged information and as such means that Dr Fox, as he is now being insistent on being called, has been at best cavalier with rules that non elected people have been prosecuted for, or, at worst,  ignorant to the implications of his actions – an arrogance only matched by his Boss and the Chancellor.

Taking this to one side, imagine the comments of a Tom on duty in Helmand, returning from a 3 day patrol in bandit country.  He has had to endure a pay freeze over the last 2 years, watched as the Government took an axe to his pension, been confronted by the reality of enforced unemployment through non voluntary redundancy even before he gets through the gate so the Taliban can then take their slice of his diminishing supply of good fortune. Now he hears that the Defence Minister ( That’s what they still call them – the guys who carry the rifles) has jetted across the world and met with his best mate almost every week of the year and nobody knows who paid for it.  The first words out of his mouth won’t be about the establishment of absolute proof, they will be sharper and more pungent and convey a very simple message – a distinct lack of trust cloaked in as many Anglo Saxon epithets as possible.  Once again the Tom will be correct.  Who in his right mind would wish to carry on as Secretary of State for Defence without the Trust of his troops.  This is not a matter of retaining the Trust of his fellow MP’s , Ministers, PM or the party.  This is about accepting the fact that confidence in the boss is paramount and without it the fall in morale of our people in harms way will plummet.  Who indeed?  Only one of this new breed of politician to whom integrity and honour are mere words in an out of date political text book.

If Liam Fox wishes to retain even the merest shred of credibility then he should be at 10 Downing Street tomorrow morning with a single sheet of paper in his hand – his resignation.  He won’t!  He will wait until the mandarins have delivered his boss the best possible spin on it and hope to be retained.  He knows how loyal his boss is and how good his personal judgements are in these sort of cases.  What’s that you say – Andy Coulson – David Laws?  But they were essentially good men – David Cameron said so, and David Cameron is an honourable man ( with apologies to Marc Athony)