Military Families Blog

MEETING THE MINISTER

14-12-2007

On Wednesday, Stirrer blogger Carol Jones met defence Minister Des Browne – after a wait of two years. Top of the agenda? Equipping British troops with poorly protected Land Rover “snatch vehicles”.

This week, eight of the Military Families Support Group, went to London to the Ministry of Defence to meet Des Browne. We were accompanied by three lawyers, one of them a barrister.

The meeting was about the 'snatch' Land Rover used in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our aim is to have it scrapped. We were told this would not happen, as the Army don't like using heavy tanks and vehicles because they are intimidating to the locals.  The trouble is that this can make our troops sitting targets for local militia.

New vehicles are being introduced but as we were told this takes time.

Mr Browne was not happy having three lawyers sitting opposite him, and was quite nasty to them at times.

We asked lots of questions, and Mr Browne was unable to answer a lot of them.

I asked why it had taken two years for someone in Government to hold a meeting with the Military Families,but was told "he didn’t know why".

For all that, I feel it was a very satisfying day, and another meeting will be held as time ran out at this one.

To see why Carol is so concerned about the Land Rover snatch, click here and here