Politics: May’s Buried Blunders and UK’s Shaky Military

Theresa May did her best to smuggle some all-important info past the public as Parliament broke for summer. Two announcements that got little attention because of their careful timing related to our armed forces and deserve far more attention than the Tories want to give them.

A Lesser Force

Newly released statistics from June 2017 show a continuing fall in the strength of our armed forces while the need for them grows. The gap between the level of military personnel we need and the level we actually have is now 4.8%, up from 4% a year earlier.

The latest monthly data showed a minimal increase of just 10 people from May-June 2017. Any increase – however small – sounds positive but the overall trends are far more telling. In a year there’s been a drop of 690 personnel.

That’s worrying enough but personnel figures don’t show the whole story. Hidden within those declining figures is an increase in volunteer reserves and “other personnel”. That means our losses are primarily skilled armed personnel.

We can see that by measuring our military’s strength, which is based on the training and experience of its staff. The number of full-time trained personnel – those who have completed a first phase of training and may be used to respond to a crisis such as a terrorism alert – is down by 1.3% from last year. The strength of our entire personnel has decreased by 0.3%.

These differences may seem minimal but they are part of a wide-ranging decline in the UK’s protective personnel. Though we associate the military with war, our forces are no longer confined to foreign conflict. With increasing threats on our streets and cuts to police numbers and funding, we will rely more on the armed forces and a drop in their numbers affects domestic public safety.

Drunk and Disorderly

Declining strength isn’t the only problem our forces face. Alcoholism and substance abuse is a chronic issue among troops.

Another June 2017 study found that 59% of service people were at an increasing or higher risk of alcohol-related harm. A further 2% were at such a high risk level that they required intervention by a doctor. The naval service had a worse alcohol-related risk than the army or air force. Some 64% of Royal Navy personnel were at increasing risk from alcohol abuse and 3% needed medical consultation. The most at-risk group were white male naval officers in their 20s.

Studies have shown that the rate of alcohol abuse in the armed forces is far higher than in the general population. The estimates for this increased likelihood of alcohol abuse range from a concerning 39% to an astonishing 67%.

Coping In Your Cups

Alcohol abuse is high in the military as it acts as a coping mechanism for those serving in extreme circumstances. Not only does it counteract the stress and distress of warfare, it also helps personnel to continually switch between high-intensity combat and barracked safety.

The armed forces and alcohol have a long shared history; the very term “Dutch courage” comes from warfare. English troops were given Dutch gin during the Thirty Years War to keep their resolve and settle nerves. The word “grog” came from the Royal Navy’s centuries-long tradition of giving sailors a daily ration of rum. Reducing the role of alcohol in military culture therefore means undoing centuries of dependence.

Sadly the fall in military numbers is likely to simply increase the work, stress and alcohol dependency of service people. Attempts to change this drinking culture have been half-hearted at best and the Government’s latest bid to sweep evidence of the problem under the summer holiday rug does not suggest that the issue is going to receive the attention and intervention it needs.

by Jo Davey

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