Saturday 15 August 2009

Afghan posting: clerk £50,000 ..... soldier £2,000

A civil servant sent to shuffle paper behind a desk in a safe, air-conditioned office in Kabul picks up a bonus of £50,000 for a six month posting; a soldier risking his life fighting in the dust and dirt on the frontline gets a £2,000 warzone allowance for his six month tour.

An MoD spokesperson said: "Civil servants get allowances to recognise the challenges they face".

What! This is unbelievable. But then the double standards and hypocrisy of the government should not, I suppose, come as a surprise any more.

We've seen their attempts to claw back the meagre compensation paid to injured soldiers while handing over £450,000 to a civil servant with a strained thumb.

We've seen them spending £millions on office refurbishment at the MoD while military families were having to live in squalid conditions.

We've seen top former MoD civil servants taking up lucrative directorships in the armaments industry while the projects they were meant to manage when at the MoD are years behind schedule and £millions over budget - all at a time when the troops are deprived of the equipment they urgently need and lives are put at risk as a consequence.

The Sun: £2K for troops, £50K for clerks.