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Shapes as Defence Secretary …really?

(30 Posts)
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CvD66 Fri 01-Sep-23 15:17:42

Grant Schapps, or is that Michael Green (one of other aliases he is known to have used) has been appointed to Defence Secretary with no military skills, knowledge or experience. This is his 5th role in 12 months. This is the man ridiculed for his ‘get rich quick’ schemes, who resigned after allegations of bullying while at DIFD and lied about having a second job. At a time when Ben Wallace, his predecessor, warned, against the backdrop of the Ukraine/Russia war, ‘the world will become more insecure and unstable’ Shapps is the best The PM could find. Even members of the Military are viewing this appointment as an insult.

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Oreo Sat 02-Sep-23 18:24:18

Urmstongran

I had hoped Tom Tugendhat might have been given the post. Shapps is a shirt button.

Glad that sentence ended in button 😬😄

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Curtaintwitcher Sat 02-Sep-23 18:29:57

Tom Tugenhat has military experience but he's a Liberal, not what is needed at present. We need someone who is not afraid to get tough.
Discipline, efficiency and common sense is what is needed....hard to find anyone who fits that description!

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Witzend Sun 03-Sep-23 10:36:11

I recently read a novel written IIRC by E. F.Benson (Mapp and Lucia) in the very late 1800s, where one of the main characters, a very senior ex army chap, was fully expected soon to be appointed to the then equivalent of Defence Secretary.

It was considered a radical and wonderful new thing even then, that anybody with actual practical experience of what he was going to be in charge of, was going to get the post.

But he died before it could happen - killed in a heroic attempt to save his long-term mistress’s life.

EFB’s early novels were very moralistic, quite unlike the later, funny and lighthearted ones.

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mantaray Thu 07-Sep-23 16:37:33

Tom Tugendaht would have been so much more suitable for such a heavyweight role, to mention one. Why oh why couldn't Sunak have found someone else. I'm sure there would have been several backbench MPs who could make a success of it.

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