Andy McSmith's Diary: MoD's top brass are in no danger of losing their jobs

Since 2010, the MoD has shed 61,460 posts, yet a disproportionate number of high-ranking officers have survived

The MoD has shed 61,460 military and civilian posts since 2010 (Getty)

“For too long the MoD has been top-heavy, with too many senior civilians and military,” said Philip Hammond, in August 2012, when he was Defence Secretary, as he announced that he was going ahead with changes recommended in a report by the former chairman of Lloyds of London, Lord Levene.

On Monday, the Government published Lord Levene’s findings on how the changes have gone so far. His conclusion? The MoD is even more top heavy now than it was when the process began.

Since 2010, the MoD has shed 61,460 military and civilian posts, yet a disproportionate number of people with the rank of major general, rear admiral or air vice marshal, or higher, have survived the cull, leaving the ratio of top brass to the rest worse rather than better.

The result, Lord Levene has warned, is “too many people checking the work of other people; too many compromises being made to keep everybody happy; and too much time being taken to reach decisions”.

I would suggest that this might be a good issue for Labour’s newly appointed shadow Defence Secretary, Emily Thornberry, to get her teeth into, except that she let on last week that her brother-in-law is a general, so maybe not.

Legal bedfellows

Two names leap out from the list of 2015-16 appointments to Queen’s Counsel, published today – that of Justine Thornton, a specialist in environmental law and Ed Miliband’s other half, and the human rights lawyer, Marina Wheeler, wife of Boris Johnson. So someone in the Miliband household had a successful 2015.

And Marina Wheeler QC – as she now is – must be an extraordinarily focused individual to be able to pursue a highly successful legal career when sharing a home for so many years with a man with such a wandering eye as London’s Mayor.

Corbyn not his taste

Just outside Jeremy Corbyn’s Islington North constituency, in a store belonging to the upmarket restaurant Bellanger launched in 1981 by Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, the “Rodgers and Hammerstein of relaxed eating”, a customer was overheard to say: “I cannot stand Jeremy Corbyn. His policies are awful. I don’t know what he’s doing to the Labour Party. It’s a disaster. But he runs such brilliant restaurants!”

Apparently, it was not meant as a joke.

Galloway to the rescue

George Galloway was asked by the politics.co.uk website whether the Labour Party, which expelled him a decade ago, ought to readmit him and give him a role winning back Labour’s lost support in Scotland. “I’m a little surprised they’re not walking the 500 miles just to lay down such a proposal at my door,” was his modest response.

Telegraph time machines

Returning to work on a Monday was an unusually weird experience for staff working for The Daily Telegraph, who discovered mysterious little black plastic boxes attached to their desks.

A Google check discovered that they were wireless motion detectors. The manufacturer boasts that they are “ultra-sensitive, yet ultra-reliable when it comes to tracking real-time 1:1 space utilisation”.

An email to staff claimed that the monitors were there to make the company’s office space “as energy efficient as possible”, but alarmed staff noticed they would no longer be able to leave their desks without management knowing.

One of them told BuzzFeed News: “Never before has taking a shit on company time felt so rebellious.”

However, last night The Telegraph said: “In the light of feedback from staff today, it has been decided to withdraw the under-desk sensors immediately.”