Is Eric Joyce Right?

by Stuart Crawford

Just over 12 years ago, whilst still a serving officer in the Royal Tank Regiment, I wrote a piece for a military magazine in support of a certain Major Eric Joyce.  Major Joyce, then serving with the Adjutant General’s Corps, had written an article for the Fabian Society journal in which he was highly critical of the army’s attitude to, amongst other things, class, race and gender.

He was much vilified in the army at the time for his views, and I was far from popular for supporting him.  But much of what he said rang true, and I thought he showed considerable moral courage in saying it so openly and frankly, no matter what other agenda might have been in his mind at the same time.

So the Eric Joyce MP, member for Falkirk West, who has just resigned his post as aide to the Defence Secretary, has previous form on the controversy front.  Never one to shy away from the limelight, the timing and manner of his departure from his unpaid adviser’s job has attracted much more attention that its substance.  Previously seen as ultra loyal to Downing Street, why make his move now?  And, more importantly, are the reasons he cites right?

The first question, why now, is getting its fair share of comments from the usual suspects on sites and blogs on the internet.  The consensus seems to be that he has announced his resignation from post now because Labour is going to lose the next General Election anyway and/or he’s going to be deselected by his local Labour constituency party because of his MP’s expenses claims.  He is, allegedly, the first MP to break through the £1 million cumulative expense barrier, which is no mean achievement if true.  So he’s getting in his retaliation first.

I don’t buy either of those, to be honest, unless one other scurrilous rumour, that he’s going to join the SNP, happens to have some basis in fact.  Which begs the question would the SNP accept him if he applied to join?  I think that’s one for Alex Salmond and co to answer, but personally I think it unlikely.

As for the reasons he gives for his resignation, these demand a closer look.  His letter to Gordon Brown cites a number of issues which he thinks the Government must face up to if it is to have any chance of being a serious contender in the next General Election.   Chief amongst these is his contention that the support of the British public for ongoing operations in Afghanistan cannot be guaranteed ad infinitum, particularly against the backdrop of flawed elections, corrupt government in that country, and the rationale that our presence there is primarily to prevent terrorism in Britain’s streets.

In this I believe he is absolutely correct.  There is increasing disquiet in all quarters that British lives are being lost in support of an unworthy Afghan government, which at best can only be seen as the “least worst option”.  The recent blatantly rigged elections only reinforces that feeling.  And nobody, not even the Prime Minister himself, can believe that fighting a war in Afghanistan is helping prevent terrorism in mainland Britain.  Quite the opposite, I would suggest.

Joyce is also critical of the burden Britain seems prepared to shoulder in comparison with other NATO allies – “Britain fights; Germany pays; France calculates; Italy avoids;” a pretty good assessment of where some of them stand.  And he has also been clearly sickened by political manoeuvring against the former Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannat, who has been the only army officer of his rank in living memory who has shown the moral fibre to speak out for the men and women for whom he is responsible whilst still serving.

In this too he is spot on.  But perhaps his most important warning is that the country will not thole an open ended commitment of our troops to Afghanistan and that a timetable for withdrawal must be set in place.  In other words, there is no exit strategy and there needs to be one; General Richards, the new head of the army, said recently that we might still be there in 30 or 40 years time.  That is both naïve and disingenuous at the same time.  The spectacle of coffins moving slowly through Wootton Bassett is becoming firmly etched in the national psyche, and soon the public will cry enough.  General Richards is wrong, and Eric Joyce is right.

The truth is that Joyce’s sensitive political antennae have sensed both the mood of the nation and the helplessness of the Government as it flounders in the deepening morass that is Afghanistan.  He is one of the very few MPs with personal military experience in any party and he’s nobody’s fool.

The Prime Minister ignores what he has said at his peril.

© SWC 2000

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