It's pretty damn obvious to every one that the money isn't there. We are in a huge national debt, and you have only stated what I said before, defence is not of paramount importance to the government owing to other areas that the public perceive to be more important in their daily lives.
Without doing something dramatic and innovative we are not going to improve the lot of your average armed service man or woman.
Then do the dramatic, and think the speakable.
For once, have a government that really does do joined up thinking. Why are we spending so much on the NHS and social welfare?
In part, due to an increase in the population of 10 million in 35 years, an unheard of increase. In no small part due to uncontrolled immigration. Curb it. In addition, robustly encourage the private sector to invest in employee training to address the alleged skills gap that immigration purportedly meets; tax breaks for [approved] training courses, for example.
Look at expenditure beyond headline departmental figures. Starters for 10, the Highways Agency budget. Due to an explosion in road signage in the past 20 years, a not considerable portion of the budget is spent on maintaining un-necessary signage. Drive down the M6/M42 through Birmingham for a sterling example of this.
The NHS. The third rail of politics, and a monster self-licking lollipop. Health Authorities worked. Trusts don't. Every Trust has a CEO, COO, and a Board. Average salary at this level is £250,000 to "compete with the private sector and attract the best talent". Yet they do not compete with the private sector for talent, as a prerequisite is previous NHS experience. As for 'talent', it seems to be limited to making front-line cuts and then moving to the next NHS opening. Regroup trusts into hospitals, and slash management overhead.
MPs ho ho ho. Lets lead by example. If I join a private sector company in a role based xxx miles away, I'm expected to move or commute at my own expense. Why should MP's be any different? A sterling opportunity was lost when we sold barracks in London; one or two could have been converted into serviced apartments, each with a bedroom, kitchenette and study, available at a peppercorn rent. Take it or leave it, but no second home allowance, no flip-flopping of second home for selling purposes, and cut right back on allowable expenses.
Much much tougher contract negotiation, and drop PPI tenders. Penalty clauses for performance failures, cost-overruns, SLA failures.
Utopian thinking? Of course it is.