Poor relations
IT REALLY must be a spending splurge if even the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) get more money. The successive (if very small) increases in the defence budget for the next three years, which average 0.3% in real terms, represent a departure from the pattern of post-cold-war cuts. An extra £200m has been found for defence for the current year. The FCO will receive an annual real increase of 1.9% over the next three years. The department for international development (DFID) will get a particularly significant budget increase of 6.2% a year over the same period, to almost £3.6 billion.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Poor relations”
From the July 22nd 2000 edition
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