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  Unreliable European allies will not defend UK interests, a European army is the last thing we need. Can you imagine the French, Germans or Spanish supporting us in defending the Falklands? No
  
  As for the size of the defence budget - there are a number of different ways it can be measured and it is interesting that the statement on that was not qualified.
  
  The simple fact is that we are not spending enough on defence. This should be the top priority and is the one and only budget heading that both deserves and needs to be increased, deserved because during the years of Brown's profligate spending it was the only department not to benefit and need because of the wide ranging threats to British interests that are increasing.
  
  We need to take this story with a pinch of salt though as there will always be some small p politiking to protect the budget in advance of any proposals. The actual threat to the SAS is from the pool of potential recruits being cut from over 100,000 to 82,000 that endangers the quality. Remember - they do not recruit direct but from the best of other regiments after a tough selection process. An actual cut to 22 SAS, as such, is very unlikely as they are a fairly small regiment anyway.
  
  Increasing the size of the SAS is not possible without compromising quality unless we actually increase the size of the pool from which they get selected.

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