Take It As Red

You have to admire Annabel Ewing MP of the SNP. It went mostly unnoticed in all the activity yesterday, but in the debate around the amalgamation of Scots army regiments, she had the guts to stand up in Parliament and call Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon a ''backstabbing coward''. Hoon had blamed the abolition of historic regiments on the Army leadership, when it was actually politically led from No 10 and the Treasury, following the US policy of the privatisation of core miltary services. Soldiers are being made redundant in action.

Ewing refused to withdraw her comment despite much pressure from the Speaker, and was eventually obliged to leave the House. Good for her: Hoon is a backstabbing coward, it's just a shame it was said about just this issue when there have been so many other occasions upon which it would've been appropriate to say this under parliamentary privilege.

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