When the United Kingdom Coalition Government was formed not so long ago, the official line that was constantly being trotted out was:

“Britain is broke. We have to cut the deficit, and that means painful cuts to public spending.”

So you can imagine my cynicism upon reading the following news report regarding the (then) situation in Libya:

“Chancellor George Osborne sought to reassure the public that the cost of the war would not spiral out of control, saying it would be ‘in the tens of millions not the hundreds of millions of pounds’

He said it would be paid for from the Treasury’s reserve, rather than the main defence budget.

The Government expects the air campaign, featuring RAF Typhoon and Tornado jets plus Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from the submarine Triumph, to cost around £3million a day, though the Daily Mail has calculated that the first three days cost nearly…