The Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference will be asked to endorse the right of representation by an armed forces federation.

The Chancellor, in yesterday's Autumn Budget Statement, announced that public sector pay rises would be capped at 1 per cent for two years when the current pay freeze ends in 2014. With inflation likely to exceed 1 per cent the pay cap means a pay cut in real terms for public servants, including members of the armed forces.

Unlike earlier announcements by the Coalition government and by their predecessors, there is no mention this time of measures to protect the pay of junior personnel.

While there are unique characteristics of military service which must always be reflected in a fair remuneration package, the armed forces are clearly not exempt from the current public spending situation. The real-terms pay cut should, however, be viewed in the context of ever-increasing charges and diminishing opportunities to save money from allowances.

The Ministry of Defence has announced that the "significant improvements" to the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) recommended by the Boyce Review are being implemented in full as of today, 09 May 2011.

More to follow.

A story in the Guardian claims that with the MoD planning to sell off its 178-acre vehicle complex at Ashchurch in Gloucestershire, in order to raise money, one of the options under consideration is to move some tanks and other armoured vehicles to storage in Germany.

The UK is in the process of withdrawing thousands of troops from Germany, at the same time as thousands of military vehicles could be heading in the opposite direction.

(6 May 2010) The Lancashire Post has a story 'Troops to have say electronically' which is widely understood to mean that British troops in Afghanistan have been given the chance to vote electronically in today's General Election. We do not believe that such a thing has happened, however. We think the story is prompted by the fact that the final batch of specially-adapted service voter registration forms (which incorporate postal or proxy voting applications) were delayed in Afghanistan due to the volcanic dust cloud and that the Ministry of Defence, acting in consultation with the Ministry of Justice, Electoral Commission and local electoral officials, arranged for these registration forms to be transmitted electronically to electoral registration offices across the country.

As the SCC and the MoD get stuck into negotiations as to the form of Armed Forces Ombudsman, we should celebrate that at least the argument as to the need for change has been won. But what arrangements will be made for wounded, injured and sick (WIS) personnel in the new style procedures to handle Service Complaints (SC)?

Ex-servicemen who had been exposed to radiation in British nuclear weapons tests have lost their Supreme Court bid to launch negligence claims against the Ministry of Defence. BBC News reports that:

With the nation's media focused on our future sovereign, could there be a better day to try to hide bad news? The quote 'Lies, damned lies and statistics' I am sure has been uttered at both the MOD and in the Army HQ in the past few days, but what is BAFF's view of the AFCAS survey published today?

A Labour MP claims that the military's senior officers are being protected from the worst effects of the defence cuts at the expense of lower ranks. From a report in the Guardian:

We are honoured to have received this thank-you message from Mrs Kim Baleiwai on behalf of the Baleiwai family:

"We would like to thank BAFF and all those kind people that have supported our case and signed our petition. We have been overwhelmed by the support and the generosity of spirit of others to find time for my family, in what has been a difficult 5 months.