I’ve mentioned before that numbers aren’t my strong point, especially with billions and millions floating around.

Now I read that an Audit Office report on the Ministry of Defence has revealed that about £6 billion worth of materièl is either missing, lost or unaccounted for. My eyes glaze over, because these amounts mean very little to me.

Until you get down to the detail. Buried in the article was a mention of 3,500 radios missing, at a cost of £155 million.

Now here are some figures I can begin to relate to. I bought a radio a year or so ago, a Roberts DAB, and bloody good it is too. At £100, so it ought to be. So the Army has managed to lose three and a half thousand of these. That’s, oh that’s — that’s about £350,000. That’s dreadful.

Hang about. The cost mentioned was £155 million. For 3,500 radios? Out comes the calculator.

Each of these radios has cost the UK taxpayer £44,285. How can one radio cost nearly FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS? I mean, I know Two Way Family Favourites is a morale-bosting show and all that, but really. This is a staggering figure.

And the MoD has lost 3,500 of them. At that price, I can only assume the device is so small it can be hidden behind a contact lens, so maybe the cat ate them all by mistake.

To save money we the public are being compelled to buy Rillingtons instead of proper light bulbs. Yet the MoD can throw away or lose £155 million. Just like that.

It’s not surprising our military expenditure is the fourth highest in the world.

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