Although it seems that most people have already moved on to other truth-economies, the top brass is at last focusing on what The Slog has been saying since Saturday: Brown misled Chilcot and lied about his spend on the Iraq War.

General Sir Richard Dannatt in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph:

HOW BROWN WAS ABLE TO CLAIM HE MET ARMY DEMANDS:

‘The explanation is quite simply that on the matter of providing money for current operations the Treasury is obliged under Government agreements with the MoD to pay for the extra costs of operations under the Urgent Operational Requirements protocols.

As Chancellor, Gordon Brown was obliged to make these payments and did so, hence his remark that whatever the military asked for, they got.

But, in front of Chilcot, he did not address the issue of the underlying underfunding of defence that has been endemic since the Strategic Defence Review of 1997/98. [See Saturday’s Slog posting]

Implementation of that otherwise excellent Review was hobbled from the start by the Treasury under Gordon Brown not only not fully funding the outcome of the Review, but imposing a three per cent year on year efficiency savings target.’

We repeat the charge of last Saturday: Brown came to Chilcot determined to flip from being Mr Prudent to being Lady Bountiful. It just won’t wash: but it will if everyone gives up on the topic.