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Evening Standard

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Robert Fox

OPINION - Generals like Shapps because he was not a soldier

Whitehall Grant Shapps Orwell Ministry of Defence

By any Whitehall standard, the Ministry of Defence is a weird place. I am not just referring to its forbidding architectural lines, partly Orwell’s 1984 Ministry of Truth and Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, but its very nature. It is a hybrid, a frontline Whitehall ministry and an active military headquarters.

This makes the job of Defence Secretary quite distinctive — a front rank Cabinet minister who has full responsibility for decisions of war and peace.

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