by RAY FLEMING
DAVID Cameron had intended to announce in his speech today that General Sir Richard Dannatt would be joining the Conservatives as a defence adviser but news of this coup was broken by The TImes and other papers yesterday.
Even worse for the Conservative leader was the assumption by the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, that General Dannatt had been made an adviser to the prime minister, a move which he dismissed as a political gimmick. Mr Grayling must have very poor political judgement if he could think for a moment, after the recent public spat between the two men, that Mr Brown would want General Dannatt around or that the General would want to work for the prime minister.
It is no surprise that Richard Dannat has accepted Mr Cameron's offer. In July the Independent newspaper reported rumours that General Dannatt may join a Conservative government if the Tories win the next election.
After becoming Chief of the General Staff he adopted a surprisingly right-ish stance on a number of matters concerning the conduct of the Iraq war. He criticised what he saw as the inbalance between government spending on social services and on defence and appeared to criticise the government's decision on the Iraq campaign because it had effectively kicked the door in. Although many may agree with that view, it is not one that the Chief of the General Staff should express publicly.