"despite planned defence cuts."
Has he been smoking crack?
I think we'd all agree that USA, Russia and China are bigger military powers than the UK. But check out this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_troops
Even if you exclude reserves and paramilitaries, Turkey, Vietnam, Thailand, Syria, Germany, even Mexico and many others have a larger number of troops than we do.
But perhaps "military power" means more than just raw numbers of troops. None of the countries above have nuclear weapons. So maybe North Korea, with an army 8 times the size of us and nuclear weapons might count? But they have old equipment and maybe they are no match for a modern military force, like for example the South Koreans, who have an army merely four times the size of ours, with modern western equipment.
What about the French?
Troops: UK: 175,000 France: 352,000
Combat Aircraft: UK: 210 France: 439 (Air Force 370, Navy 69)
And, oh yes, the French still have an aircraft carrier.
Not that I care particularly about whether the UK has more soldiers than the next place or not, but I don't like seeing throw-away remarks by politicians going without challenge.
