IT’S 10pm on Tuesday and I’ve been looking through my inbox after a day dominated by the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). Hardly surprisingly, given the nature of my constituency, it contains a shed-load of opinions, mostly positive, from a variety of defence experts. Concerns, naturally, have been expressed about headcount. I regret any job losses, uniformed or civilian, among my constituents as a result of the SDSR.

However I was struck by the PM’s commitment in his statement to natural wastage and the avoidance of compulsory redundancies where numbers are to be reduced. There may even be opportunities in Wiltshire as the Army relocates from Germany. It is clear the infantry will be protected with no further loss of battalions. Today’s proceedings are important to communities around Salisbury Plain. All, in varying degrees, depend on the military. Some say the SDSR has been a rushed job, completed in just six months. In fact, even the most hardened cynic has to admit on reading the measured and thoughtful white paper published today that the work has been thorough and altogether impressive.

The fact is the previous government was gleefully signing off cheques for bits of defence kit – to the tune of £38 billion – against an empty bank account. We simply could not go on like that so, if the cuts announced this week seem harsh, they’re against unsupportable expectations built up since 2003. This became painfully apparent as the new leader of the opposition attempted his excruciating apologia from the dispatch box. If there was ever any doubt, we now know defence isn’t Ed Milliband’s strong suit.

The biggest threat to this country’s security right now isn’t state-on-state conflict or even the fundamentalist terror we have spent the best part of a decade facing down. It is financial in the form of our weakened state struggling against the incursions of emerging major economies, particularly China. It follows that any responsible government must make its first priority the restoration of some sort of financial equilibrium.

This demands tough money measures now. But, after the defence cuts, the UK will still be at the top table, still punching above its weight and still drawing a discrete veil over the Iraq war, a force for good in the world.

It is against that background David Cameron came to the Commons to announce that Armed Forces configured for the cold war would be recalibrated to the threats of today and those we can reasonably foresee in the decades to come.