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The genial throat-slitter sticking his knife in Brown

It takes a lot to brass off five former military top brass. But when two field marshals, an admiral, a general and an air force marshal rose in the House of Lords last week to direct deadly fire at Gordon Brown for his neglect of the armed forces, a few people must have wondered why such brave words had eluded them when they were running the show. It is one accusation that cannot be levelled at Lord Guthrie.

Charles Guthrie, chief of the defence staff (CDS) between 1997 and 2001, never hid his dislike of Brown. “You don’t think I understand defence, do you,” the former chancellor once snapped at Guthrie during a row about a proposed budget cut. “No, I bloody well don’t,” came the reply.

The 69-year-old general and former SAS trooper (is) reputed to have “slit more throats than anyone else in Whitehall”.

Despite being “propositioned” to write his memoirs, Guthrie has contented himself with co-authoring a recently published slim volume, Just War, which measures the ethics of modern conflicts against Christian criteria. A devout Catholic who visits Lourdes every year, he is vice-president and knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, formerly the Knights Hospitallers who cared for crusaders in Jerusalem.

Full story at the Sunday Times.