Explain this one Gordon

At the Chilcot enquiry Gordon Brown said that the military got all the money they asked for, and that funding went up every year.

He did own up later that in some years it didn't go up, when he was found out of course.

Yesterday I read this article

An extract;

The Sunday Telegraph has been told that a £400,000 "contingency fund", financed by private donors, was used to purchase body armour for members of 21 SAS, one of the service's two territorial regiments, prior to their deployment to Helmand in 2008.

Cash from the fund was also used to pay for operational welfare equipment, personal kit and to pay-off the mortgages of two members of 23 SAS killed in southern Afghanistan in an earlier deployment.

The disclosure has been seized upon by opposition MPs and former Army commanders of proof that the Armed Forces have not been properly funded while Labour has been in power.

This is just one regiment of the whole British Army. If the government can't supply the SAS with proper equipment, then what are the other regiments supplies going to be like.

In the article, it says the fund was set up to help the families of soldiers killed or wounded.

An extract;

But after the regiment was mobilised in the spring of 2008, commanders feared the unit did not have access to enough equipment or body armour to properly prepare the SAS troops for their six month tour.

Gordon Brown has said in the past that the army is the best trained and best equipped. Please, Gordon tell us, if the army is the best trained and equipped why are they having to buy equipment through private donations?

The news of the army not being given the right equipment is not new, look at this article from December 15th 2006;

Soldier killed without body armour talked of 'disgraceful' lack of kit

An extract;

A British tank commander who died in Iraq because he had been ordered to give up his body armour described British military supplies as "disgraceful" and "a bit of a joke" in the days before his death, an inquest heard today.

When our troops go to war they know they may well pay the ultimate sacrifice, but they must be protected as much as possible, with the proper body armour, armoured vehicles and helicopters.

So I ask you Gordon Brown, Chancellor and now Prime Minister, if as you say the Army has been funded properly, why are we seeing stories about our troops buying their own equipment, AGAIN?