Cameron turns to defence but is he held back by spending commitments

Policy announcements thick and fast from the Tories.Hot on the heals of NHS spending and prisons,today it is the turn of defence.

On the back of Prince Harry's triumphant return from Helmund province,David Cameron uses a speach at the in front of Falklands hero,Simon Weston to talk of restoring the military conovent

The Telegraph reports that

The Conservative leader has announced a new party commission to look at ways to improve the treatment of service personnel and their families.

And they have got a heavyweight to chair it as Red Box reports

The Cameron tent just got bigger, with the appointment by David Cameron of author Frederick Forsyth to chair a Tory Commission on the military covernant

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Ben Brogan asks whether defence be Cameron's No1 priority?

I was particularly struck by Mr Cameron's political courage in raising the issue, despite being unable to tell us whether the Conservatives would spend more or less on defence in future. It's a risky area for him, and he is under pressure from Liam Fox to say more.

A risky area not in part because of the party being frightened of committing to spending increases and Nick Robinson notes

Curiously he omitted a line from his prepared speech about Labour cutting defence spending. It's yet another sign that he is struggling to control the pressure coming from within his party to spend more and tax less.