Army cuts

MargaretR said:
In view of DaveG's former army connections, and his present location, I ask him to please report any incident the german media may report, because it is not likely to be reported in UK media.
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All quiet on the Western front. :)

As was expected, the Lads (& Lasses) of the Battalion remained professional throughout. Freedom of the City parade, March past & military band, there was more a feeling of sadness than outrage despite the disrespect & disdain exhibited by the British political classes to these young warriors.

Troops will bitch & moan, but at the end of the day they knuckle down & get on with the job regardless of their personal doubts, distaste or disagreement with an issue. That has every been the way of the Tommy & it's this resilience in the face of adversity that earns our forces such respect the world over, but sadly not from our own "leaders".
 
It is a pity that they didn't protest in some way - a two fingered salute maybe:)

The movement for a protest in UK appears to be gathering momentum.
There are Facebook pages for regiments as well as a main protest page.
They are arranging gatherings of soldiers, ex soldiers and members of the public, at war memorials on 24th July.

The national gathering is to be at the Cenotaph, but whether that will be the 24th or 28th appears undecided yet.

Many war veterans are planning to attend and to return their medals.
 
MargaretR said:
It is a pity that they didn't protest in some way - a two fingered salute maybe:)

The movement for a protest in UK appears to be gathering momentum.
There are Facebook pages for regiments as well as a main protest page.
They are arranging gatherings of soldiers, ex soldiers and members of the public, at war memorials on 24th July.

The national gathering is to be at the Cenotaph, but whether that will be the 24th or 28th appears undecided yet.

Many war veterans are planning to attend and to return their medals.
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That comes across as the bigoted "Opinion" of a union leader.
Stick to what you know about.
I would sooner see our troops performing in ceremonials than coming back in boxes.The days of numbers for cannon fodder have long gone and so it should be.
 
Royboy39 said:
That comes across as the bigoted "Opinion" of a union leader.
Stick to what you know about.
I would sooner see our troops performing in ceremonials than coming back in boxes.The days of numbers for cannon fodder have long gone and so it should be.
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Speaking as one pacifist to another (seemingly).
I have never been a 'leader' in anything - union or otherwise.
Soldiers 'bodies in boxes' is as abhorrent to me as it is to you.
In this thread I relay what I have read about the ordinary soldiers reaction to redundancies.
They appear to be very angry, and missed an opportunity to vent it in Germany.
Whether their anger is justified or misplaced is not for me to say, since you so rightly say I don't know enough about it (never have, or even aspired to be, a soldier)
 
Royboy39 said:
That comes across as the bigoted "Opinion" of a union leader.
Stick to what you know about.
I would sooner see our troops performing in ceremonials than coming back in boxes.The days of numbers for cannon fodder have long gone and so it should be.
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So would everyone i know!! But thats sod all to do wi cuts etc that are depriving long serving people from there "Full Pensions":rolleyes: Which has nowt to do wi what yeh know about, nowt to do wi union leaders, more to do wi fairness n decency, maybe thats n area you are lacking in?
 
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MargaretR said:
and missed an opportunity to vent it in Germany.
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They are professional soldiers, they were on duty, they are a well trained force not a rabble, duty first then they'll gripe.

Whatever would it have looked like if those squaddies had marched past like an uncontrollable mob on a picket line?

It is up to us, the citizens to protest on their behalf.

At least they will find The WMD they were sent to seek, at last, (Welfare Massive Depression).

Perhaps we are meant to get 'hot under the collar'?

Whatever are they pushing through that will be well hidden when they back down on this one?

Drastic actions call for drastic measures, this looks drastic to me.
 
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cashman said:
So would everyone i know!! But thats sod all to do wi cuts etc that are depriving long serving people from there "Full Pensions":rolleyes: Which has nowt to do wi what yeh know about, nowt to do wi union leaders, more to do wi fairness n decency, maybe thats n area you are lacking in?
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After 21 years service he will have a bigger pension pot than you or I ever had,
take into consideration redundancy payment and resettlement allowance for that amount of service, how much will he loose?
There are many service associations, not unions, who would not allow this to happen to the man's pension.
I would guide him in the right direction, not send him to the nearest barrack-room lawyer.
 
Royboy39 said:
After 21 years service he will have a bigger pension pot than you or I ever had,
take into consideration redundancy payment and resettlement allowance for that amount of service, how much will he loose?
There are many service associations, not unions, who would not allow this to happen to the man's pension.
I would guide him in the right direction, not send him to the nearest barrack-room lawyer.
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Still don't get it,Still missing the point,:rolleyes: Yer previous reply to MargaretR, makes you sound like a barrack room lawyer.
 
jaysay said:
Beni its the same in the NHS, none of the managers on telephone number salaries, not forgetting the car, have gone down the road, this could only happen in the public sector, if this was the case in the private sector it would go bankrupt, but its a bottomless pit funded by the tax payer:mad:
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And the biggest office building in the world is the Pentagon;) Thing is tho', you can't privatise the military ... altho' "private security forces" seem to be popular in the US.:rolleyes: And I don't see the private sector as being all that efficient. Unless that efficiency is directed towards shady dealings which benefit only the top execs ... Barclay's comes to mind for some reason:D

It used to be "we've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too" ... not any more. The bottomless pit no longer exists, except as a piece of empty rhetoric.
 
Eric said:
And the biggest office building in the world is the Pentagon;) Thing is tho', you can't privatise the military ... altho' "private security forces" seem to be popular in the US.:rolleyes: And I don't see the private sector as being all that efficient. Unless that efficiency is directed towards shady dealings which benefit only the top execs ... Barclay's comes to mind for some reason:D

It used to be "we've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too" ... not any more. The bottomless pit no longer exists, except as a piece of empty rhetoric.
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Eric all public services think they have a bottomless pit of money, that money is taxpayers money, every 4 or 5 years the politicos tell us they will spend that in the best way, they publish a manifesto, setting out their plans for the voting fodder, then the day after the election they through it in the bin and do exactly what they want and that's in every country in the world
 
Why not get " Cardboard Soldiers" just like the cardboard traffic cops on the M55 not long after it opened.
 
I don't think this is about the reality of what we can or cannot afford..it is the reality of the usual across the board spending cuts that always follow a Tory government.. this and past Tory governments simply cut and slash.
To create unemployment by sacking millions of people (a large majority under the age of 35) is a lazy not thought out policy that wil come back to haunt the economy of this country in years to come.
 
Mancie said:
I don't think this is about the reality of what we can or cannot afford..it is the reality of the usual across the board spending cuts that always follow a Tory government.. this and past Tory governments simply cut and slash.
To create unemployment by sacking millions of people (a large majority under the age of 35) is a lazy not thought out policy that wil come back to haunt the economy of this country in years to come.
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My late husband was a regular in HM forces during Harold Wilson's reign in the 1960s. Maybe you'd like to explain why Wilson cut their allowances and cut their numbers making tens of thousands redundant in that period. It was noticeable that the men with most experience and thus had larger wages were the target of the cuts. It was a period when Kenyon Asian refugees were streaming into Britain, which meant long council housing waiting lists and not many job vacancies.
 
Lucysgirl said:
My late husband was a regular in HM forces during Harold Wilson's reign in the 1960s. Maybe you'd like to explain why Wilson cut their allowances and cut their numbers making tens of thousands redundant in that period. It was noticeable that the men with most experience and thus had larger wages were the target of the cuts. It was a period when Kenyon Asian refugees were streaming into Britain, which meant long council housing waiting lists and not many job vacancies.
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Ya Lucy and wasn't it Harold Wilson's Government that is the only government ever to cut spending on the NHS, think it was back in 67 round about the same time that the pound has ever been devalued
 
I recall that the influx of Ugandan asians was 1971/2.
I can be that specific because I worked that one year at DHSS (now DWP) in Blackburn and spent 6 months of that year doing nothing but interviewing those immigrant asians.
 
Lucysgirl said:
My late husband was a regular in HM forces during Harold Wilson's reign in the 1960s. Maybe you'd like to explain why Wilson cut their allowances and cut their numbers making tens of thousands redundant in that period. It was noticeable that the men with most experience and thus had larger wages were the target of the cuts. It was a period when Kenyon Asian refugees were streaming into Britain, which meant long council housing waiting lists and not many job vacancies.
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MargaretR said:
I recall that the influx of Ugandan asians was 1971/2.
I can be that specific because I worked that one year at DHSS (now DWP) in Blackburn and spent 6 months of that year doing nothing but interviewing those immigrant asians.
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Yes Margaret, the Ugandans arrived at the beginning of the seventies while as Lucysgirl says Kenyans came here in the sixties.

History of asylum in London : Commonwealth migration and non-European refugees

However looking at the figures in the link above the figures are surprisingly small - tens of thousands only.
 
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