BBC NEWS | Politics | New faces in huge Cabinet revamp
The first hint at how important Mr. Brown thinks defence is…
Des Brown, now has two jobs, defence & scotland. Just how, with two wars going on can this be justified?
He was’nt doing particularly well at just defence, so now his eye will never be on the ball!!
Hostage crisis report dents Navy’s reputation | Uk News | News | Telegraph
It was a close run thing. In appointing a Royal Marine officer to do the investigation there may have been less fallout. But there was fallout none-the-less.
The Navy are not operating on the same war footing as the Army & (oh god it hurts me to say this) the RAF. To them the war is not as up close & personal as the ground war, and they have let standards slip.
The ditty doing the rounds in Army messes at the moment is “What shall we do with the captured sailor?” With verses like ” Take away his I-pod ’til he blubbers” amongst others less repeatable!
The Navy need to step up & get aggressive. Their excuse was that they’d no way of dealing with the threat, and therefor gave up. Well LADIES, read a few extracts from victoria cross recipients commendations. The theme running through them is, that faced with insurmountable odds, and probable death, they got on with the job anyway.
One thing St Crispin noticed that the report was a largely whitewash as it said that the helicopter availability was sufficient (it never is, even in peacetime, and St Crispin has been in the north arabian gulf, and knows that the Lynx’s are severely hampered with engine running hours issues). That the armaments on the RHIBS was sufficient. Again not true. The US use boats with 50 calibre machine guns & 40mm grenade launchers to do the same operations. Had our marines had these, then they may have put up a fight.
Finally the unwillingness of the Captain to manoeuvre close to the shore & provide better protection to the boarding party may have been a result of the high numbers of captains who are being court marshalled for dinging thier ships. They are assuming (probably correctly) that they’ll be treated as if it were peacetime, but we all know, that in war, risks must be taken.
EDIT
To illustrate what I said about experience in the Royal Navy, please look at the picture below of Sir Jonathan Band (to right of Her Majesty in the picture) who is the First Sea Lord. He’s only got two operation medals plus the Queens Jubilee medal. That’s not a lot of operation experience in my opinion and to now be the main man at the RN is quite sad for the rest. As a matter of interest, St Crispin has 4 medals, two of which are for operations, and I am just a Territorial Army officer!!

Hard-pressed TA faces £5m cut in its budget | Uk News | News | Telegraph
Oh dear lord! When will they stop?
The TA has bailed the UK out of a hole since they over committed to Iraq & afghanistan. Now, to thank them for the effort the useless government has decided to make cuts. Hhhmm, I wonder how much is spent on MP’s pensions, and if that will cover it?
Army food is ‘cheaper than a dog’s dinner’ | the Daily Mail
Even if the figures for the dogs daily food are incorrect, £1.51 per day to feed a soldier is scandalous. How much does the average person spend getting Coffee & a croisant for breakfast, a sarnie from Pret a’ manger for lunch, and a chinky when we get home £10, £15?
Aaahhhhggghh!
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It was the Guardsmen of the crown,
Who fought and died on Tumbledown.
I can never pass a guardsman in the Mall or in fact anywhere I meet them without thinking of these words that I first read outside the Sergeants mess in Mount Pleasant Airport in the Falklands. It always brings a lump to my throat. Today is 25 years since the battle of tumbledown which ended the Falklands campaign, and I wanted to bring it to your attention.
If you ever want to know whether the cost was worth it, then go & ask an islander. I have met several, and they are wonderful, calm people who will never let their children forget the sacrifice of the soldiers, sailors, marines & airmen who liberated them. They are under no illusion that they are British first & foremost.
The words of the poem say just about all that is needed to be said about the Guards (Scots Guards in this case). They guard our monarchy, or traditions, and our values, and the latter they display all the time be it in the heat of battle (Tumbledown was not their last battle honour!) Or whilst on ceremonial duties.
The story according to Wikipedia.
The story from the Argentinian side.
Nemo me impune lacessit
Last day to vote for some of your favourite posts / blogs / bloggers
In the true tradition of award ceremonies, there are loads of categories.
Get over to Blogpower and vote your little hearts out.
Voting ends today at 19:00 (presumably BST?)

St Crispin has been on a flight safety course today, and during the course of the day has visited several army barracks.
In the first one, the course was being held in a condemned building coplete with scafolding outside, and no entry / hardhat only signs (which we were not given). That regiment is in the process of deploying troops to both iraq & afghanistan, and the state of their training facilities was appaling.
The second location was a large accomodation block which had no hot water in two of it’s three wings. The wing that had hot water had no showers only baths. I’m not sure if you are familiar with soldiers, but they do physical training almost every day, and a shower is a neccesity, not a luxury.
The third location was also a large officers accomodation block where the plaster in the 102 year old ceiling had fallen down due to water leakage created because there was no maintenance budget.
Please remeber, I did’nt go looking for these places, they were just three random military locations I was training in. They were all in a terrible state. And in two cases they are home to officers serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. What a terrible place to come home to.
If you pay tax, please urge your MP to divert some to getting basic ammenities for soldiers up to what the rest of us expect.
BBC NEWS | Special Reports | 629 | 629 | Audio slideshow: Island defenders
When told of the imminant invasion of their homeland by the Argentinians, 30 odd gathered to put up what all must have thought was a last ditch stand. I can only admire them for their courage. Have a look at the link to hear the interview.
BBC NEWS | England | London | ‘Honour killing’ relatives guilty
The vacuous politicians are forever telling us that immigration brings a richness of culture & new thinking to our shores! How true that is! I only wish we had more.
Message to all politico’s. Please think before you speak next time. Remember it’s a balancing act. The only culture that does not need to justifiy its ways is that of the indigenous British.
St Crispin has been asked to write in this blog as if I had a shadow (or ghost) brief on defence.
My first post is here. There are alot of talented bloggers with varying political views, and expertise who hold other posts. I would urge you to read it, link to it, and comment on the site if the mood takes you.
I’ll be adding more posts as time goes on, and I’ll link into them here.
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jour·nal n. A personal record of occurrences, experiences, and reflections kept on a regular basis; a diary.
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