OUR ARMED FORCES

Remembrance Sunday 2009
Our Dead Soldiers
Incompatible With Europe
M.O.D. Budget Chaos

 

It is impossible not to be moved by the events of Remembrance Sunday yesterday -16/11/2009

Each year, we are regaled to remember those who have given so much for us all, those who have paid the ultimate price for the freedoms and way of life that we all enjoy today. These days, it is made all the more poignant by the sadly regular corteges through Wootton Bassett, of those current day warriors who are on their way home for the last time.

We all buy our poppies, many of us will stand in silence for a few minutes on the 11^th, and our leaders will lead the Country in genuine words of gratitude, eternal thanks, and real emotion, in acknowledging our young warriors.

Yesterday, we all watched the survivors of bygone conflicts, many of whom are now at the end of their own lives, as they marched and saluted their comrades. Some can barely walk themselves, through age and infirmity, some are wheeled in their chairs, many have suffered a lifetime of real pain, and indeed painful recurring memories. They are all staunch in their respect for their missing friends and comrades, and most importantly, they do not complain.

In the true meaning of the word, they are magnificent.

After all of this has been done for another year, and we bystanders who are the prime beneficiaries of their gallant actions, when we have paid what we believe to be our respects, we will all return to our lives and the poppies will be casually cast aside.

We are living in the safety and security of a society that these old soldiers secured for us. A lot of us have acquired a lifestyle, and an opulence of living standard, which many of our old soldiers can only dream of, and have been dreaming of since they first took the King’s shilling, and consciously put themselves in harms way in their quest to make things better for everyone.

 … in the morning, and at the going down of the sun, we shall remember them …” but do we really? Do we really remember them?

We stand firm, shoulder to should, with our poppies, and we try to remember the dead, but do we remember those who are right in front of us, those who have not left us yet? These are the old soldiers, who march, who walk in such obvious pain, who carry the untold emotions of their personal horrific experiences, those who complain least, and yet those who have probably done the most to build our society of today.

After we have put down our poppies for another year, and we have returned to our comfortable lives, with our own individual problems which pale into insignificance when held against the deeds of our older generations, do we really remember them?

The old soldiers return to their homes, conscious of the fact that we are remembering them, and then they attempt to live on their State Pensions of £95.25 per week, the smallest State Pension in the whole of developed Europe, and the smallest by a very long way.

It is not a living pension, it is not a fair pension, it is nothing even approaching a reasonable recognition of their enormous contribution to our society and our life style of today.

Our politicians argue that we cannot afford a proper State Pension because, they say, we have not got sufficient tax revenue to the State, and I will argue that we have far more than sufficient revenue. We have simply spent it on the wrong things.

However, this is a sterile debate, because we have undoubtedly spent their pensions on other things. Whether we point to our own selfish and massively costly early retirements, or to the profligate waste in Government spending, including our MPs’ indefensible claims on their own expenses, the fact of the matter is that it is indeed too late to change any those things in order to help our older generations with a proper State Pension now.

Change will come on all of this shameful greed, and vote catching political correctness, but we need a proper living State Pension now. Tomorrow will be too late, as it is already too late for the many who have already left us.

So, how could we create, and fund, a living State Pension, for everyone, and how can we do it now?

We must now create a State Pension which will enable all of us, including those to whom we owe so much, to have and to look forward to a reasonable retirement from age 65. A retirement with dignity, comfort and some financial  security. A pension whereby our old soldiers can afford to turn on the lights, turn up the heating, and turn up to Remembrance Sunday knowing that we do, in fact, remember them.

The State Pension should be put up to at least £200 per week for everybody, payable at age 65, regardless of marriage, male or female.

With a State Pension of this order, we could eliminate all the complexities of council tax refunds, extra benefits, discounts, bus passes, and all the Civil Service Staff who currently procrastinate on these irrelevancies.

£200 per week is a reasonable Sate Pension, it is not an excessive or a generous pension. It is only just a reasonable one.

In exchange for this living State Pension, the rights to all the money that has been transferred out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme, into the Insurance and Pension Companies, should be given back to the Government. This money, which will be in the order of hundreds if not thousands of billions of pounds, should be ring fenced purely for State Pension benefits, for both now and in the future. Never again should our politicians succumb to spending other peoples financial futures on the public’s selfish immediate desires, and their desires to buy the swing voter.

(Incidentally, the current economic recession would be resolved overnight, as our older generations would be able to start spending in the high street again).

 

Please – Our Dead Soldiers Are NOT A Photo Opportunity – 7/12/2009 

 

Is it me, or am I strange?

Am I unique in feeling revulsion at the spectacle of Gordon Brown and David Cameron vying for a photo opportunity amongst the dead in the Garden Of Remembrance last month?

Am I alone in cheering those brave soldiers who are recovering from fearsome and dreadful wounds in the army hospital when Gordon Brown visited, when they drew their curtains around their beds, and refused to see him?

Is it me, or do I detect some embarrassing regret amongst our leaders, who cannot seem to reach a pure understanding of why we are in Afghanistan, without thinking about their own voters, and their ability to remain, or aspire to, political power?

Is it me, or are others also sickened by our leaders seemingly endless ability to cynically use the death of each and every brave soldier as a vote catcher?

Do I despair alone, about our political leaders who seem to care more about their own expense accounts than if 20 year old “Jack” has a friend with him in his trench as he breaths his last, crying for his Mother?

Am I the only one who despises our political leaders every time they dare to even attempt to put themselves alongside our boys in Afghanistan?

Am I the only one who knows why we are there and has no restrictions of political correctness, party politics, or fear of any nature in saying THIS IS why we are there?

I cry for Scotland, I mourn for Ireland, I lament for Wales, and I long for England.

We are one nation.

A nation of nations.

Whoever your God is … for God’s sakes … take these politicians, and their cameras, and teach them real values and the meaning of life.

 

Our Armed Forces

 

Our Armed Forces were once the envy of the World, and now it seems that they are an under-equipped spent force.

I would advocate that our armed forces should be rebuilt to at least the viable force that they were 20 or 30 years ago. This can only happen by starting at both the top and the bottom of all our Armed Forces, all at the same time.

 We must provide proper and equal pensions for all our forces, regardless of whether they are The Ghurkhas or The Household Cavalry. Early retirement on enhanced pension benefits is unnecessary and unaffordable. If there are too many senior officers at the top, including those who are retired, then the salaries and pensions are being spent in the wrong place.

 The current practice of paying peanuts as a pension for certain forces, such as The Ghurkhas is not only indefensible, but it is morally unacceptable.

 We will need to refurbish the Royal Navy with the ships that they need, to patrol and protect our own shores against illegal fishing and illegal immigration, and also to provide a presence in foreign places where we need the Countries concerned to listen.

 Had we maintained this attitude to our Armed Forces in the past, it would have been difficult to imagine the Argentineans invading The British Falkland Islands, and Spain would not dream of trying to suggest at what times they think our Royal Family, or our nuclear submarines, can and cannot visit The British Rock Of Gibraltar.

 We undoubtedly have the right troops and we also have the right Officers. We also have the right training methods, and so we simply need to give them the right equipment, and the right leadership. Then, we as the second most powerful Country on this Earth, can take the international role of wisdom and truth that is required of us.

 Truth means that where we are mounting an operation overseas, the real real reason must be publicly given, and not the politically contrived one.

-          We went into Iraq because World oil supplies, and therefore our economies in the western World, were threatened through international terrorism, which was being nurtured by a despot called Saddam Hussein.

-          We are in Afghanistan because that is where the international terrorists, who blew up the Twin Towers and our tube stations, were being trained.

-          If Mugabe had the Oil that Iraq had, we would go into Zimbabwe too – but he hasn’t – so we won’t.

-          We will not go into Iran, simply because they would destroy us, probably along with themselves, all at the same time.

 

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European Armed Forces Are Incompatible With Our Own

 

There is a suggestion in Europe, which our current Labour Government seems to agree with, that we should amalgamate our armed forces with those in Europe.

I hardly dare give such crazy ideas space, but it would seem that some people in our own political system believe that this might be a good idea.

The European armed forces are tiny compared to our own. In most cases they are technologically backward, and there is virtually no compatibility with our own forces in terms of types of arms and munitions.

As we can see from recent events in the Gulf and Afghanistan, there would be absolutely no possibility of reaching agreement on which occasions our troops should be used, to what degree, and on which occasions.

Cynically you may say, but I believe that the only reason that this is even being suggested by the Europeans is because they do not like our military alliance with the USA in Europe, in the form of NATO, and would very much like to see it disbanded.

We must keep our armed forces and we must continue to improve and develop them properly, and we should most definitely continue to support NATO.

Our armed forces are needed more and more in the developing world, way beyond Europe, and they must be maintained as a viable force.

 

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The Ministry Of Defense – Chaos In The Procurement Budget – 24/8/2009 

 

We are told (Sunday Times) that any new equipment, ordered for our armed forces, is normally delivered five years late …. on average…. Presumably this means that some equipment is even later.

We are also told that the Ministry Of Defense expenditure is currently £35billion over budget because the equipment that they ordered is 40% more expensive than when they first ordered it.

Let me say that again …. New equipment for our armed forces is, on average, five years late on delivery and no less than £35 thousand million pounds more expensive than when they first ordered it…. Stunning!

I remember being in charge of raw material supplies for a large knitwear factory in the 1970s, indeed, in my own business during the 1990s we ordered and used vast amounts of paper and specialist office materials. I really am sorry, but I cannot remember ever having to pay 40% more for an item than when we ordered it, and I certainly cannot remember paying for anything that was delivered five years late. In fact, I cannot remember anything being delivered five years late – no supplier would be that stupid.

Please don’t try and tell me that arms and war materials are more complex. If that was the case we would never have been able to fight any war at any time in our entire history.

Me thinks that there are too many cooks spoiling the broth … notably at the very top!

I guess this is a job for the Minister Of Defense – perhaps even the Prime Minister, after all what is more important than the defense of the realm?

Oh … this is just too ridiculous to debate … somebody …. please sort it out !

£35 billion over budget ! I think I have just found the funds for a proper State pension, and a rapid revival of our entire domestic economy !