Hoon's reflections on being SoD.

[Razor61]

Go here (http://www.news.mod.uk/news_headline_story.asp?newsItem_id=3270)

[VitaminGee]

Did he really mean that S of S for Defence is out of the political mainstream?

[tablet_eraser]

A typically sycophantic report from Focus, and a typically self-serving statement from Buff. The standard of journalism at Focus never ceases to amaze me - vacuous reports written by people who haven't a clue about life in barracks, messes, or, indeed, the Armed Forces as a whole.

As for Hoon: does this man seriously believe half the bulls**t he comes out with?

There probably came a point as well where they accepted that I was a serious Defence Secretary who wanted to make changes.
For this, read, "eventually I threatened to sack the Service chiefs if they disagreed with my defence cuts."
I am not underestimating the dangers we faced from the Soviet Union, but those dangers were predictable, and policy was based on confronting a single large enemy that would have taken time to launch an attack. The world now is much less predictable, which is why we put so much emphasis on flexibility, and having people and equipment that can react more rapidly, probably on a smaller scale, with a different mentality.
For this, read, "Gordon told me to spend less money on defence so I imposed dangerous cuts on the RN, withdrew perfectly serviceable aircraft from the RAF, got rid of hundreds of tanks, and sacked thousands of servicemen and women."
In the MOD senior members of the military, and sometimes not so senior members, are involved at all levels of the policy-making. The one thing that above all else irritates me is when civil servants in the department − or politicians, for that matter − are blamed for a policy that is just as much the policy of the military as it is of the Civil Service and politicians. I wish there were a more mature understanding of how it works.
For this, read, "after I told the chiefs to shut up their complaining about my absurd defence cuts, I tried to shift the blame for 20,000 redundancies on to them."
What I have thoroughly appreciated is that senior members of the military have entirely recognised not only the need for change, but the imperative for change. Often they have given me credit for being prepared to see through those changes in the face of some pretty hostile criticism.
For this, read, "despite knowing I'm loathed by the Armed Forces and much of Westminster, I will happily maintain that everyone loves me."
God, even after he's gone, Hoon still p*sses me off. What a useless, lily-livered, toadying prat.

[JessTheDog]

Focus is not fit to hang in a toilet and this is typical of the self-serving dribble that Hoon is famous for.

The Scotsman ran an article today on how Hoon, Ingram and the MoD lied about the reception of the Scottish infantry amalgamations. The liars claimed that only positive responses had been received, but a later FoI request has found that the opposite is true.

I'd like to see Hoon up a dark alley, with a baseball bat. Trouble is, the queue would be nearly as long as the Pope's!

[Red Line Entry]

Really? I had no idea the pope was so unpopular!

[WE Branch Fanatic]

"It is the hardest part of being Defence Secretary, not particularly faced by any of my political colleagues, knowing that the decisions that you are involved in may well lead to death and serious injury."

:yuk: :yuk: :*

[JessTheDog]

Really? I had no idea the pope was so unpopular!

The multitudes queuing for the Pope knew they were paying their respects to a dead man who was to be entombed afterwards.

The multitudes queuing for their chance in an alley with Hoon will be waiting to "see" a living man who will be entombed afterwards!

[Pontius Navigator]

Oddly Buff did not send out the usual personal round robin to all units. If he had it would probably have been delete before read. Maybe he thought that publishing it in Focus would ensure to got to where it really mattered.


In the toilets.

[exleckie]

tablet_eraser.

Your observations and thoughts are exactly as I was thinking whilst perusing the MoD article :yuk: :yuk: :yuk:

It would be easy for some to call you a cynic saying what you said, but I think you summed up what the huge majority think about the Buff Hoon, myself included.

Wonder what prOOne thinks,I believe a new spin on this is on its way!

exleckie

[althenick]

Hoon's reflections on being SoD

Assuming it's short for Soddamist, then I reckon it's about right. He really shafted the military :mad:

[tablet_eraser]

Cheers, exleckie. I would say that cynicism is relative to your point of view. pr00ne, and the (presumably defunct) totalwar might disagree with me; that is their prerogative, and they have as much a right to air their points of view as you or I.

It's just a shame they're wrong! :p

[pr00ne]

Sorry to dissapoint guys and gals, I actually think Hoon will go down as a bit of a non entity of a Secretary of State for Defence between two notably good ones, George Robertson and Dr Reid. I don't share your vitriolic hatred for Hoon (after all, he IS a lawyer!) but he didn't seem to have that 'personal' touch with the folk on the ground and he seems to have been none to keen on taking decisions. The other major difference is his apparent total lack of interest in the subject, something the currect incumbent has in abundance and will surely make a difference.

[ImageGear]

Watching Hoon's sanguine performance at the dispatch box yesterday suggested to me that he not passionate about his new job either.

I wonder if he is becoming disillusioned with defending the indefensible. Even he must be sick to his stomach from spinning circumstances as dictated by El Presidente's whims.

I predict that since he's not long for this house he might do well to return to his profession.

How well was he received by the erks in the Sandpit, I gained the impression that it was an over staged affair for the media. Comment?

Imagegear.

[Pontius Navigator]

pr00ne, thanks for the reminder about George Robertson. Buff had been around so long that one quite forgot what had gone on before.

Care to remind us however what George did? I am not trolling but would appreciate a quick summary.

[SmilingKnifed]

Even the picture screams 'tosspot.'

If Hoon was so concerned about casualties, why the extremely tasteless Chinook cartoon in his constituency office?

[pr00ne]

Pontius Navigator,

The 1998 Strategic Defence Review was his and he was at the helm during the various Balkans crisis and particulaly the Kosovo affair.
He was shadow Defence spokesman in opposition (during the Falklands war) and appointed Defence Secretary on the Labour Government coming to power in 1997 and stayed there until October 1999 when he was appointed Secretary General of NATO. He was also an Honorary Colonel of a Scottish Regiment I believe.
He also has a very consistent track record on defence even when in opposition. He always defended the nuclear deterrent against the unilateralist wing of the party and was always a staunch advocate of NATO, seeing as he became an MP in 1978 you cannot say that about a lot of his contemporaries!
He was well respected by the senior defence hierarchy in the US and was a strong believer in Europe strengthening its defences and being less reliant on the US whilst at the same time not being anti American.
Bit of a contrast to his successor don’t you think?

[BEagle]

pr00ne, I will agree with you about Goerge Robertson and The Doc - but BuffHoon came across as an oily little tick. Even by lawyers' standards :p

(I mean the 'been involved in an accident recently' types one hears are seen on commercial television advertisements)

[cazatou]

BEagle,

Apologies, first time I've disagreed with You.

But you don't REALLY think Buff was that convincing - do you?

[Pontius Navigator]

pr00ne, thank you for that. The 1998 defence review, phew, that was a long time ago abd I thought Buff went back further than that, the pain lasted so long.

[Fg Off Max Stout]

I remember last time I was in The Raq, roughly this time last year, I read of 'Mr Hoon's morale building visit to Basrah'. I was equally stunned and amused to see it in print being described as morale building because it certainly wasn't for us and it didn't seem to be for him either. He spent the bare minimum time with the troops in order to get the photos he needed to spin out to the media. He didn't give a sh1t about anything other than the photo opportunity and had no interest in or understanding of what everyone was going though out there. I wonder if he spent a night trying to sleep in a tent listening to aircraft noise and hot enough to sweat buckets whilst asleep. I suspect not.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y224/bofns/08436536.jpg

The majority of squaddies who attended his little roadshow were only there under orders and many didn't even know who he was. Some of my crewmen went along but only in the hope of either heckling or thumping him. As for myself and some of the other officers, we helped our gingers hose and scrub down some of the cabs on the dispersal.

The fact that this guy seems to believe that all forces personal are thankful for all the difficult decisions he expertly made and are going to miss him beggars belief.

Advisor to Hoon: "Everyone is grateful for the way you handled the Scottish Regiments, Mr Hoon."
Hoon: "Ooh thank you. The people love me. I am rather great, aren't I"

[Roland Pulfrew]

Sorry to dissapoint guys and gals, I actually think Hoon will go down as a bit of a non entity of a Secretary of State for Defence

prOOne

Yet again (scarily) we agree. But I think that is the point - WE all think that Buff IS a non-entity. Roll on the Doc (things can't get any worse .................................................... can they?)

PS 1 s, 2 ps by the way!

TE

Excellent. You should be in show biz, or write for Private Eye.

[Safety_Helmut]

Even my four year old son knows that pink is not a colour for 'boys'.

Has ever any politician (excepting Neil Kinnock of course) been so roundly despised and ridiculed ?

Safety_Helmut