Originally Posted by
highflyer40
Originally Posted by
Corporal Clott
It’s been said a few times on here in recent months that we in the UK are heading for a Woke Air Force. I hear similar from other Air Forces and other arms of the military too. This article was recently published on an ex-copper’s blog that was written by another copper who has just left the Police Force. They felt that they were already in a wrong place and that they were now leaving because of it after 20 years. Are we all heading the same way?
https://mattjohnsonauthor.com/2021/0...jqUHk6q1tGa5Pw
Of particular note was this bit.
It struck a cord with me and also I wonder if initiatives like ‘Astra’ or the British Army’s ‘Castle’, and the constant insincere drive for extreme-levels of D&I by some of the butt-snorkelers chasing promotion, is missing the mark for recruitment of Generation Z and Generation A - who are not the social justice warriors and ‘wokes’ that the millennial Gen Y can be. Are these ‘next generation’ initiatives missing the future military generation by a country mile because they are aimed at the wrong next generation? If you were trying to aim for something fit for 2040, would you ask 30-40 year old Gen Y millennials or 20-30 year old Gen Z (or even the newest Gen A)? It seems that these initiatives are being driven and shaped by Gen Y?
Now I don’t condone for one minute the shocking events that have occurred across HMForces over the past few years (the latest revelation being the RAF Regt this past week) - behaviour that belongs nowhere in any military. But are we going too far, are the butt-snorkeling promotion chasers ‘firing for effect’ and does it actually reflect what we need and who the military should be? Does the constant drive to try be all-inclusive of the importance of each Branch, Trade and Specialisation blunt our combat edge significantly and provide a false narrative that will eventually need to be reversed? For instance the new Any Branch Station Commanders seem to generate a need to bolster each and every one with a peer ‘aircrew operator’ on a flying station, thus doubling the number of OF-5s required! Or is there really this utopian world out there that our current woke-ish vectors seem to be leading us towards and the Gen X dinosaurs need to just do one!
Asking for a friend...
I think this is exactly what we are missing. Police who talk to the public. Understand the public. Are community oriented. I think the police have become to militaristic and unapproachable. Call it woke or whatever. Police now think they are a law unto themselves. I used to have much respect for the police in my younger days... now? Not so much.
Because the Police have been undermanned for years. Beat Bobbys chopped. PCSO's chopped. I was based at an airport with a secuirty team member that was a PCSO in my home city. He did the job of a beat bobby. While he could not arrest, he was boots on the street with a radio. He knew the trouble makers and guess what? He had a radio. Chopped by the local council due to central government cuts. Central government had a cap on local council funding as well. We reap what we sow.