Originally Posted by
Finningley Boy
Mr Inminj,
Do you really think all the problems you've listed can be helped by even the smallest degree by disbanding the Red Arrows? Everything to do with prestige and public image regarding HM Forces has taken a right good pasting continuously over the decades. The Royal Tournament has gone, there is no longer a ceremonial guard posted at Edinburgh Castle, it sounds like a tenuous link, but the disappearance of all these things are part of the same bean counting mindset. Eventually, there will be nothing to present publicly anywhere in any format. The armed forces, trust me, will be, by modern comparison, truly invisible. Recruitment will evaporate, apart from those recruited from abroad. The less sympathetic and more ignorant elements of the population will ask why do we waste money on such luxuries as the armed forces? this'll be the upshot, especially once the current caper in Ukraine is water under the bridge. Like the man said, you don't know what you've got until its gone. Public visibility, even if its fabricated, as it often is, pays its way.
FB
FB
I rather thought the funerals of Prince Philip and HM the Queen were mighty examples of the intrinsic excellence and discipline and delivery of the armed forces with massive spectator/ audience exposure
The Reds are a small, diminishing and tarnished relic, operating elderly and undesirable aircraft and for some time attracting the very worst sort of publicity with lethal accidents and disgraceful behaviour.
However, I think the immediate matter for responsible COC would be to consider the current mind-set of the pilots as they climb into the cockpit. Not ideal, is it?