Originally Posted by
anotherthing
BDiONU
Shall we get to specifics, I was not accucisng you of lying, merely misleading.
Fibbing was the term you used, misleading could be used or if you're in the government being economical with the truth. It boils down to the same thing and I'm not particularly pleased to be accused of lying.
If you lived in forces accomodation, you paid, but at nowhere near the cost of a similar sized house would be to rent - FACT.
You need to read the Armed Forces Pay Review Body reports on the comparable costs of rented accomodation to Forces accomodation, you'd be surprised at how wrong your perceptions are.
If you lived in the junior/senior rates or Officers mess, you paid depending on the grade (call it comfort factor) of the accomodation (used to be 1-4). The lowest grade used to be circa £90 a month in the late 90s.
Again I'd refer you to the AFPRB reports on accomodation. They were very much less than impressed with the lowest grades, hence the 'quality' was reflected in the price the serviceman paid. In addition there are many other factors which the AFPRB point out, for example servicemen have no 'right to buy' Service Family Accomodation (Married Quarters in your day).
When you lived in the mess, you also got your food for approximately £3.50 a day for all meals (again late 90s prices).. I believe PAYD is now in force in some, or all of the establishments. However, if you were a live-er out you could get lunch on a pay to dine basis (i.e. pay for individual meals) and it was cheaper than you could get it outside - i.e. it was subsidised.
Again you really need to read the AFPRB reports to dispell your misconceptions on these alleged subsidies. As an example some of the food purchased came from the EU stockpiles (like the EU butter mountain) at a rate which did not include the profits which supermarkets have to include to be able to run. Please try to contain yourself to areas which are like for like.
Council tax, again if you were lived in accomodation on the base, was very cheap... I remember paying about 16p per day - late 90s prices.
I can once again refer you to the AFPRB reports, an independent body. Bear in mind that On Base accomodation is on private land, owned by HMG, not maintained by the council.
Now, how in any way can you state these things were not subsidised?
Because if you think that living in on base accomodation is in any way comparable to living in the civil world you lived in a very different service world to mine. The AFPRB tackles all of the points you raise and make it very clear as to why there is a difference, not a subsidy, a difference. Indeed in all the instances you raise the AFPRB were at great pains to point out to HMG just where servicemen were being disadvantaged in comparison to their civil counterparts.
I too would be interested in the viewpoint of some other serving or ex-serving members of HM forces.
BD