'in days of yore the events described by BEagle would have been exactly the right approach'.
In 'days of yore' the majority of British males would have fully understood and accepted, having probably experienced at first hand, a bollocking as exemplified by Beagle. Regretably, IMHO, there are now two generations of British males, weaned in the insidious, state sponsored culture of living life 'by the book', 'that's the procedure' and 'the computer says' with little or no experience of the Sevice's methods and that goes all the way to the top of all the UK's political parties.