Here's the list of things that has got me ordering a pension prediction from SPVA to start considering my options (in no particular order, I might add):
1. Promotion flat as fart
2. Command tours on the decline
3. 2 year pay freeze (whilst others are getting rises or bonuses)
4. Tightening of CEA that forces you to move even when you don't need to
5. Loss of the ability to roll over 15 days leave each year
6. Lack of SFA close to where I work (90 minutes is not close!)
7. Loss of service in Officers' Mess with CRL
8. Loss of Incidental Expense Allowance
9. Wind back of Home To Duty (especially when they can't give you a quarter near your place of work)
10. Inability to serve INVOLSEP in London
11. Future Project SIRIUS and the "haves" and "have nots"
12. JPA and having to spend hours receipting everything (bring back flat rates - win some, lose some)
13. 20-odd pence a mile mileage allowance that only just covers petrol (nothing for the extra insurance premium now required or the wear and tear on the car)
14. Lack of MT vehicles or drivers to pick you up without waiting hours/days (especially if being collected at Brize)
15. The pension changes - some very sneaky indeed
16. Decision paralysis in the HQs (hardly surprising given that it is mostly only the hoop snoggers that are getting a look in!)
17. Haddon-Cave and the madness that is developing courtesy of the MAA (FFS, flying is a dangerous game sweetpea!)
18. Inability to man-manage my troops without having to break rules
19. DII - especially, the light side. Why can't we just have PC World laptops and some encryption software?
20. Overstretch (when does overstretch get so bad that it won't ping back into shape? I think we're finding out now)
21. Medical/dental treatment has significantly declined
22. Fitness tests - that bloody bleep test sees more of my guys signed off with tendon issues than 1.5 mile run ever did
23. Waste - mostly to waste o space. If we didn't keep "saving jobs in British industry", as we are so often told, then we might still have an Air Force of 50,000+. Effectively, we have shed Forces jobs to prop up jobs in influential MPs constituencies
24. The same people doing the same ops - I reckon 20% of the RAF do the RAF's deployments
25. Getting lump sums and pensions if I leave and nothing if I stay
So, after 22 years of decline my loyalty to Queen and Country is as strong as ever, but my head is telling me "enough is enough".
CPL Clott