Whether we like it or not, the Forces reflect Society. 15 years ago the arguments were about gays serving or women going into forward areas; 25 years ago it was whither women aircrew. Admin officer training in the early 1990s still taught JOs to counsel pregnant airwomen to seek an abortion or leave the Service. None of those changes have weakend the forces. Offering more flexibility to encourage people to stay cannot be a bad thing. We can all probably think of good, trained people who left out of frustration of a 'system' that could take no account of personal circumstances. I think (from my own experience) of the archaic rules 'expecting' spouses to accompany the SP into hardship/high threat assignments. If they don't, allowances suffer, CEA is withdrawn, appraisals coloured and so on.