Anger at MoD plan to unfurl £2.5m of new flags
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Anger at MoD plan to unfurl £2.5m of new flags
Or so says the Scotsman newspaper today....
Anger at MoD plan to unfurl £2.5m of new flags - Scotsman.com News
"Tanked up: the Ministry of Defence says the services fly a lot of flags which eventually get worn out and it is bad for morale of soldiers if they are old and tatty."
Which? The soldiers or the flags? Time to get rid of all those regimental colours?
Justifying the spending, an MoD insider said: "There's more to the military than bullets and bombs, you know. If you took the attitude of nothing but the essentials, then where would the parades and the nice posh uniforms be? You need these things too."
Where indeed, as I said to our own dear Queen only last week ......
" ..... includes new Union Flags, the Navy's Red Ensign and the Army and RAF flags."
No red ensigns in the Royal Navy since 1864!
Jack
PS Please be gentle ......
Anger at MoD plan to unfurl £2.5m of new flags - Scotsman.com News
"Tanked up: the Ministry of Defence says the services fly a lot of flags which eventually get worn out and it is bad for morale of soldiers if they are old and tatty."
Which? The soldiers or the flags? Time to get rid of all those regimental colours?
Justifying the spending, an MoD insider said: "There's more to the military than bullets and bombs, you know. If you took the attitude of nothing but the essentials, then where would the parades and the nice posh uniforms be? You need these things too."
Where indeed, as I said to our own dear Queen only last week ......
" ..... includes new Union Flags, the Navy's Red Ensign and the Army and RAF flags."
No red ensigns in the Royal Navy since 1864!
Jack
PS Please be gentle ......
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
I get through a fair number of flags and ensigns in a year. Maybe they should spend a few £Ms designing ones that done fray. My Chinese printed polyester as still pristine.
The traditional military ones are in a coarse linen or cotton and probably cost 10 times as much.
The traditional military ones are in a coarse linen or cotton and probably cost 10 times as much.
Last edited by Pontius Navigator; 29th Jun 2008 at 16:02. Reason: typo
An absolute non-story - and I get a wiff of Scottish Nationalism in the article and postings - especially as the contract was awarded to an English firm.
As sad as the various losses described therein are, they are simply used to spice up a weak story; indeed they are non-sequitar and sloppy journalism. This article is akin with the article in the Torygraph today advising that the MOD has decided that no 'combat' medals will be awarded for service in Afghanistan (again, complete rubbish).
There is no question that the £2.5M spent on flags/ensigns/dusters is at the expense of ECBA/Osprey/serving and maintenance of platforms/protected mobility &c... Why not, then, reduce spending on housing, food, pay to pay for equipment provision for theatre? The truth is that equipment purchased for theatre use under UORs is funded from central government (CPF) and not from the extant MOD budget.
As sad as the various losses described therein are, they are simply used to spice up a weak story; indeed they are non-sequitar and sloppy journalism. This article is akin with the article in the Torygraph today advising that the MOD has decided that no 'combat' medals will be awarded for service in Afghanistan (again, complete rubbish).
There is no question that the £2.5M spent on flags/ensigns/dusters is at the expense of ECBA/Osprey/serving and maintenance of platforms/protected mobility &c... Why not, then, reduce spending on housing, food, pay to pay for equipment provision for theatre? The truth is that equipment purchased for theatre use under UORs is funded from central government (CPF) and not from the extant MOD budget.
Last edited by Whenurhappy; 29th Jun 2008 at 12:27.
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£34.95 for a Union Flag... from where? Or is the MoD buying in bulk for a reduced price?
They are robust things, those flags, but when you're 1,500ft at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar exposed to the elements, you're going to get a bit tatty.
Sounds to me like the story is a bit of a cheap dig. The MoD always replaces tatty flags, why is it an issue all of a sudden?
(And shock, horror, the flags are being made by an ENGLISH company!! You see, the Scotsman paper could have said British, but no... what would they prefer, made in China?)
They are robust things, those flags, but when you're 1,500ft at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar exposed to the elements, you're going to get a bit tatty.
Sounds to me like the story is a bit of a cheap dig. The MoD always replaces tatty flags, why is it an issue all of a sudden?
(And shock, horror, the flags are being made by an ENGLISH company!! You see, the Scotsman paper could have said British, but no... what would they prefer, made in China?)
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This is a non-story pushed out by some under-brained journo; take no notice.
Flags do get tatty if they're used but what really p
s me off is when chavs have a St George's flag with ENGLAND written across it as if they have to be reminded. Thick bs.
Once upon a time our local Tesco had some flagpoles from which they would fly a house flag (a blue thing with TESCO written on it) and a Union Flag. I remember seeing a young manager lowering them one evening and he allowed the Union Flag to trail on the ground. He was not impressed when I took him to task for lack of respect for his national symbol. I didn't expect a side party to pipe the still and everyone on the upper deck to face aft and salute but he could have looked after it better, I thought. The problem was solved when the flagpoles were removed so there could be more parking for customers with children...
#2 son lives in Denmark where people are proud to fly their national flag (the Dannebrog) from flagpoles in their gardens. People won't do that sort of thing here because they'd be thought of as members of the BNP. How sad.
Rant over.
Flags do get tatty if they're used but what really p
s me off is when chavs have a St George's flag with ENGLAND written across it as if they have to be reminded. Thick bs.Once upon a time our local Tesco had some flagpoles from which they would fly a house flag (a blue thing with TESCO written on it) and a Union Flag. I remember seeing a young manager lowering them one evening and he allowed the Union Flag to trail on the ground. He was not impressed when I took him to task for lack of respect for his national symbol. I didn't expect a side party to pipe the still and everyone on the upper deck to face aft and salute but he could have looked after it better, I thought. The problem was solved when the flagpoles were removed so there could be more parking for customers with children...
#2 son lives in Denmark where people are proud to fly their national flag (the Dannebrog) from flagpoles in their gardens. People won't do that sort of thing here because they'd be thought of as members of the BNP. How sad.
Rant over.
exscribbler
Which reminds me of one of Banksy's recent scribblings in the Essex Road, N London as seen here:
Once upon a time our local Tesco had some flagpoles from which they would fly a house flag (a blue thing with TESCO written on it) and a Union Flag
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It's interesting that the picture the Scotsman has used to demonstrate the military use of flags is;
Two Jockanese flags (can't make their mind up over which one to fly?) flown from a Jock Unit's AFV, no doubt clearly denoting it as a British vehicle (as I'm sure every American airframe jockey knows). OK, fair enough, good national pride makes for a good fighting spirit and long may it continue.
Flags represent Units and those who own them. It's hard to take pride (or engender respect for) a Unit, Service or Country if the flag, standard, ensign, jack or pennant looks like a bag of s**t. That doesn't just mean the state of repair but also the quality of the manufacture and material (bunting, currently a woven wool and nylon mix). You get what you pay for.
As many of you have observed, it's a lets kick the MoD non story
Two Jockanese flags (can't make their mind up over which one to fly?) flown from a Jock Unit's AFV, no doubt clearly denoting it as a British vehicle (as I'm sure every American airframe jockey knows). OK, fair enough, good national pride makes for a good fighting spirit and long may it continue.
Flags represent Units and those who own them. It's hard to take pride (or engender respect for) a Unit, Service or Country if the flag, standard, ensign, jack or pennant looks like a bag of s**t. That doesn't just mean the state of repair but also the quality of the manufacture and material (bunting, currently a woven wool and nylon mix). You get what you pay for.
As many of you have observed, it's a lets kick the MoD non story
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clearly denoting it as a British vehicle (as I'm sure every American airframe jockey knows)
