Chief of the Defence Staff goes all PC

[Tankertrashnav]

Its a few years ago now and times may have changed but I remember having a conversation in my shop with an RAF engineer officer. He was of Indian origin and I asked him how the recruitment of Asian origin personnel was going, as I did not remember many in my time, particularly officers. He told me that in his case one of the main problems had been family pressure. From the point of view of an aspirational Indian family, joining the armed forces, even as an officer, was regarded as a step down in the social scale. We all know the cliche of the boastful Indian mother ("my son the accountant, my son the doctor, my son the solicitor" etc), but apparently "my son the RAF engineer officer" doesn't cut it, and in his own case his family definitely felt he could have done better for himself than join the armed forces.

[Haraka]

I had a similar conversation with a Jewish mate at University.He wanted to join the RAF but was pushed in to doing a Chemistry degree by his family as being "more fitting" than joining the armed services.

[Brian W May]

I'm with Sharpend on this one.

Bloody glad I'm out too. Getting a 'representative' number of each minority group to appease LDGs generally seems to lower standards.

Good for diversity stats though and that's all that'll interest these politicians in uniform.

IMHO

[Training Risky]

Well due to the recent constant harping on about the supposed gender pay gap in the UK, I looked up the MOD's report, which is a combined civil service and military report.

What made very interesting reading was this snippet:

MOD UK Armed Forces, the Department is reporting a mean pay gap of 0.93% (i.e. the difference between mean pay for men and women) and a median pay gap of 0.22%. There are far fewer women in the Other Ranks than men (particularly in the Army Other Ranks where women have not previously been able to apply for Ground Close Combat roles) and proportionally there are more females in the Officers ranks than in Other Ranks, compared to men. Overall, the Department’s position compares favourably with the UK’s national gender mean pay gap of 18.4%, but highlights that the MOD still has further to go.

Which means that due to the huge number of female officers in support arms cap badges/branches and an equally huge number of men in the (lower-paid) infantry, HM Forces is already only 0.22% away from being totally equal and fair to women!

By the way, I don't suppose you reading this, but if you are, Nick Carter - you are a total bellthronk. Please hand the CDS baton on to someone else who actually cares about fighting power and not spurious politics...

[Specaircrew]

Originally Posted by Brookmans Park

I thought LGBT was an airfield in Greece

No, it's a Lettuce, Garlic, Bacon and Tomato sandwich!

[Wander00]

I am surprised those daft image consultants did not come up with a rainbow roundel.

[sitigeltfel]

Originally Posted by Finningley Boy

PS I would further observe that the political camp (again no pun intended) from which political correctness hails from is that which has never felt happy with even the existence of a standing military posture. They've also been at odds with any form of established authority and order, including the Police and Courts.

..and they are the first ones to inflict mass executions, without the bothersome need for judicial process, when they gain power.

[Finningley Boy]

Originally Posted by sitigeltfel

..and they are the first ones to inflict mass executions, without the bothersome need for judicial process, when they gain power.

Absolutely Sitigeltfel,

I understand Diane Abbott reckons World War II was the one conflict which Labour would have felt justified in supporting military action to resolve, obviously she means Corbyn's Labour'. The Billion Buck question here is, at what stage in the proceedings through the 1930s would a Corbyn, Abbott, Thornberry and McDonnell Government reverse the process of military downgrading and pursue sufficiently, the alternative process of re-armament to reach the point of being able to simply lose a series of campaigns against the Wehrmacht, in a seemly fashion. Never mind bring about a decisive defeat.

Doubtless we could also expect to be losing all Forces employed in the far reaches of empire as that great structure too would be in the process of being dismantled, with unseemly haste!

FB

[Heathrow Harry]

That's weird - it was LABOUR who were instrumental in ditching Chamberlain and they refused to back Halifax insisting on Churchill as they thought (rightly) that most of the Tory hierarchy were a bunch of fascist sympathisers

I think Ms Abbott's history is as good as her maths.............

[Wander00]

She is not IMHO the best advertisement for Harrow County Girls' School

[Finningley Boy]

Originally Posted by Heathrow Harry

That's weird - it was LABOUR who were instrumental in ditching Chamberlain and they refused to back Halifax insisting on Churchill as they thought (rightly) that most of the Tory hierarchy were a bunch of fascist sympathisers

I think Ms Abbott's history is as good as her maths.............

Pay closer attention HH, my hypothetical scenario imagines, to repeat; Corbyn, Abbot, Thornberry and McDonnell! Not; Atlee, Gaitskill and Bevin. I understand that Labour were happier with Halifax than Churchill, as the entire house was. Luckily you could say, Halifax refused to allow himself to be considered.

FB

[Finningley Boy]

Here HH,

Churchill's political position was weak, although he was popular with the Labour and Liberal Parties for his stance against appeasement in the 1930s. He was unpopular in the Conservative Party, however, and he might not have been the choice of the King. Halifax had the support of most of the Conservative Party and of the King and was acceptable to the Labour Party. His position as a peer was a merely technical barrier given the scale of the crisis, and Churchill reportedly was willing to serve under Halifax. As Lord Beaverbrook said, "Chamberlain wanted Halifax. Labour wanted Halifax. Sinclair wanted Halifax. The Lords wanted Halifax. The King wanted Halifax. And Halifax wanted Halifax." Only the last sentence was incorrect, however; Halifax did not want to become Prime Minister. He believed that Churchill's energy and leadership skills were superior to his own.[28]

You didn't go to the flix to see that fast and loose nonsense 'Churchill' and its attempt to try and afford a shred of credibility to Labour for the selection of Churchill to lead us onwards and upwards into Broad sunlit uplands at all? Did you?

Oh by the way, I think it is a breath taking sweeping broad brush stroke to dismiss most of the Chamberlain Cabinet as being Nazi sympathisers. Not after the Government had, in the preceding four years or so, initiated various re-armament programmes seeing the Spitfire and Hurricane arriving in large numbers already!

FB

[Bigpants]

Any chance of a Chief of Defense Staff who is less PC and more Grayson Perry?

[Wander00]

Is that Chief of Defence Staff?

[Heathrow Harry]

"You didn't go to the flix to see that fast and loose nonsense 'Churchill'"

I most certainly did not - I sat at home and reread the Authorised Biography - neither did I go and see "Dunkirk" or any other of the revisionist trash that clogs the silver screen

As I understand it Halifax felt he could not lead the country from the Lords - that was the main issue. Attlee had always believed Churchill to be a man of principle (also the worst Chancellor of all time) whereas Halifax was a long-term appeaser