Do leave Beagle alone, he clearly is not feeling too good.

There are some interesting new Ladybird books with a most humorous take on the past. One is; We're off to Brexit Island!

FB
PS Any road up Beags, you're beginning to come across a bit pr00ne-esque?

I admit that I'm not having the best of times right now and apologise if that has coloured my recent posts.

Nevertheless, I cannot accept that Farage is worth of any honour. However, any further political comments should best be made on Jet Blast, perhaps?

Finningley Boy , those J A Hazeley and J P Morris 'Ladybird Books for Grown-Ups' are indeed excellent! A friend gave me 'The Story of Brexit' as a Christmas gift, which is brilliant - and so true! For example:

There's also A Ladybird Book About Donald Trump, described as:

Both available from the usual suspects!

Happy New Year to all!

I voted to leave for a different relationship with the corrupt and crooked €U. However, I cannot stand Farage and there is no way he deserves a K for the vitriol and bile he has uttered in Brussels towards the €urophiles. He is a nasty piece of work, as are many of his followers who are only slightly left of the English Defence League.

As for those on the military list - well done all. I also think that those getting Commendations from CAS and the 3-star DCOMs should get a little more than just a certificate to hang on the downstairs toilet wall. How about a small “Commendation Pin” to be worn on No 1 and No 2 dress? These awards are given out to around 1 in 2,000, so they aren’t exactly common. Just to be clear, I’m not talking about a medal here, just a small pin about the size of a 5p piece.

Happy New Year to you Beagle, one and all! And as Beagle testifies, look out those particular Ladybird books as New year presents!

FB

Happy New to all.

There is a 'Ladybird Easy Reading, Typhoon Force' in circulation. It's a good read! 🌋
​​​​

Lima Juliet wrote: "A pin on your uniform....??"


;)

Yes, most enlightening ;)

careless features of the honours list
 

Has some sort of policy developed which ends the award of AFC with the New Year and Birthday honours ? In days gone by the AFC would have been the obvious award for someone like Sqn Ldr Andy Edgell.

MPN11 remarked on the John Major policy to “democratise” the honours. I would have thought the reduction in the flow of honours to the armed forces’ VSOs reflects their loss of status in the Whitehall battlefield rather than the shrinkage in the defence demographic.

While Major brought in new gallantry medals, he abolished the BEM presumably because in some muddled way he disapproved of the rank system. It must please some of the posters here that their notional SAC bog-cleaner can only get an MBE, so making parity for him with several star Squadron Leaders and an acting Captain RNR on this list. The mistake of abolishing the BEM was quickly rectified in the civil list. Now the anomaly is that SAC Boggs might well get an MBE while Mrs Mopp most certainly will not. Unintended consequences or what? I noted, in an early honours list after the BEM was restored, that a retired Major in Wiltshire was awarded one. What did he think and why did they bother ?

As one who would wish to take the honours system seriously, I have been distracted by the clerical sloppiness of the published lists, even before the clanger dropped in the Cabinet Office this time. The quasi-citations for the NY 2020 headline recipients are to my eye gushing and undignified.

The award criteria for the AFC changed in 1993. Before then, many awards were made for meritorious service over a period of time (once described to me as 'A million hours on Chipmunks'), whereas after 1993 the AFC is only awarded for 'an act or acts of exemplary gallantry while flying, though not in active operations against the enemy'.

Just bring back the good conduct stripes and use that

A friend was once the armourer attached to the RAF Regt detachment at Salalah where he was awarded the BEM for Gallantry following an incident with a mortar bomb. I'm not sure if such an award is current or has been superseded by the QGM.

A couple of guys in the dept served in Cyprus a long time ago and have knowledge of the case involving an RAF Police Cpl (WFS - one of 2 brothers in the same unit).
The story is that one evening whilst WFS was sat in the rear of an open top landrover and armed with a loaded weapon ready for action, he noted an individual run towards the vehicle and lob a grenade into it, so WFS promptly picked it up and threw it away, upon which it exploded a couple of seconds later... He was awarded the BEM for Gallantry, with a silver oak leaf emblem on the ribbon. His status as a 'mere' Cpl mean't he was not considered worthy of a 'higher class' award. He retired as a Warrant Officer in the mid 80s.
One of our chaps suggested that had it been a commissioned officer in the vehicle, he would have very likely have thrown himself out of it, leaving the fate of the driver and front seat passenger to God!

I was thinking more of a small pin badge like the “Late Arrivals Club” or “Pathfinder” pin badges? The good conduct stripe looks a bit too ostentatious in my view? Also, I thought the LS&GCM replaced good conduct stripes?


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3d0092a3c.jpeg

Late Arrivals Club pin badge on War Service Dress or Battle Dress (which was the only flying uniform it was approved for):

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....f4022afef.jpeg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....5c3fbf7e5.jpeg

Or the Pathfinder pin worn on Battle Dress or No 1:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....3cdafd692.jpeg

This is what the RNZAF wear as a pin for a CAF’s Commendation:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ca9b63e38.jpeg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....b89b38509.jpeg

Or the same for the RAAF:


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9921779db.jpeg

Or for the Indian Air Force:


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7180207cf.jpeg
All of our uniforms are similar and so if they can do it then why not us?. The RAF Commendations come with nothing more than a certificate at present, which is a bit pants. A nice discrete pin badge would be a nice way of denoting exemplary service for those that don’t get a gong like QVRM, MBE, OBE, etc...

Wiggy and AT keep barking on about the Next Generation Air Force (#NGAF) on their Twitter feeds, isn’t this sort of modernisation exactly what we need? Millennials and Gen Zs thrive on public recognition according to most social scientists, then surely updating to something more modern, and a nod towards our pervious ethos, is the way ahead?

Secret1
 

The single Good conduct badge [stripe] on the sergeant is anomalous ........ NCOs were deemed to be of good conduct. The highest rank entitled was LAC ..... my father wore one home from the war.