Labour shadow defence minister.
 

Labour have announced their new shadow defence minister John Healey MP a member of amnesty International, Great!

Do not load with a magazine of 20 rounds? In case someone gets hurt?

Does seem an odd choice - has never done anything in his life except for politics and campaigning for liberal issues and has never shown any interest at all in Defence or Foreign Relations.

Mind you I do wonder how long he will be in the job.

Wallace rose to the dizzy height of Captain, thus eminently qualified. Morduant and Williamson, on the other hand... Then there was Francois...

CG

Amnesty aren't all bad - you'd be a lot worse off with a member of the Tax Payers Alliance who doesn't believe in Govt spending at all..............

Wasn't he at the Treasury in 2010 and left a cryptic message in effect saying "that there is no money left, it has all gone".

Nope that was Liam Byrne - "Burning with shame" courtesy of the Grauniad :E

Labour's note to the Conservatives 2010

IG

Thank you for the correction. I got Byrne and Healey mixed up.

Could be worse, it could have been Mr Lammy!

Or the lovey Ms Abbott?

Not forgetting that Denis Healey was at one time a member of the Communist Party; and dear old Fred Mulley, who nodded off during a Review.....

57mm,

Not forgetting that Major Dennis Healey was at one time the beach master at Anzio in 1944 as well as serving on the front line in North Africa, Sicily and Italy...

And also not forgetting that Sergeant Fred Mulley was captured in France in 1940 and spent 5 years as a POW. He was also up until the early hours in the House of Commons (in the period before time limits on debates was brought in) the night before the Royal review...

And how the country needs men of that background now!

weemonkey,


Why? What possible use would that experience be?

We need medical professionals by the bucket load, not more military.

Medics /military - it doesn't matter. What we need are people who have been tested and not found wanting.

PROONE - Of course we need medical staff but we also need people to organise and direct a logistic and support response. Should you want you could look at the duties of a Beach Master who would be working in very dangerous conditions, usually under some form of enemy attack, but still be able to unload ships/Landing craft, clear the beachhead and send the material to where it is needed. Just the kind of person to direct a response to a pandemic.

And it seems the military were pretty useful (as were many others) in fast-tracking the Nightingale Hospital.

The NHS meanwhile, I see has just recruited a "Diversity and Equality Manager" (Que?) in Bristol, starting at £44K pa............

teeteringhead,

As were hundreds and hundreds of contractors, NHS staff, delivery drivers etc etc. etc.

If you don't know what a Diversity and Equality Mgr is then I sincerely hope that you are not involved in managing staff..

Headstone,

What? I fail to see what enemy attack and beaches have to do with 2020? We have a huge and capable logistics industry in this country involved in much larger quantities of products shipped much more frequently than the military, who have contractorised and outsourced most of their logistics.

No one is disputing that we do have a fine, huge and capable logistics industry. You comment implied that a Beach Master would be of no value and is of no relevance in 2020 is utterly wrong - delivering support and logistics under pressure is what he did and whether that was in 1914 or 1944 or 2020 does not matter. Or do you think he was making decisions sat by a computer in an airconditioned office surrounded by helpful staff? As to much of the military support being outsourced - So What? The huge amount that is still in military hands has been of great use and help to the response so far.
Why must you disparage these people?
You previously put we need medical professionals by the bucket load - well I would suggest that at the moment we need the help of military medical staff and military logistic people much more than this person albeit he is needed for other things at other times -
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Headstone,

I do not disparage them, any help is to be gratefully welcomed, I just do not see them as some golden panacea as some seem too, and a Beachmaster is going to be useful on a beach, especially as we were talking about a beach in Anzio in 1944, hardly relevant to today's challenge.