[quote=glyn;408400]
Quote:
Originally Posted by S-2
This all stems from the British regimental system. It would seem from this article that tradition is now in disarray, if not threatened with near-extinction.
I'm afraid our tried and trusted system is in the greatest jeopardy, thanks to our ghastly New Labour government. My views on them are as strong as Bluesmans on the Democrats. They are not to be trusted, they have no military experience themselves. What they know about service traditions and esprit-de-Corps could be put on a single childs hair with a lump of coal. Nothing! |
Even IF bean-counting liberals were good at efficiency (they're usually not), when they start mucking around with the military, they'll almost always do the exact Wrong Thing, so much so that it begins to look like a deliberate attempt to damage an institution they instinctively hate. I have watched in growing horror and disgust successive Labour governments do massive damage to their own armed forces, and I remember well when the RAF were forced to admit that they could no longer adequately defend British aerial boundaries. The Army, after being repeatedly buffetted by 'efficiency' measures that gutted what was, let's face it, the best part of the British Army's heart, soul and fighting spirit - it's regimental traditions and self-identities - I do believe the UK's armed forces are so eroded in the loss of the 'old' that no amount of the 'new' - modern equipment, high technology, etc. - would offset it...even if they got what they needed, which, it should be noted, a parsimonious (at least as far as defense spending goes, anyway) Labour government won't provide, either.
Traditions and identities that bind men to their military families are important, much more important than their equipment or even quality-of-life issues like pay and quarters, and anybody that has no experience of long military service just doesn't 'get' that. Ask the Marines; they get their men from the the same places the other US forces get theirs, and they're considered better troops. WHY is that? Because of the traditions of the Corps, their history, their sense of upholding a reputation. PRIDE is the one word that it comes down to.
And the British have traded theirs for a lower defense tab. What a shame.