I think that a lovely floral headscarf worn by every soldier there would have the necessary impact.

On the command, don head-dress!

Litotes

I actually wrote to my MP not expecting to get a reply on this subject. She is a Labour MP and I thought all I would get is SPIN...

... have to say eating a bit of humble pie on this one, fair play to her she has written back, thought I would share this with the rest of ARRSE.

Won't be voting Labour any time soon however, Iraq, Law and Order, double standards over replacement for Trident,...just a few reasons why but at least she has listened, I have more respect for her as a consequence.

Dear Mr .....,

Thank you for your email of 11 April and for raising with me your very serious concerns about the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) decision to allow the 15 sailors and marines held by the Iranians to sell their stories. I very much agree with your comments, which I was particularly interested to hear from your perspective as a serving member of the British armed forces.

Thank you for alerting me to a website used by members of the armed forces. In addition to reading your posted comments, it was useful to read the views of other personnel too.

As I am sure you are now aware, the MoD has reversed what it can of its decision, by prohibiting any further sales to media organisations. I understand that the Defence Secretary has said that, referring to his earlier decision to give the go ahead, "clearly with hindsight... I could have made a different decision".

I understand that a full statement will be made by Defence Secretary, Des Browne, on Monday 16th April, when Parliament returns after Easter recess. I will email this to you once it is available. I hope and trust that this statement will provide a more comprehensive explanation of why the decision was taken. I also hope that it will clarify the rules, in particular what “exceptional circumstances” in future would justify permitting serving military personnel to sell their stories; as I agree that the current prohibition must be maintained, if or when such circumstances arise in the future, to avoid the very damaging effect these stories have had, on both the reputation of our armed forces, and indeed our country, abroad. I am pleased to note that Tony Blair has said that it is very unlikely that such stories will be sold in future.

Although the MoD clearly made the wrong decision, I think that some of the reasons for letting the former hostages give their stories had some justification at the time, but not with hindsight. I think there was some justification for the position that the hostages had long ceased to be anonymous and that their stories, as told to “friends”, would eventually leak out to the media, even if they were prohibited from giving interviews themselves; and that to allow interviews would enable the navy to assert some control over this situation. However, it is clear, especially with hindsight, that the MoD did have some choice over this issue. In addition, the idea that press interviews given by the former hostages could maybe counter their appearance on Iranian television for their own propaganda has somewhat backfired; although I can understand why it was felt that the 15 should have an opportunity to explain their behaviour, why some of them were smiling in some of the pictures , and to counteract some of the things that had been said about them. Nonetheless, clearly the decision was wrong, not least for failing to consider the implications for people in armed services who have been injured and for the families of service personnel who have been killed on active service.

Thank you for taking the time to bring your concerns about this issue to my attention. I will write to you again with the Defence Secretary’s full statement next week. But if, in the meantime, you have any query about this email or any other issue you would like to raise with me, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Kerry McCarthy MP.

Here is how you can contact your MP, it seems to work.

www.theyworkforyou.com/

Complete farce!!!!Mind you the mental cruelty they had to endure by wearing those dodgy shellsuits on thier sports afternoon probably contravened the geneva convention!!

Jings I had a damn good larf at that one...the Top Secret DCI Gen 200/04 ?

Er...which anyone could download off the RLI since it came out three years ago ? ( the RLI which is accessible by a number of British companies as well as everyone* in MoD)

Which applies to EVERYONE who takes a salary from Her Madge, whether Service or Civvy ?

Which is about as exciting as a label saying 'Paint Drying- Queue Here ' ?


Magic......was that the effervescent Mick Smith ?

Le Chevre


* for some values of 'Everyone'....having worked for the Army for three years I am well aware that in some outstations that new-fangled invention the 'Telly Foam' causes hard breathing bafflement and calls for ' Staff Atkins - he's Technical, get him up here. "

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