Military chiefs say more people are currently joining the army in the West Midlands than anywhere else in the UK, with Wolverhampton a particular hotspot.

How are you going to make the Military Covenant work, without closer engagement from the British Public?

To firmly ram this back on topic, if the British Public are not actively engaged to support us , then the Covenant will continue to be a top down mealy-mouthed exercise in platitude.

If the Government say "Let's be warm and fuzzy to the boys and girls, and give them what they want" how long do you think it will be , before we're accused of taking money from the NHS, Education , Welfare etc?

We can't deflect criticism, until the British Public are shown exactly why the Military Covenant is so important.

It can't happen , until the British Public are made to feel a part of it.

Anyone remember the Falklands Factor? Yes we launched an expeditionary force, which retook the Islands, and the Iron Trout made the most of it. But, the reporting was in close and personal, and the MoD made damn sure at that time, that the public understood why they were doing it, and why public support was crucial.

Then again, MoD was top heavy with people that had been in a shooting war, and they were dealing with editors who'd sent their fair share of despatches via carrier pigeon from Normandy.

What RBL is doing, is admirable, but it is not enough on it's own.

We need to up the Military presence in the media considerably, that includes mainstream programming. scripts in Eastenders/Corrie/Hollyoaks etc. More material showing what it means to be on the thin end of the spear, and how it relates to the public at home.

We need to take the 5 minute slots in Cinemas before the film starts for "Helmand report" tie the damn reports to local regiments in local areas, get them talked about.

It means better access for the media to our colleagues on operations, and more "The story of Pte. Bloggs from your street"

We need to get the public thinking "That could be my son, daughter. husband, wife, best mate" etc etc , what can I do to show I care. We need to channel that concern , into exercises where the public can manifest it's concern into physical acts if they so feel.

I don't mean poxy lip-service ribbon campaigns and the like that are gone as soon as they start, and back to square 1.

I mean a constant "background hum" concerning our people. Constant reminders that they are not Dessies clad automatons, but they've hopes, dreams and aspirations, as the late Captain Hicks had.

It is not impossible to get the public to engage at an emotional level. Look at what some local TV stations do, like Central. Embed reporters, and make sure they are on hand when the guys and girls get home.

The surge of pride when the Staffords got back, was palpable round here, Central couldn't have shown their pride more, if it was their own staff that had been on the OP. That's in spite of MoD, not because of them.

Start the ground swell at local level and build it up, not the other way round, with yet another bloody mean-nothing decree, which the public will lump with all the other crap they've heard.

None of this, not one single thing, is going to be worth a damn if we don't get the British Public onside.

On a lighter note, do you think Browne is having a good week this week? I suspect not.

Sven wrote:


Seems like a distraction to me. This all comes down to money and political priorities in the end. If civil servants and uniformed personnel get placed in a situation where they have to make something work without proper funding then they may eventually get into a position where they want to cover mistakes up. This is bad but it always goes back to the funding.

The tax take in the UK has gone up hugely under this guppymint yet at the same time defence spending has been cut to the bone. That's fine if the same guppymint doesn't send the forces to get shot at anywhere. Cutting the funding to the bone and getting the forces involved in two shooting wars at the same time is criminal.


PTP wrote:

... a lot of good stuff too lazy to cut and paste

Defo need the background hum to keep this a permanent concern of all guppymints now and in the future.

Constant embedding would be a good start. Given how dangerous it is maybe MoD itself could recruit some people instead of paying all the PR staff seeing as the Michael Yon blog linked below is the best PR the US forces could get.

I wouldn't know, either way. But I do hope not.

LOTS of good news:

15 Aug 200 Scottish labour market figures break all records
Secretary of State for Scotland Des Browne said:

“Today’s outstanding figures show that the Scottish labour market has never been in better health. This is testimony to the macroeconomic policies of the UK Government, which have delivered eleven consecutive quarters of above trend economic growth for Scotland setting the foundations for these excellent labour market results

Today's recruiting figures show you can fool most of the people most of the time. This is testimony to the way this Government ensures that any bad news is supressed, and that the culture of spin still rules strong in Whitehall.
OK, Jock, now what were we saying about employment in Galashiels?

14 Aug 2007 UK Government moves to help Edinburgh Festivals perform
The Secretary of State for Scotland said:

“We have listened closely to the concerns of festival organisers on this issue and have raised their concerns at the highest level, where they were sympathetically received."

We have listened closely to the concerns of the commanders and servicemen deployed overseas, and have sympathetically decided to do fkuc all about it.
God, I'm going to be late for the opera ...

14 Aug 2007 Government response to the Scottish Executive's publication of an independence White Paper
Secretary of State for Scotland Des Browne said:

“The central theme in the SNP Scottish Executive’s publication – independence – has the support neither of the Scottish people or the Government. Two thirds of Scottish voters voted for parties that support the Union in the Scottish Parliament elections."

The central theme in our Defence Policy has the support of nearly half the British Electorate.
Will somebody turn off that bloody bagpipe music?
Now, how do we ensure the Scottish vote? ....

The Germans have a saying: "The fish goes rotten from the head"
Now how do we re-create the Scottish Fishing Industry? I've got voters giving me a hard time in Aberdeen ...

Blogg, are you suggesting that he's not fully focused on our fighting two wars, with limited resources and huge overstretch?

The results were obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, after the digital rights group filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act.

The MoD and army officers spent months trying to stop the book being published before finally agreeing last week. Ultimately, the ministry would have had to go to court to prevent publication and lawyers believe the new rules would have been judged legally unenforceable.

John Mackenzie, a solicitor specializing in military cases, said there was little the MoD or the Army could do to stop Mills publishing his book or making money from it.
Neither Queen’s Regulations nor the Defence Instruction and Notice (DIN) in which the new rules were issued carried the force of law, Mackenzie said.
“There’s not a great deal the army can do,” Mackenzie said. “They can order him not to write another book and if he disobeyed that order then they could discipline him internally.
“But providing he doesn’t breach the official secrets act, they could not court martial him because neither Queen’s Regulation nor a DIN have the force of law.”
In Mills case, the situation was further complicated by the fact that Beharry was encouraged to write about the exploits in Amara that won him a Victoria Cross and was allowed to receive all the royalties.
As it finally dawned on the MoD that legally they had no hope of stopping Mills’s book being published, they insisted on a number of changes to the manuscript for security reasons.
"We were able to make some but by no means all of them,” White said. “The MoD also asked us to withhold Dan's payment which we've done.
“It's a great shame that there seems to be such resistance, because at the end of the day the extraordinarily vivid account Dan's written of six months of very hard fighting is a fantastic credit on the guts and spirit of the whole British Army.”
In a further embarrassment for the MoD, the book will be the subject of a high-profile serialisation in the Sun newspaper this week.

they could not court martial him because neither Queen’s Regulation nor a DIN have the force of law.”