Thread: My Defence Correspondents Debut Opening Gambit required

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

How do we stop the dis-illusionment within the armed forces? You have to believe to acheive. I believe in the British Armed forces - I think we are the best of the best - we turnout great soldiers, that are resourceful, innovative, strategically smart, tactically accurate, resilient and unrelenting. We don't have 'all the gear and no idea' and to some extent these limited resources creates a strong dedicated work ethic that underpins the British military. We have a unique sense of humour and spirit that does not shy away from adversity.

What I want to know is this - what makes Britain's Armed Forces great?

I think you've just answered your own question. What makes the British army (I can't speak for the Navy or Air Force) is the average squaddie.
For just the reasons you've stated above, every one of them deserves a medal!

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

Hmmmm - procurement and helos not popular with the editor.

Are we allowed to know why?

Or is it something silly like the title doesn't fit on his/her 3-column bogger format.... :D

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

Looking for something fresh that links defence and politics. Was thinking 'leadership' watched Into The Storm last night, felt inspired.

I feel that we lack a strong leader in Downing Street - and I am personally looking for someone to put the 'Great' back into Britain. I feel like I am living in 'fairly average' Britain at the moment.

The Taliban are tribal warriors but so are the British. We are a tribal nation, stubborn, determind and resilient. We live in this green and pleasant land and despite the dreadful weather and love our country (sort of, in funny cynical kind of way).

The road to Afghanistan is full of flawed philosophy but should we just walk away? I think it's too late to do that - I think we need to find a solution that we can believe in so that we can pave the way forward. But we need strong, dynamic leadership with a clear strategy and an end goal. Do we even know what success looks like?

How do we stop the dis-illusionment within the armed forces? You have to believe to acheive. I believe in the British Armed forces - I think we are the best of the best - we turnout great soldiers, that are resourceful, innovative, strategically smart, tactically accurate, resilient and unrelenting. We don't have 'all the gear and no idea' and to some extent these limited resources creates a strong dedicated work ethic that underpins the British military. We have a unique sense of humour and spirit that does not shy away from adversity.

What I want to know is this - what makes Britain's Armed Forces great?

(Only positives please - can all the bah humbug, cynical, grumpy, old bastards, please bah humbug somewhere else.....................tumbleweed rolls across the thread as nobody responds................... )

"Only positives please." Now that's an old New Labour favourite.

For someone planning to be the "defence correspondent", deliberately avoiding the defence/operational issue of the moment and instead writing a whimsical piece on what you would like the political leader to be seems, well, rather bizarre...

PS. Have you considered the Irish from our own 6 counties?

Manning priorities in the Army i.e. the amount of senior officer (Col and above jobs) posts and are they really neccessary? I'm on about posts like Camp Commandants, Assistant to the Assistance to the Assistant whoever. Also questioning man power liabilities against what we actually have on the ground with all the black economy posts etc.

RAF Transport Command - options for contracting out?

The Editor has nothing against covering procurement issues. It was done some months ago in July: Brown's lies on helicopter procurement. I'd like to think we were one of the leaders with this story, it was certainly picked up elsewhere.

Which is not to say that there isn't more to be said, but I'm not sure what more we can do on that particular issue.

What I want to know is:

After Panther's Claw, what next? The Pakistanis are pressing the Taliban from the South, are the ISAF forces going to press from the North through winter, or hibernate until Spring?

Does anyone else think that this is an opportunity to finish the job off, after all the Americans are reinforcing, the British have just rotated the Brigade and in theory the Taliban should have taken a battering this summer.

Swiss,

Still think you are missing the obvious political - defence story here: we are not devoting adequate resources to our Fighting Services. The next government (as seems likely) want to freeze or cut the budget. If they do that then we will need to seriously revisit the UK's role in the world.

That debate colours every other one in the defence sphere right now.

Originally Posted by whitecity

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

Hmmmm - procurement and helos not popular with the editor.

Are we allowed to know why?

Or is it something silly like the title doesn't fit on his/her 3-column bogger format.... :D

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

Looking for something fresh that links defence and politics. Was thinking 'leadership' watched Into The Storm last night, felt inspired.

I feel that we lack a strong leader in Downing Street - and I am personally looking for someone to put the 'Great' back into Britain. I feel like I am living in 'fairly average' Britain at the moment.

The Taliban are tribal warriors but so are the British. We are a tribal nation, stubborn, determind and resilient. We live in this green and pleasant land and despite the dreadful weather and love our country (sort of, in funny cynical kind of way).

The road to Afghanistan is full of flawed philosophy but should we just walk away? I think it's too late to do that - I think we need to find a solution that we can believe in so that we can pave the way forward. But we need strong, dynamic leadership with a clear strategy and an end goal. Do we even know what success looks like?

How do we stop the dis-illusionment within the armed forces? You have to believe to acheive. I believe in the British Armed forces - I think we are the best of the best - we turnout great soldiers, that are resourceful, innovative, strategically smart, tactically accurate, resilient and unrelenting. We don't have 'all the gear and no idea' and to some extent these limited resources creates a strong dedicated work ethic that underpins the British military. We have a unique sense of humour and spirit that does not shy away from adversity.

What I want to know is this - what makes Britain's Armed Forces great?

(Only positives please - can all the bah humbug, cynical, grumpy, old bastards, please bah humbug somewhere else.....................tumbleweed rolls across the thread as nobody responds................... )

"Only positives please." Now that's an old New Labour favourite.

For someone planning to be the "defence correspondent", deliberately avoiding the defence/operational issue of the moment and instead writing a whimsical piece on what you would like the political leader to be seems, well, rather bizarre...

PS. Have you considered the Irish from our own 6 counties?

I think it's because it's a blog - not a newspaper - so it can be whatever it wants to be and the subject is too big for an opener. It's not an avoidance matter but I think it's about establishing a voice. This is the beginning of many so it's not like this issue won't necessarily be tackled. Also I don't think I had anything new to say on the matter - it's a pretty well documented debacle.

How do you know it's going to be a whimsical piece on leadership? I haven't even written anything yet. The question I asked was: what makes Britain's Armed Forces great?

I said I was inspired by Into the Storm and the Britain lacked leadership and that I was thinking about leadership as maybe a topic.

I am exploring options by trying to engage in a dialogue with those interested in the armed forces. (I am totally setting myself up for a lynching here - setting expectations and then drafting some diatribe that you all decimate - no pressure!)

Are you being a bit of grumpy pants Mr White City? Do you need a hug?

I don't understand the PS - please can you explain.

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

How do you know it's going to be a whimsical piece on leadership? I haven't even written anything yet. The question I asked was: what makes Britain's Armed Forces great?

I said I was inspired by Into the Storm and the Britain lacked leadership and that I was thinking about leadership as maybe a topic.

I am exploring options by trying to engage in a dialogue with those interested in the armed forces. (I am totally setting myself up for a lynching here - setting expectations and then drafting some diatribe that you all decimate - no pressure!)

Are you being a bit of grumpy pants Mr White City? Do you need a hug?

I don't understand the PS - please can you explain.

How is that we have some good military leaders and some great ones previously but shoite political ones

Originally Posted by whitecity

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

Hmmmm - procurement and helos not popular with the editor.

Are we allowed to know why?

Or is it something silly like the title doesn't fit on his/her 3-column bogger format.... :D

Why not? Every man and his monkey writes about procurement and, on the whole, make a complete hash of it. They generally have zero experience of military or major procurement at any level so equate it to the only procurement they do have experience of - their weekly shop at Tesco.

I'd be far more interested in a well researched, written and insightful article on the affects of poor political leadership on the MoD (and other governmental departments) than yet another simplistic and factually wrong article saying we should buy lots of American COTS. Witness Jacqui Smith's performance on QT last week, worse even than Jack Straw's. If you're not capable of holding your own on QT, you're not capable of heading an Office of State.

Originally Posted by P2000

Swiss,

Still think you are missing the obvious political - defence story here: we are not devoting adequate resources to our Fighting Services. The next government (as seems likely) want to freeze or cut the budget. If they do that then we will need to seriously revisit the UK's role in the world.

That debate colours every other one in the defence sphere right now.

And that is the result of poor, ineffectual and incompetent political leadership. The disease needs treating, not the symptoms.

Why does every article you ever read about procurement come back to FLynx Wildcat and why we should have Blackhawks 'off the shelf' for £3.20 each

We also flatter ourselves if we paint a rosy picture of the UK armed forces, where everything in green or blue is fantastic because we all know this is total bollox.

In fact, not seeing ones faults is called arrogance and arrogance is central to many of our less than glorious episodes recently.

We also make the mistake of seeing politics as somehow detrimental to the forces, lets not forget who we serve and also lets not kid ourselves that all political intrusion is a negative.

Balance is key in these discussions.

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

I don't understand the PS - please can you explain.

I understand the PM and the Armed Forces represent the whole state and not just part of it.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

At least that's what's written on the cover of my passport.

You state you don't want to start with a "subject [that] is too big for an opener." And yet you propose to write a piece about how to put "great" back into the national psyche. Don't you see a little contradiction there?

Your editor is keen on a piece that identifies or proposes military/political strategy in Afghanistan for the coming 6 months.

But you don't want "big", apparently!

Originally Posted by meridian

Why does every article you ever read about procurement come back to FLynx Wildcat and why we should have Blackhawks 'off the shelf' for £3.20 each

We also flatter ourselves if we paint a rosy picture of the UK armed forces, where everything in green or blue is fantastic because we all know this is total bollox.

In fact, not seeing ones faults is called arrogance and arrogance is central to many of our less than glorious episodes recently.

We also make the mistake of seeing politics as somehow detrimental to the forces, lets not forget who we serve and also lets not kid ourselves that all political intrusion is a negative.

Balance is key in these discussions.

Because they're written by agenda driven individuals with little or no understanding of the subject matter. Bit like ottar suggests above.

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

Was thinking 'leadership' watched Into The Storm last night, felt inspired.
I feel that we lack a strong leader in Downing Street - and I am personally looking for someone to put the 'Great' back into Britain. I feel like I am living in 'fairly average' Britain at the moment.

Why ask when you appear to know what you want to write? The fact that procurement has "been done" does not make it less of a problem. It is obvious from the responses that is a BIG concern for those suffering from shortfalls and duff equipment. You asked, you got an answer, why not try to address it from a different angle?

Originally Posted by whitecity

Originally Posted by Arrse-Bandit

I don't understand the PS - please can you explain.

I understand the PM and the Armed Forces represent the whole state and not just part of it.

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

At least that's what's written on the cover of my passport.

You state you don't want to start with a "subject [that] is too big for an opener." And yet you propose to write a piece about how to put "great" back into the national psyche. Don't you see a little contradiction there?

Your editor is keen on a piece that identifies or proposes military/political strategy in Afghanistan for the coming 6 months.

But you don't want "big", apparently!

Hmmm.....good point. Now cogitating. What would you do if it were you?

Originally Posted by P2000

Swiss,

Still think you are missing the obvious political - defence story here: we are not devoting adequate resources to our Fighting Services. The next government (as seems likely) want to freeze or cut the budget. If they do that then we will need to seriously revisit the UK's role in the world.

That debate colours every other one in the defence sphere right now.

Everyone in the country who is interested in politics, or related to the military in some way knows this don't they? Hasn't it always been the same?

I think the difference this time is that we're (The Labour Govt) fighting 'political' wars of choice , not wars in the national defence interest, or our own self preservation, which is what makes it inexcusable.

http://claremacnaughton.wordpress.com/

I have just worked out my opener and although it doesn't necessarily heed all of the above advice and words of wisdom, it doesn't mean I am not listening or interested in your points of view.

And remember I am not a journalist, but some gobby bird, married to some fella in the military who is about to express an opinion.

WOMEN - KNOW YOUR LIMITS!!!

Check out this link to make you smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjxY9rZwNGU

I am off to draft it now but thanks for all your help. :D