Before the outrage bus gets worked up into full flow, let me try and put a few facts out there. I am a MOD CS and I am an officer in the Reserves as well â so Iâm seeing this from both sides.
The article is deliberately provocative and paints an image that all of us CS sit there in air conditioned luxury, swilling wine and living it up in fine hotels. If only that were true! The CS travel standards are pretty strict â you have a maximum cap of between £70 - £110 per night for your hotel, depending on the city youâre in, which is booked centrally . To deviate from this, you need to get a lot of senior people to sign it off and frankly it doesnât happen often without bloody good reason.
What does £70-£110 get you? Not much! The CS mandated standards for booking a hotel is an ensuite room with desk, TV and secure fittings for personal safety. In practise this works out at roughly a travellodge â budget hotel rate. Those of you who travel often will realise that £100 wonât get you much in the hotel world nowadays. Overseas, particularly where the exchange rate is weaker you may get a better hotel â although this is usually down to luck!
The idea of quaffing fine wine is also fantasy â we get to claim back actual for expenses, which include ½ a bottle of wine, or a pint of beer when staying overnight somewhere. Trust me that these expenses do get scrutinised and if you come in above your estimate on the costs form, youâve got a lot of explaining and disciplinary action ahead of you.
As for âbusiness class flightsâ â I wish! Trying to get business class travel is very difficult indeed â the only time you get it is for a flight over 7 hours long, when youâre working the next day. Otherwise you go economy. The MOD is extremely strict on business class flights now â so its very much the exception to get it.
As for the idea that we should all stay in messes âabsolutely disagree with that one. A mess is a home for someone in a unit, to an outsider it is usually a very cold and intimidating place indeed. The furniture is poor, the facilities are dire and as soon as the inhabitants (if they deign to speak with you) realise that you are a CS, then you are in for a prolonged âCS are scum who hate the forces and you are to blame for all that is wrong with the system rantâ. Add the draconian dress rules â I was once bollocked for removing my suit jacket in the height of summer to eat dinner at the RE mess in chatham, and you have an environment where CS feel very uneasy. Donât forget that to many, the idea of mess facilities makes them uncomfortable- to you its part of a lifestyle that you signed up for. To CS, who didnât chose a career in the forces, it is a very unattractive prospect indeed.
Finally, before you assume that all CS live the high life, while poor forces people suffer in squalor- Iâd suggest that some of the worst abuses Iâve seen of the travel budget have come from serving forces personnel...
