News that Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace has summonsed the Army Board for a “dressing down” hit the media this week. 

Clearly his patience has worn thin over the army’s recent performance across the board and the concomitant negative press coverage as one thing after another goes wrong, and yet nobody ever takes responsibility or the blame. His exasperation has clearly boiled over, and not before time in my opinion.

This article is the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the UK Defence Journal. If you would like to submit your own article on this topic or any other, please see our submission guidelines. 

The author, Stuart Crawford, was a regular officer in the Royal Tank Regiment for twenty years, retiring in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1999. Crawford attended both the British and US staff colleges and undertook a Defence Fellowship at Glasgow University. 

Let’s take a look at some of the things that are likely to feature in the Secretary of State’s collective bollocking. First and foremost in terms of seriousness are the allegations surrounding the death of Kenyan mother Agnes Wanjiru some ten years ago when she was apparently in the company of British soldiers. As the Kenyan police have now re-opened a criminal case on the matter it is effectively sub judice and I will say no more on the details. Suffice to say, however, that Chief of the General Staff Sir Mark Carleton-Smith has said he is “appalled” by allegations that British soldiers may have been involved in her death.

Violence against women also features in the Atherton Report, the result of a Parliamentary inquiry which revealed that nearly two-thirds of women in the armed forces have experienced bullying, sexual harassment, and bullying during the course of their careers and that the British military is “failing to protect” female recruits. Sixty-two per cent of the 4,106 veterans and serving personnel who provided testimony had either witnessed or received “unacceptable behaviour”. Tellingly, the response from the MoD is still awaited.

Then consider the recent tragedy at RMA Sandhurst, where officer cadet Olivia Perk hanged herself in February 2019 because, apparently, she thought she was going to be discharged from the course on account of an alleged affair, or affairs, with two NCO instructors at the Academy. It now transpires that up to seven members of the Directing Staff there may be referred to the Services’ Prosecuting Authority for failing to carry out their duties in respect to her welfare. Aside from the niceties of senior NCO instructors having relationships with their officer cadet charges, she was by all accounts a known suicide risk. How could this possibly have been allowed to happen?

Let’s move on to equipment procurement. Words almost fail me when we look at the Ajax debacle, a litany of poor decisions by under-qualified individuals safe in the knowledge that when the sacred cows come home to roost (sic) they’ll be long gone. The recently published House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts report, Improving the performance of major defence equipment contracts, makes for grim reading. According to the report, the MoD has spent nearly £4 billion of its Ajax budget by March 2021—including payments to GDUK of £3.1 billion—out of budgeted whole-life costs of £5.5 billion. It has so far received 14 vehicles, two per cent of its contractual fleet requirement.

Add to this the disastrous cancellation of the Warrior IFV upgrade programme and the pathetic decision to upgrade only 148 of the Challenger 2 fleet to Challenger 3 status and only an eternal optimist would dare assert that everything in the land equipment procurement garden is rosy. And yet they did, in front of the Select Defence Committee only a few months ago. The sight of senior officers bobbing and weaving to avoid blame and/or responsibility was not inspiring to behold. 

I was going to go in hard on our current involvement in Mali, and in particular the triumphalism that seemed, to me at least, to accompany the elimination of a couple of blokes in flip-flops on a motorbike by the overwhelming firepower of one of our mounted patrols. Announcing this on Twitter with the preface “How was your weekend?” was crass and insensitive and completely misread the mood of that medium. But I suspect this was a genuine and now regretted mistake. I’m pretty sure our boys and girls are doing a fine job out there and lack of media training shouldn’t be allowed to take the gloss off a dangerous and worthwhile mission. Enough said.

But what can we say about the fiddling of allowances by senior officers, eh? Two of them – one Major General and one Lieutenant Colonel – have been sent to the pokey over the past year for fraudulently claiming Continuation of Education Allowance (CEA) (formerly Boarding School Allowance or BSA) when they should have known better. Another Brigadier is under investigation for the same offence, which he denies. These cases, I suspect, are only the tip of the iceberg, and it has been generally known that these allowances have been abused for years. 

Why has this been allowed to happen? The answer, I’m afraid, is that those who should be chasing the current miscreants were probably guilty of doing exactly the same in their time. This has now transcended self-regulation and investigation. Arguably the Serious Fraud Office needs to be called in to investigate the depth and extent of the scandal which goes back many, many years. It will be squeaky bum time across much of Wiltshire and Dorset as historical cases begin to be investigated too. I have no sympathy. Fraud is fraud is fraud. If the cap fits, wear it. You know who you are.

All of this stuff indicates, to me at least, that the British army has rather lost its moral compass, or a chunk of it anyway if that’s possible. There will be many reasons and causes why this might have happened, but in the end the buck stops with the leadership. Senior individuals at the top of the chain of command set the tone, and if they’re found wanting – which they clearly have been – then we can’t really expect their charges to behave to a higher moral code. 

Serious questions have to be asked. Who was in charge when that girl was murdered in Kenya and where are they now? What were the officers and NCOs doing at the time? Were any parameters set for R&R or was it just a free-for-all, do-as-you-please, anarchic carnival of hedonistic indulgence? What “Values and Standards” environment at RMA Sandhurst allowed the directing staff to think it was acceptable to take advantage of a presumably vulnerable female officer cadet? Why has no senior officer shown the self-dignity and integrity to should at least part of the blame for the Ajax and other equipment fiascos? And why did brigadiers and colonels think it was OK to fiddle their allowances? 

Look at who was in charge at the time of these various fiascos and make up your own mind. There appears to be little doubt that, to paraphrase the English bard, “something is rotten in the state of the British army” and it needs immediate, firm, and decisive action to root it out. Let’s hope the Secretary of State starts that action when he meets with service chiefs next week.

Stuart Crawford
Stuart Crawford
Stuart Crawford was a regular officer in the Royal Tank Regiment for twenty years, retiring in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1999. Crawford attended both the British and US staff colleges and undertook a Defence Fellowship at Glasgow University. He now works as a political, defence and security consultant and is a regular commentator on military and defence topics in print, broadcast and online media.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

140 COMMENTS

  1. Nothing but complete disbandment and realignment of our forces can fix this. Those now in charge are guilty and should go.

    • I’ve no idea what you mean by complete disbandment of our forces. There’s no way you can practically mean dismissing every one of the 200000 service personnel and building from scratch?

      • if the services do not up their game the alalgamation of all the services will be put on the board again.the japanes model, the u.s marines could be a model to be closely looked at the canadian merger is now ironed out and a leaner, cheaper force has taken the place of the bickering constant squabbling between services has been ended.

        • I don’t believe that the MoD or the politicos has ever considered fully amalgamating the three services. The Canadian experience of so doing was very poor and there has been a significant reversal of that policy in recent years.

          Why would some troubles in the British Army lead to an integration decision?

          There has been integration of parts of the training organisation and policy arms – that is as far as anyone wants to take integration.

      • there are thousands of nepalese that go for a few hundred places in the british army if theres a dshortfall why not offer the navy?naming a sip h.m.s gurkha would bring plenty o

      • I think you missed the point, he was saying we are fux#ed and there’s only a miracle that can fix this cluster of a monumental disaster that our armed forces now face. Under paid, Over worked, Completely Unappreciated. Pensions cut to a historical low, Recruitment and Retention a massive failure, Pay restraint and pay freezes for the last 12y. Poor Pay, Poor Pensions, Poor Promotion, and Poor overall prospects. We are haemorrhageing fully trained staff at an unprecedented rate. Working longer, for much less year after year. Just turn the F#ing machine off.

    • Not the rank and file, anyone over one star in rank in all three services. Change the boys club, daddy was a general I will be one too. Retire a one-star get a two-star pension, start there.

      • too much deadwood will clog up progress for as long as it exists more admiral, generals air marshals e.t.c are the likes of wallace too scared to upset the M.O.D gravytrain?

  2. Not in a position to disagree, but a factor maybe the way the army has been treated in terms of funding etc, I do not offer that as an excuse. But it’s human when under valued, which compared to the navy they are, to think what the hell I will get out of it what I can !

  3. Stuart, let’s talk about your procrastination and fence sitting? No, really, a bold statement that would sit well with any serving or past soldier who believed in the British Army, it’s values and raison d’etre.

  4. Starts at the top, the very top.

    If you listen to all the ‘management speak’ nonsense gobbledegook they now come up with every time they make a speech, you’d never think the Army is there to close with and kill the enemy, but simply an organisation more interested in ticking all the boxes to satisfy the latest social justice agenda by the online woke mob.

    In the event of a major war, between states, The Professional Army is there to ‘hold the line’ until a conscripted force can be whipped into shape. I doubt they could even do that right now…

    • I do tend to agree – going woke seems to be about managing perceptions and being seen with the right people, saying the right things and crucifying those who don’t.

      It looks like an external morality for display only rather than a personal conviction that drives decision making and grounds a person’s integrity.

      That being said – those in senior leadership positions should be re-numerated accordingly. They could walk into nearly any firm of management consultants and be paid well into six figures. There should of course be a sense of national service but this ethic shouldn’t be used to blackmail people into accepting poorly paid jobs.

      Additionally, I’d like to hope there were clear development pathways for all service men and women so they feel they can have satisfying careers that will leave them in a good position when they eventually leave the forces and their service doesn’t act like a black hole in their CVs.

      As for the brutish behaviour of some – that I suppose is to be expected…and managed I’d have thought; given the peaks of intensity and lows of boredom our warfighters experience. But one only has to look at the news, read of 17 year olds with machetes etc. the stabbing epidemic and realised the guys and girls in camo are us. We have a brutish and sex obsessed culture – why would the lads on tours be any different? Can one train good morals and ethics if one doesn’t value them internally? As so we come back to woke culture…

      • Rubbish.
        If they could walk into these mythical jobs, they would.
        They get a package well in excess of what the city provides for far lower deliverables, and as recently shown, accountability.
        A captain is on a package that just reaches 6 figures, so the rest above are coining it – They are some of the highest paid civil servants about.
        Of those 1*s and above who do leave and go to civvy street, for many their inability to work without a supporting team that does the heavy lifting for them is very evident and they sink or move off to sinecures as bursars or in livery companies.
        The return on investment from the last 20 years of conflict is dire.
        The Navy won the last review easily as it was the only credible player on the board

      • Perhaps the army needs to be more woke, then these sorts of alleged cases may be less likely to happen. As for that ‘lads’ culture that has existed for decades now, at least the younger generations are taught more about respect and tolerance even if that doesn’t always translate into real world behaviour.

    • Mac, It’s a long time since anyone discussed raising a conscript army – you must be talking about a World War.

      For a major Limited War, the army can deploy but in fairly small number – one or two BCTs at most and with out-of-date kit, especially AFVs and artillery. Many (especially Americans, but some Brits too) think that the British Army ‘lost’ in Afghanistan and Iraq – they would be even more likely to lose the next major regional war, some years later and with weaker force numbers and even older kit – and questionable leadership in some cases.

      Our politicians must be really careful in how they use the army to avoid defeat in the field, until some restructuring, re-training, re-education and re-equipping is done. The US Army had a long operational pause after Vietnam to re-set – perhaps we should do the same.

      • I think the idea of Britain losing in Iraq and Afghanistan is more political than a failure of British military. Eg. Tony Blair not putting enough troops or equipment in, no political will to stand up to Iran in basra and cutting airforce and army size while fighting 2 wars

          • Saddam lost so we won the very short war against him and his army – but we didn’t keep the peace in the years that followed. Multiple militias popped out of the woodwork and wreaked mayhem.

          • any invasion must have an exit route set out what would have happened in 1982 if the argies had been a more formidable opponent and dragged the issue on for years

          • Y’think? Only since 1963. For generations Military Service, taking the king’s shilling was the only job around for many. In the last century it was the workshop where the self esteem and respect for your fellow man was forged which drove social changes which followed both WW.

          • We only had conscription 1916-1920, 1939-1963. We don’t need it and couldn’t afford it now. It would dilute the quality of our armed forces.

          • incoming asylum seekers or any other illegal should be required to serve this nation if they are to have any chance of staying

          • To be honest given the hope of a life for them and their family we have given them I think they would be happy to; and having striven against the odds to get here they have the staying power to make good recruits.

      • one oof the scandinavian nations has brought back national service should we do the same and get the ‘hoodies’ off the streets?

        • The best way to do national service is through the reserve forces. They are part time & you can still hold a regular job. But it still gives you the basics. How many people do you know that have never fired a firearm?

          The idea that wars will only now be fought by professionals is seriously flawed. How long do you think a major war between peers will fight a ‘modern’ war? Best estimate is 30-90 days, according to the very few who have seriously looked at it. After that, it’s likely that I have shot down all your missiles & all your aircraft & you have shot down all mine. All the fancy stuff takes time to manufacture. The basics haven’t changed much since WW1.

  5. Very much to the point and bang on. What happened to leading from the front and by example.
    I do believe it is a sign of the times however, if we look at the police force and the flack they are getting now (quite rightly)
    Accountability is what is needed, you should be accountable for any and all decisions made from the prime minister down to the lowest grunt any one working in a public office.
    Some of these people are pulling in 200k/year and still insist on cooking the books, when most of us are struggling to pay our bills or going to work in faulty equipment from AFV that don’t work to ships that brake down.
    I just wonder is there an old boys club in London wear all these cheats hang out and sit around the table smoking their pipes and sipping their G&T smiling at the latest headlines thinking I caused that and there is nothing any one can do, Bottoms up!!

    • No-one in the army is on £200k/year. A Lt Col is on £86k (on appt) and a (4*) General is on £123k – but the salary is not the issue.

      Much blame is being put on the most senior of officers, yet close supervision of junior ranks is exercised by warrant officers and senior NCOs and there is no criticism of them here. Having said that officers in units with problems should also shoulder some blame.

      The army described by Stuart is in many ways unlike the army I was in from 1975-2009, in terms of so many cases of unacceptable and criminal behaviour and some gross incompetence. Something is seriously wrong in so many areas. I don’t think a bollocking from Ben Wallace of a handful of senior officers will solve the problem. Wallace needs to show leadership and find solutions and fast.

      I agree that accountability is everything. I also think that promotion boards are sometimes failing the army – in my day, some officers were promoted who shouldn’t have been – their competence was non-stellar by any real measurable metric (as understood by the outside world), yet were promoted because they had oodles of confidence and charisma and ingratiated themselves with the Second Reporting Officer; the efficiency and the good bits of their unit often owed more to others than themselves.

      • Hello Graham, I do believe that the head of the armed forces is on 200K+ a year and with rank comes responsibility, But I do agree that a discipline normally falls on the shoulders of the NCO’s but who controls the NCO’s. I do believe that the Navy have a good expression ” the ship is only as good as the captain”
        All that said unfortunately the armed forces of today reflect the current issues in society, with wide spread corruption, little regard for others, and dare I say a rather unhealthy drug culture.

        But you are right it will take a lot more from Mr Wallace to put right these fundamental problems.

  6. I entirely agree with the comments regarding the procurement of equipment. It is no wonder defence procurement project more often than not come in late and over budget. The priority seems to be to sustain the profitability of major defence suppliers rather than delivering capability on time and on or below budget. It seems every system delivered has to be highly bespoke or subject to incessant changes during the build process which leads to colossal build costs, late delivery and huge lifecycle costs. The procurement process should be entirely focused on delivering capability quickly and efficiently. In many cases the systems are delivered to address yesterday’s threats.

  7. Thought provoking article Stuart, makes one wonder what was happening when us “Oldies” served. The moral compass has definitely been lowered since I served although we did have one or two questionable decisions but, overall the officers I served with did have that higher “Moral Compass” and a great degree of integrity. It really is dissapointing to read some of this stuff.

    I wont hold my breath waiting to see any change in the system. Thank you

  8. too many chiefs not enough Indians and a lot of passing the buck around, it started before I left, and one of the big reasons came after options for change, Due to the Berlin wall coming down. if you did not make a certain grade or promotion in your skill set you got a brown envelope telling you to pea off your no longer wanted.

  9. I always thought that part of leadership training within the armed forces was the willingness to take responsibility and be account able for your command whatever the circumstances or it was when I served.

  10. I’m always sceptical of claims like “so and so many women have suffered bad treatment” unless there is a conviction how can it be taken serious if I asked a group of children do your brothers and sister pick on you 100% would say yes , yes I’m sure it goes on but I bet the men in the military get a far harder time than the women

  11. I suspect the summons involved drinkeepoos.

    Realistically things wont’ change until we get a government that cares about anything other than PR stunts and leaked stories, i.e. never. The MOD needs to be kept accountable for its failures, but no defence minister is going to want that, as accountability would flow up to them.

    It is in both parties interest to blame the previous incumbents, without specifying who, and then do nothing, knowing that they won’t be held responsible until out of office, when their replacements will blame them, but never by name

  12. I suspect the rot starts above the top, with some of the politicians in charge, many of whom may have gone to the same schools. The Army is notable for the excess of public school alumni in the senior ranks, compared to the RN and RAF.

    • I’m sure it will John, it’s all quite simple, the military request a certain capability replacement, possibly nodding a preference in the direction of something that already exists and it would like.

      This then goes through the ‘Government filter’, (all common sense being ejected at this point) who pass it on to the DTI, who ensure that what the military want is discarded and set about ensuring the wheel is re-invented at maximum cost to the tax payer and grindingly slowly.

      This mess is then assembled into a project. Various project managers then rotate in and out every 18 months, until the mess finally gets delivered or cancelled….

      • John, you are right to be sceptical but I don’t recognise the process you describe as regards an upgrade/remanufacture.

    • The first 2 things to go wrong are that: we are only upgrading 148 (of the 408 CR2s once delivered) and
      that FOC will not be achieved until 2030 (by which time they will need an upgrade!)

  14. I’ve constantly beaten the drum for UK design and manufacture of land warfare assets, principally for sovereign security. We had a well deserved name for it not that long ago.

    But I think we’re getting to the point where the UK Mod/Land Forces have so consistently lost the plot, to the detriment of both our critical vehicle mass and long suffering taxpayers, that we must consider utilizing products designed & future-proofed by our more land-focussed allies. Built under licence ideally, of course.

    There’s plenty of other military assets we’re good at (OK, surface / sub-surface principally; a natural forte), but these also suffer from the overspend knock on, courtesy of the Army.

    • We seem to have had less of a problem when we had 5 experienced AFV manufacturers who did much of the core work in-house, such as building the hull(!). BAE Systems plc bought every company up over the years and established a monopoly- may not have been the worse thing but healthy competition was eliminated. At least BAE had deep AFV experience and appropriate facilities.

      How to create that competition? – wait for a US Company to set up a British off-shoot (ie a brand new company) in a fork lift truck factory in Wales, employ staff who have never seen a complex AFV, let alone built one – and invite them to bid for the Ajax programme. It gets worse…but you have probably heard my parable before.

      • Yes, believe that Ch2 was originally an in house export variant?
        Even whilst penning the above, I had hoped that, as a last resort, maybe British lessons with regard to quality had been learnt applicable to the Welsh facilities by now i.e. pinning hope on the reports that most early issues resulted from the Spanish end. Not in fact so, Graham?
        Yet, apart from failures over tolerances (in this day & age?!), we do I understand have an issue summed up as ‘designing for today not tomorrow and therefore ending up supplying yesterday to the front line’. That was my main motive for including ‘future-proofed’ above. If we get Ch3 right on the first point, we could still be lumbered by the second, if so.
        Appreciate your inputs, Graham.
        Regards

        • Seems ISO 9001 is more about ticking boxes that paperwork and admin rather than checking parts are being made to drawings example being nylon webbing non stretchy strap being sent as replacement for a rubber stretchy strap on large military vehicle for ten years or plastic knob that requires the spring steel insert removed and the m6 hole being drilled to m8 before being glued on for about five plus years!

          • Purely in the interests of accuracy on my Ch2 origin comment. seems more a marrying of Challenger chassis to best aspects of Vickers in house Mk7 MBT turret. Principal being addressed over erstwhile UK expertise pretty much the same, though.

        • In my service days, CH was always the abbreviation for Chieftain, CR for Challenger. CR2 was not conveived of as an export tank – it was VDS’ bid for the project to replace the half-fleet of Chieftains that remained after intro of CR1. The other bidders offered Leo2 and M1 Abrams with Leclerc as a late additional bidder. VDS later offered CR2E as an export model, and I believe only Oman bought this version.

          Ajax – my information, all of it open source, puts most of the blame on the GD factory in Spain producing the hulls as regards the vibration issue. The noise problem seems to be that of headsets ampifying engine noise rather than reducing or eliminating it, so that seems to be a supplier or integrator at the UK end of things. I am optimimistic that the noise isseu can be solved but pessimistic about the vibration, step climbing and cannon reliability/accuracy problems can either be solved in a timely fashion or indeed at all.

          I have waxed lyrical about all the reasons for the failure of Ajax – it is not that we cannot build good AFVs in the UK (although we are seriously out of practice, the last ones being very small numbers of Titan and Trojan some 20 years ago) – and that we need the Continentals to build us something – just that GDLUK was wrong on just about all grounds. BAE could have produced a good bit of kit, ie CV90 but they were not flavour of the month.

          I am not happy about CR3 – too few, too expensive and will take too long to produce (FOC is 2030); by the time we hit FOC, we will need to do another upgrade to the 2021-era tank. [We should have been doing upgrades as technology became developed, as we did with Chieftain – why didn’t we?]. But I think the quality will be good. I doubt it will be that much future-proofed, as I think the tanks being fielded by the world’s armies (including our possible opponents) in the 2040s and beyond will be very different beasts and CR3 would probably not be adaptable.

          I remain impressed by the Navy – steel is being cut for Type 26 and Type 31 – all the while work is going on for considering the following generation, Type 32. The army needs to be looking at a successor to CR3 now – and it will be a very different beast, as said before.

          • Why dont we upgrade our platforms as the US do along its life to keep them current? money money money money.
            There is no will in the UK to say to the public defence needs to be say 3% with no smoke and mirror rubbish

      • Seems General dynamics have a history of cost overruns and a former vice president from 1985 was a fugitive in Greece and officials filed false claims for millions of dollars to US Navy. Does not seem the type of company to do business with?

        • That was a long time ago, but I take your point. BAE is not squeaky clean either. GDLUK was certainly the wrong company to contract with – a brand new company with little or no expertise at designing and making AFVs, no AFV-orientated premises, too much key work subbed out etc etc. Parent company GD US seems not to be interested in the problems of their UK ‘child’.

    • Should just buy 250-300 Leopard IIs instead of upgrading to Chally 3 and be done with it. Hopefully built in UK under licence but if not, shrug our shoulders and buy off the shelf.

      • Bad idea. Would cost far more than upgrading 148 CR2s and you would have to retrain and re-tool all army operators and maintainers, throw away all CR2 STTE, trainers, simulators, spares etc – and buy Leo2 versions.
        Plus many doubt whether the Leo2 armour protection is up to our standards – many have been destroyed in combat, often by mere militia groups.

        • Supposing that we’re all public nowadays, I could be easily sold on a eurotank, ’cause I like my money used efficiently, as it is comparatively by the RN.
          Most are happy with the outcome of the Boxer decision, the MoD having successfully negotiated us out of it at the start, mind.

  15. A little to much generalisation and presumption from Mr Crawford on this one. Pretty much correct (and few could find it hard to argue against) his assessment of the procurement issues. But, the Army is a segment of society, a slice of the UK pie. Yes there is a vetting process, yes there is a training period and with that comes assessment of our people’s standards and the emphasising of morality. But there will always be people who fall through the gap. Either initially or due to various reasons over an extended period of time.

    The silly comment about the R&R “parameters” etc, just silly baiting and making a bit of a “Guardian” type headline. The Army isn’t full of perfect uniformed angels! Throughout time there has always been discipline issues, both routine and extremely serious, and trying to make out it’s a recent thing and the Army has lost its moral compass is just chuff. What is happening however is that due to modern means of communication through online media, phone, internet whatever, all these issues can be seen easier, and become much harder to hide! I think that is a good thing as it means a persons integrity becomes more relevant, and everyone in that organisations uniform are responsible to find and call out such behaviour. And the fact that this info is even being spoke about, and investigated, proves just that.

    I hate seeing my previous organisation dragged through the mud by a stupid small percentage of selfish clowns, who either have never had that integrity (but able to hide the fact) or weak enough to be dragged along with those that cannot see what they are doing is wrong.

    All modem organisations can easily be scrutinised by any external media or social group, certainly nowadays, and we need to be aware that it is always a small minority that fucks it up for everyone else, but when you have all the info being collated and distributed within a compressed timeframe it can make the problem seem worse!

    Wrongdoing is wrongdoing and it needs to be found and called out for what it is but FFS let’s not get the ducking stool out as a means of justice!

    • As usual, quality post.
      A bit of common sense and broader perspective goes a long way and things are never as bad, or as good, as things seem.

      • Thanks mate, a narrative can be skewed to suit the readers perspective and to be the good old echo chamber scenario. But tell you what, did being in the police, they are currently getting hammered in the media, almost hounded and judge/jury/executed in the public media, for any perceived wrongdoing. My eldest is plod and she says this has just added yet another nail on the morale coffin! Again the vast majority of plod do their best in some of the toughest, and public, circumstances and yet again the small minority of toss pots discolour the water for the rest! Sad state of affairs mate.

        • I was “job” for 30 years and served with many ex military colleagues who were excellent cops. I know its easy to look back with rose tinted glasses but honestly, I wouldn’t join the police now. The requirement for a degree was the last straw for me (even though I’ve got one!). It certainly does not a good copper make. It sounds like the Army in particular has gone the same way and I think its an awful shame. I was brought up to respect our armed forces but like the police, the army in particular seems to be run by people who are politcians- not good soldiers, and good politicians always avoid the blame…

          • Of course hardly anyone in the army needs a degree to join – that is not your point is it Russ?
            Many in the army view it as a job for part of one’s working life rather than a vocation – that’s sad but inevitable. Many personal integrity standards have slipped in society and this is reflected in the army.

            Officers fiddling allowances, females being assaulted, shaky morale, ageing and inadequate kit, unmodernised Quarters, boring tasks (car park orderly/swab carrier for the NHS etc), mediocre pay for many…..

            So many problems in the army – where to start, how to fix? Ben Wallace won’t manage it, I am sorry to say.

      • Hi Daniele-The British Army is in Big Trouble!!
        They have all been very naughty boys!!!
        ps…(and Girls, and Girls)says he hastily)😅

          • Morning Daniele. Hope you are well. 25 degrees and overcast here. Our weather is always all over the place in Summer. We have had 40 degree Christmas lunch(!) but it can snow in the mountains(10 000 ft) any month of the year.
            Cheers my friend

    • Very well said. If I can say, my father served in the British and British Indian Army (Gurkhas) 1935-1945 and as I younger lad I had a very strong sense of his sense of service to King, country and others, honour, decency, leadership, consideration of others, which lasted all through his life. It was the best of British. I’m sure you know what I mean by that. I sure hope (Great) Britain doesn’t ever lose that in its society.

      • How delightfully un PC.
        The woke, self loathing anti British find fault with anything that moves brigade would have a fit.
        I’m a lot younger than you, but agree entirely and feel the same, it’s like it’s out of fashion to feel that way.
        I fear much of society has long lost it.
        My wife walked out of a course for training to be a union member as the guy leading it was foaming at the mouth and would only call his nation Britain. Not GREAT Britain.
        The usual suspects supporting the usual 5th columnists from you know where.

        • Thanks for your reply. I enjoy all these posts on the UKDJ. I still think that there’s lots of good stuff happening in GB. The British people are great. Just need the leaders need to stand up.

        • BTW i’m a young 58 and I’m still imprinted by the strong sense of service to (then) King and country. It might be considered old school and a bit jingoistic now but it was always broadly accepting of others too. Huge lashings of British humour mixed in with it all. I think we could “weaponise” “British humour..and take on the world, what do you reckon again ? 😂

          • I was a public servant all my career and agree about “previous” values. Whilst not uniformed I prided myself on those values only to see them ignored because they were neither novel or trendy, thankfully I retired. But to see politicians falsely claim to be public servants and what I thought to be the last bastion, the armed forces fail in this way, makes be sad and angry.
            I hope Ben Wallace stays long enough to make a real difference, beyond the spin and before his corrupt colleagues sideline him because ultimately it strikes them too.

          • You have a hell of a long short name here…which if I read it slowly I can pronounce. Good on you. There’s still good men and women around. Manybquietly going about their daily business in the background, others seen more clearly in “crisis moments”. Police, Medics, Armed Services, volunteers, even your neighbours. Managing the COVID outbreak, bush fires, floods, refugees, issues we’ve had here in Australia. They all come out to help their neighbours and others and we see the real goodness of humanity in action. It’s very moving and inspiring.

      • And just to add… the British sense of humour… It’s the best…dont ever lose that! As a very “Aussiefied” Pom I’m glad the 🇦🇺 still has the 🇬🇧 in the top corner that reminds me of my and our origins and values.
        Have a good Friday and weekend all from a ☕ shop here in Sydney.

      • Hi Quentin. My parents and myself in my teens knew many men who had served in the Indian Army and moved to the African colonies after independence in 1947. They were always VERY strict about differentiating between the Indian Army officered mainly by British career soldiers and the British Army IN India!

        • Hi Geoff, Dad passed away a long time ago so I can’t remember too much as I was in my early teens. But I think back then, for a time, that the Gurkhas had just British officers. But I remember him having quite a reverence for his soldiers including his time in the British Army. Including a time when his men saved his life coming out of the jungles in Burma. I still can’t imagine how hellish that might of been for anyone. The one thing that still touches me to this day was Dad and others recollecting being left behind in the Dunkirk evacuation and being rescued by a random fishing boat going by, with the German army threatening. That fleet of small fishing boats that rescued all those men, they’re real gems.

          • Thanks Geoff, yes I was, and of many others like him who served our country and fought for a freer world. Like many others he lost a lot of mates during war. I just feel that they are a different breed who’ve been through a war and their values are very forged by it. For me the simple fact of him surviving all that has meant I now exist and for others as do all the baby boomer generation. I guess the words for it are more “grateful” and “thankful”. I think we can easily dishonour what many others have done for us and died for us prior. Though I’m a very “Aussiefied” Pom here in Sydney every time they do their Anzac Day Parade it’s good to watch all the old soldiers and the more current serviceman and women and say a thank you. Encouragingly, many people do still honour the fallen and the services. I’m sure it would be same in the UK and many other countries who’ve been through hard times. People do still remember and still want to serve their country and people. It’s not all bad. I’m enjoying seeing the RN get revitalised via this ukdj site. And we mustn’t forget the Army and RAF too!

    • ” the Army is a segment of society, a slice of the UK pie”
      Spot on. The good news is that if the issues can be addressed in the army we might be able to extend them to wider society.

  16. I don’t agree with all of the above BUT the army really does need to:
    Sort out it’s procurement (obviously).
    Improve the culture. What ever happened to ‘serve to lead.’ The writing was on the wall with Deepcut Barracks. We need to massively improve the education for promotion delivered by the AGC ETS branch so that all officers & NCOs understand they have a duty of care as well as leadership. I know people will say that is ‘woke’ and that an Army needs a ‘warrior culture’ but you can have a warrior culture as well as respect. The best officers & NCOs I ever met really cared about their soldiers. It can be done.

  17. I am keen to assess that the past decades has seen outstanding work, deployment, bravery and stunning action against the odds. My years in the Army saw the beginning of the degradation repeated today. Whilst technology on paper means less resource, in reality it directly affects those who do the job, in impossible situations. Consistency and loyalty to the plan, never wavering always properly resourced Armed Forces are a constant that should never shift. Whilst there are concerns, Ministers in a democracy need to learn the cause and effect of their actions. Our Armed Forces need to be maintained, supported and in date with real infrastructures. Their families, their well being, their equipment needs to be looked after. Then and only then can we expect to maintain what remains the best in the world. We have had the same issues since the early 1970s and should not be surprised at the crumbling structures. Do something and do it now. Blaming those who fight, live and deploy is not a good idea. Tip: Some old fashioned values, a non politically correct environment and real investment may help.

  18. The article joins together several separate areas of concern that aren’t necessarily linked.
    Procurement- there is no doubt this is a mess. Key equipment that should have been upgraded, tanks, artillery.ifvs, haven’t been. But whose responsibility is this? With huge overspends on naval programmes, army funding has been inadequate. Where sensible looking decisions have been made to acquire new or enhance existing equipment(Ajax, Warrior) industry has failed to deliver.
    Disciplinary matters – there have been some troubling incidents from Deepcut on. But we should also not forget the number of fictitious claims of mistreatment in Iraq brought by shyster lawyers. Nor the subjection of veterans to repeated investigation of events 40/50 years ago in NI.
    Corruption- it is outrageous that senior officers have made fraudulent claims. But it is not long ago that hundreds of MPs including senior ministers were found to have done far worse with little consequence for most of them.
    In short, what is wrong with the army is largely the fault of our execrable politicians: imposing missions on the army for which both equipment and numbers were inadequate; failing to protect veterans from malicious, money driven accusations; failing even after the integrated review to formulate a clear view of what it expects the army to do.
    Unless and until we have competent political leaders, I don’t have high hopes of rapid improvement.

  19. None of this is good, but I fear it is nothing compared to the (still totally unaddressed) issues with the Met Police. Perhaps a little off-topic, but it does illustrate that these problems are part of a general rot across many publicly funded institutions.

    • As Airborne mentioned above, it is a matter of everyone getting tarred with the same brush. There are many good people in society and some bad, the Met, army, and every other institution are mirrors of that. It is just they have a light shone on them unlike society at large. There are no doubt rotten apples in all institutions but the majority are good people. That isn’t an excuse for bad behavior, which needs addressing, but it should be put in context.

  20. The problem that I see is that there have to be two key priorities for the Army for the next 10-20 years. Much is made of the issues around China/NK but it would be a mistake to ‘pivot’ to Asia. The problem is that if a war happens there, American forces will be moved away from Europe, and Europe will be left exposed to Russian aggression. The absolute key capability of British forces must be to deter Putin from the high North and Baltics should America be absent. I just don’t see the capability in the British Army to fight effectively in the Baltics or Scandanavian countries. I also don’t see adequate numbers in T26, Astute or P8’s to suppress Russian subs, even if the Navy does have it’s shit together to a far greater degree than the Army.

  21. I read this article and the posts with interest and seemly with the same sense of frustration as many.

    My direct experience of working with the armed forces was entirely in procurement and research and was a good one. There are many many great and capable people in the armed forces, but there are bad apples in every barrel. We all know and understand that.

    From my observations of the procurement process it comes down to the wrong people making the decisions and then not being around to take responsibility. The solution is easy to see, but it would take a serious amount change – mostly about promoting the right people.

    As for the wider issues of mismanagement and corruption (e.g. fraud) that is a tougher nut. There is corruption in all walks of life, from doctors carrying out poor or unneccessary operations, to sex offenders in the police and of course sleaze in Westminster…

    As others on here have already pointed out organisations are only as good as the society from which they are drawn. True and I totally and whole heartedly agree.

    However, I believe that there are far more good ‘ordinary’ people in our society than one would think given the news lately. So why do things look so grim.

    Social media, the interweb thingy do play a part. Also true.

    However, why is it that the ordinary and good do not speak up more often? If they did then good coppers would send crooks in uniform to jail as fast as they could, rather than apparently keep schtum. Same in any other walk of life. The reason is easy to see. The mediocre people in charge don’t want their inadequencies (or their corruption) exposed so they positively deter whistle blowing. Being a whistle blower is very very loney. So corruption and mediocraty prosper even if someone at the very top tries to do something about it.

    Years of poor leadership and a society that does not value good people is, I believe, at the core of the problem. We admire money and monied people over good people. My wife is a retired nurse and was a mid-wife as part her career. She brought hundreds of new souls in this world. No fanfare gained or asked for. She is far form the only one. There are many in all walks of life doing equally good things and going completely unnoticed.

    The likes of Jeff Bezos, on the other hand, is more valued than a nurse. Yet Amazon has done $100b of damage to the environment by throwing goods away that do not sell. Computers, clothes you name it, but because he has offered a couple of billion along with some of his rich friends to save some animals (that Amazon contributed to their predictament by wasting billions of items) everyone thinks the sun shines out of you know where.

    Until we value good people over rich people and the simple things rather than the shinny things in life, corruption and mediocrity will rule. We can patch the worst of the leaks, like the MoD’s worst procurement shambles but until society fixes itself we cannot fix the ‘system’. (Sorry for the mixed metaphors.)

    So to all those good people out there. Talk to each other and find ways to do it better together because together you’re stronger, the world and society needs you.

    CR

    • Good post. The problem can be simply put. Liberal democracy doesn’t work because it ends up tolerating and indeed placing on a pedestal the value… ‘me, me, me’.

    • Ytss, great post CR. A good read and from the others too. There’s still some very good decent everyday people as the back bone, bone and marrow in the UK, here in Australia too. And the same for others countries too. I get a strong sense that as a people we’ll pull together when we need to and absolutely have too.

  22. Broadly agree. Of course it could be that we are going through a difficult transition toward sensible attitudes to women. Or on the other hand, that society is adapting to women’s equality by some male groups assuming that sexual relations for both sexes are a legitimate form of recreation.
    1. Ref. 2/3 women experiencing “bullying, sexual harassment and bullying”: this needs to be unpacked into meaningful terms within specific contexts (see low conviction rates in civilian world); the logical outcome will be a return to chaperones and ultimately women-only units.
    2. On “triumphalism”: killing 2 insurgents on motorbike narrative is over-egged (as is the recent RM exercise “victory” over US Marines narrative: these are not equivalent troops).
    3. Ref. procurement: we should have gone for the BAe CV90 (but it would have been embarassing to reinforce their market dominance).
    4. Yes, there is a problem with ethical responsibility and leadership; authority and being in loco parentis to subordinates. This is also true of major NGOs, charities, the police and NHS. Everyone understandably want to get through their posting without a crisis. Perhaps we should revive the Bundeswehr’s (no longer taught) “innere fuhrung” and the simple drill of “Behavioural Literacy” (interpreting the messages that are sent by our behaviours – deliberate and inadvertent). On the other hand, perhaps leaders should just start leading?

  23. The problem is the people at the top of the Army don’t appear to know what it’s for and that trickles down like a p*ss tube. The Navy & The RAF appear to know what they’re doing and what they need to do it, maybe not perfectly, but still. Look at the Royal Marines, they have a strategy and they’re sticking with it and buying the kit (again never enough for the keyboard warriors). The Army doesn’t appear to have a bl**dy clue, Strike Brigade was a total f*ck up, as is the idea we can drive to the Suwalki Gap in time to make a difference. We either preposition: “British Army of the Vistula”, or accept that the best we can offer is a limited airmobile brigade and special forces (and to be honest why “should” we offer more?). We need to reduce the number of “shadow” formations and colonels, brigadiers and above and stop the constant fetish with cap-badges. I’d suggest 1 x Divisional Command for UK Defence, one Divisional Command for Expeditionary Warfare, One Airmobile Brigade, 2 x Light Role Brigades, 2 x Heavy Role Brigades with surplus battalions and Reservists shunted into something useful like Air Defence, Engineering and Logistics. To emphasise the point I’d reduce the number of Guards Battalions to just three, Coldstream, Grenadier and “Fusilier” with Home Nations forming just companies in the “Fusilier” Guards Bn. Otherwise re-role a couple of them to the aforementioned AD, Engineering or Logistics. 😉

    • Agreed. I don’t think it’s our role to deploy armour to the Baltic’s. Takes too long. That job rests with our German, Czech and Polish friends.

      • Remind me what armour the Czechs and Slovaks have?

        I think Britmil have bitten off more than they can chew, but, we now need to focus on the defence of Norway and the Baltics.

        Beefed up winter warfare training with forces equipped for those environs; does that mean tanks? In the Baltic terrain,not sure, does it mean lightweight, high mobility, anti-armour, shorad and long eange effective counter battery fires, yes.

        Add a fantasy fleet of P8s and T26 and we are onto a winner.

        Ps, guess what Czech and Slovak forces do really well?

    • “I’d suggest 1 x Divisional Command for UK Defence, one Divisional Command for Expeditionary Warfare, One Airmobile Brigade, 2 x Light Role Brigades, 2 x Heavy Role Brigades”

      That is what we already have.

      Translated into Regional Command, 3 (UK) Division, 16 AA Bde, the 2 LBCT and 2 HBCT planned after the latest DCP.

      Spot on about the enablers from the CS&CSS arms and the “Cap Badge Mafia”

      To be fair with the army reserve, most of them already are from those formations. Look at the RAMC and RLC as examples.

  24. Totally agree that we’ve lost the moral component. Recent instances of assault, bullying, sexual harassment and unprofessional conduct in my unit are widely accepted. There is no functioning way to maintain values and standards never mind professional competence.

  25. We weren’t defeated in Basra by the IRGC and saved from disaster by the ‘charge of the knights’ We were defeated by a ‘stab in the back’ from the politicians. We weren’t saved from disaster in Helmand by the USMC it was another ‘stab in the back’ from the politicians. The fact the Army hasn’t introduced a new AFV in over 25 years is not because the Army is run by incompetents it’s because of penny pinching by ? Politicians. Am I being sarcastic ? Yes. Am I grossly insulting the Army ? No. Outside the UK nothing I’ve said would even be viewed as debatable.

    • I served in Helmand, a province the size of Wales. Politicians initially signed off the sending of just one battle group. Then reluctantly upped the numbers to a Brigade (+). Still, way too small. The Provincial Governor naiively thought there would be at least 5000 infantry on the ground 24/7 and was unimpressed that this was not possible, given the CS/CSS tail and the need to give the Infantry some ‘off-duty’ time. We really needed a division out there.

      • Yep but the Army could not deploy a division to Helmand. It didn’t have the force structure to deploy a division. The Army knew that but went ahead anyway because after Basra they needed an ‘easy’ win ! In the end with the USMC we did have a division there.

        • I am sure you are right that the army could not muster an infantry division, even if the politicos had signed off on that, particularly as we were still enmeshed in Iraq at strength.
          You suggest that the army went in anyway to Helmand for some sort of face-saving result post-Basra (which was actually still active) – that’s not how it works. The army does not decide which operations to commit to or in what strength to deploy – those are political decisions.
          I was involved in working with USMC in Bastion and receiving the US surge in 2008/9. Thank goodness for the Americans turning up in Helmand to augment our meagre numbers! The USMC bn in Bastion was exceptional and the Sea Bees built Camp Leatherneck very efficiently and were great guys too – very weird seeing Navy personnel build an army camp miles from the sea in the middle of nowwhere.

  26. John, a ridiculous, over the top comment but the army in particular needs a reset at the top and a commons defence select committee to run and monitor its procurement expenditure. The MOD cannot be trusted to bring home on budget any project out there. Remotely. The billions frittered away would have easily paid for a warrior upgrade covering the whole fleet, all CR2’s to CR3 standard and 250 half decent armoured recce vehicles if these were still needed with a warrior revamp.

    • Armoured recce vehicles are very different to Warrior IFVs – you need both. I agree that many (but by no means all – I delivered my project alright!) defence procurement projects are poorly delivered – and all these years after the Levene review and other more recent reviews.

  27. The army should be renamed as the home guard for all the use it is.

    About the only thing they haven’t managed to render completely ineffective is their ability to put on a smart parade.

    • Wallace is grossly over-promoted and says some odd things (he distinctly once suggested that all tanks would be scrapped, before changing his mind), but did manage to secure additional funding for Defence although paradoxically it has coincided with reduced manpower and equipment counts – how the heck is that possible?

  29. Interesting article about behaviour in Kenya; met a retired Wing Comd in the Gym around 2008 time, he wrote to CGS about the loutish behaviour of soldiers on RnR in Kenya while he was holidaying. Needless to say he was disgusted by both the behaviour shown, with SNCOs present and the response from the CoC.

      • think it was a touch of that but they were really drunk and exceptionally rude to everyone, C2 wasnt in place. This story is from a Senior Officer who flew some ‘interesting’ aircraft on behalf of HMG.Think what bothered him was the CoC in MOD’s response.
        I fully understand the letting off steam bit although I have been through the door at 9am next morning occasionally to account for ‘events’ in my younger days.

        • Drunk and rude and disrespectful of authority? – typical squaddies on a night out. The RAF senior officers are a little too precious – we always said the RAF are ‘civvies in uniform’.
          Fair point that the CoC should have shown a bit more ‘concern’ to appease the said senior Crab.

  30. Well as a formerRoyal Marine all I can say is thank the Lord that we have an extremely professional and efficient Corps. The latest exercises have shown the effectiveness of the Royal Marines literal force.

  31. The British Army has been in serious trouble for years, procurement disaster after procurement disaster. The rank and file perform well, but the senior leadership is an utter disgrace. We need another Prince Albert style modernization, this time to do away with the old school tie class based criteria for promotion to the senior ranks.

    • The procurement disasters for Land equipment are not entirely due to senior army officer incompetence, much as it is an easily cast opinion. Politicians, civil servants, the Treasury and Defence industry and bureaucratic and slow procurement policy – must take their share of blame too.

      Promotion is based on merit as evidenced on annual confidential reports – you are not promoted because you went to a smart school.

    • If very worrying though that things have gotten this bad. When you look at the Ukraine situation Russia basically feels it can do what it wants because Europe doesn’t have the capability to fight a peer threat who is prepared for war. Even if we have a technology edge what good is that if we can only field a few hundred IFV’s. If Russia roles 3,000 MBTs into Ukraine in winter with gas prices through the roof Europe was do nothing.

  32. A bit rich a politician lecturing on acceptable behaviour considering what we have seen in Parliament over the past week from the ministers own party.

  33. Discipline: And in today’s “Sun”, more headlines to add to the Army’s troubles. Was it like this in my day (1977 to 2001), well seriously I don’t know. Maybe it always been an issue, but now with Facebook, Twitter, Iphones etc it is harder to keep a lid on it. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16672735/sergeant-major-suspended-claims-punched/?rec_article=true

    Procurement: It has been going down hill ever since they set up Abbeywood. As they say of the REME, spread it around and it does a wonderful job, just like manure, put it all together and it stinks, just like a muck-heap. ABW has got to big and cumbersome and allows for personnel to easily move between projects etc when it goes wrong. When they were all divided up in Malvern, Chertsey, Wittering, Andover etc, people couldn’t hide or just simply move anonymously to a different Neighbourhood

    • Mark, I recall ‘Land’ R&D happening at Chertsey (I was there doing robotics and UGV in 1990/91) and Malvern, Fort Halstead and Christchurch. Andover (HQ QMG, then DLO) was for army then tri-service support and logistics. Don’t know much about Wittering.

      But I don’t recall those places being involved in equipment procurement – thought that happened in London in various buildings before Abbey Wood was built.

  34. Even if we look at boxer, why on earth are we buying the most expensive non combat vehicles when our need is for fighting vehicles.

    I do want support functions to be protected, but at the moment there is a far greater need for these 587 boxers to be armed to the teeth.

    At the end of the day we can get by with the support vehicles we have or purchase interim vehicles in the sub £1m per unit range.

    Once again just bad planning. We need to really commit to boxer and order 3k units – possibly more although I do think we should stick to the JTLV order of 2.75k vehicles which looks the bargain of the century at current production rates…

    A boxer with the CTA cannon in a Turret that has already been designed for it with built in ATG (think MT60 turret but surely others will also work) and a whole range of fires (155m and Amos dual mortar units for starters, plus brimstone and MLRS launchers) would go a massively long way to resolving the situation.

    Add in far better Air Defence (possibly from the JTLV’s or Boxer) and we start to get something deployable and good for morale.

    Then we can start with the supporting vehicles which whilst incredibly important are of a lower priority at this point.

    If we need to – make the warriors those support vehicles…

    we need to manage the lifecycle of assets – so the cutting edge is always where it is needed and cycle backwards, over a period of time everyone will be better off.

  35. perhaps this should have been done well before now in the case of the royal navy many questions should be laid at the door of the admiralty which as a feifedom by itself has long considered itself untouchable many of us on this site and others of a similar ilk have long blamed governments, treasuries, but the departments of each of the forces are just as blameful

  36. We have a MOD THAT CAN,T RUN IT NOW let alone have all three services as one some of the blame must be towards defence secretary this mess of equip for our army years behind over budget lack of forward thinking joke with the amount of tanks, we are under funded we can have the best equipped army but you still need boots on the ground we are robbing peter to pay paul while other countries are increasing we are left behind in some cases is the army RAF PAYING THE PRICE FOR THE COST OF NEW SHIPS

    • I don’t think the RAF is suffering from procurement problems of the same scale as the Army. They are getting a lot of new kit, which all seems to work. The RN and RAF platform Procurement programmes are hugely expensive. There is less cash left for Army programmes parti jlarly if the former go over budget. But the waste in the Land equipment programmes over the years has been eye watering, billions spent and not one AFV fielded in 20 years.

  37. Look at the failure of US Generals – billions spent with a relatively simple mission train, equip, and sustain the Afghan National Army and Air Force. There was a clear failure. Nearly a billion dollars spent on the C-27A/G222 – but, no plan for parts, $300 million spent on unarmed cargo trucks that the Afghans repeated said were not needed, the MD530 helicopter, buying Russia helicopters and airplanes with no plan for sustainment or parts . . . . Yet no US General has been held accountable for clear failure. . .

  38. Thanks to everybody who has commented, whether they agree with me or not. I think this debate is important, so let’s keep it coming! I don’t have a monopoly on good ideas, far from it, and am happy to be corrected or contradicted by those who might know better. Don’t be shy, tell me like it is!

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here