A change in the popular mood over the Armed Forces?

[DJC]

Seeing the public along the roads for the funeral cortage today, then across the M-way bridges and it seems to me that there has been a change in mood of the country. Whisper it but I think we might be seeing the resurgence of pride in our Forces.

About time in my humble. What are the chances of our Lords n Masters realising this?

[Gold]

I think there has always been the underlying mood we are seeing emerge.

It just depends on what stupid thing our overlords are doing at this moment in time, people are beginning to say enough is enough with the current situation as it is revealed what the servicemen and women are put through.

[Eric Mc]

Definitely.

A number of factors at work e.g. the end of the troubles in Northern Ireland and a good old-fashioned shooting war in far off fields.

Plus a lot of commemorative events for WW2 veterans and the passing of the last few WW1 survivors.

[Police State]

Eric Mc said:

Definitely.

A number of factors at work e.g. the end of the troubles in Northern Ireland and a good old-fashioned shooting war in far off fields.

Plus a lot of commemorative events for WW2 veterans and the passing of the last few WW1 survivors.

plus, perhaps a reaction to this lot:

[Martial Arts Man]

Police State said:

Eric Mc said:

Definitely.

A number of factors at work e.g. the end of the troubles in Northern Ireland and a good old-fashioned shooting war in far off fields.

Plus a lot of commemorative events for WW2 veterans and the passing of the last few WW1 survivors.

plus, perhaps a reaction to this lot:

I have overheard plenty of conversations on this subject recently; far more than I recall in the past.

Nearly every time, the event you pictured is brought up.

Interesting.

[DJC]

Well the telling aspect of the coverage yesterday was the point made that each time a funeral has gone by and the ppl line the roads, the crowds have been getting larger and larger, but yesterday the crowds really were of a different magnitude to what had been seen before. It was almost as if a tipping point has been reached and breached.

[The Hypno-Toad]

Politicans = people who buy duck houses with the publics taxes.

Soldiers = people dying in an unwinable war with no decent equipment because the tax money has all gone, which they were sent to by....

Not difficult to see where the publics opinion is going to go.

About time too IMHO.

[JMGS4]

DJC said:

I think we might be seeing the resurgence of pride in our Forces.
About time in my humble.

A very moving and totally spontaneous honouring of our guys, my thanks, as an ex-pat ex HM Forces, to all honourable Brits.

DJC said:

What are the chances of our Lords n Masters realising this?

FIRSTLY they are NOT our lords and Masters, they're our foo kin EMPLOYEES!!!
Second, realise it? only crocodile tears when it helps their cause, a cynical use of bodies to bolster their lies.... The barstewards talk constantly about increasing spending/helos etc, where in the last 10 years they've REDUCED spending by 20% and bodies by 17%. They, Labour, are directly responsible for the deaths, nothing less!

[wrightyrs]

JMGS4 said:

DJC said:

I think we might be seeing the resurgence of pride in our Forces.
About time in my humble.

A very moving and totally spontaneous honouring of our guys, my thanks, as an ex-pat ex HM Forces, to all honourable Brits.

DJC said:

What are the chances of our Lords n Masters realising this?

FIRSTLY they are NOT our lords and Masters, they're our foo kin EMPLOYEES!!!
Second, realise it? only crocodile tears when it helps their cause, a cynical use of bodies to bolster their lies.... The barstewards talk constantly about increasing spending/helos etc, where in the last 10 years they've REDUCED spending by 20% and bodies by 17%. They, Labour, are directly responsible for the deaths, nothing less!

+1

[Eric Mc]

I would like to think that, for the first time since the 1930s, politicians will realise that there are votes to be garnered by supporting defence - and therefore start allocating better funding to the armed services.

[Dunk76]

It's beginning to take the shape of what happened in the Crimean War.

The ultimate irony is, as always, that the Labour Party had it's roots in the disaffection from the way the working man was sent en masse to his death in 1916. That it should so comprehensive betray the Armed Forces, again, is a disgrace to both the Party's roots, and the Country.

[anonymous-user]

It's odd that many people I know, don't think what the forces are doing is 'for us' or making this country any safer but they still support the forces having to do it.

You don't have to agree with any of it to see that these blokes and girls have been set an unachievable task and have been under manned and under supplied for it. To me, the fact that the government appears unwilling to commit more money to this war shows even they know it's impossible.

I know it's easy to say these forces people signed up, so they are just doing their job but I expect they thought they would be better equipped before actually being sent to fight. Perhaps some of these politicians should have to drive around Afghanistan in crappy old land rovers for a few weeks to see what it's like?

It's a bit of a disgrace really. I wonder if any of the politicians feel guilty when more soldiers are killed through not having proper kit.

[Dunk76]

el stovey said:

It's a bit of a disgrace really. I wonder if any of the politicians feel guilty when more soldiers are killed through not having proper kit.

In reality though, lack of proper kit is nothing new for this country. Pick an example of almost any conflict since 1918, and Soldiers, Sailors, and Aviators have been dying forlornly trying to take on the task with hopeless kit.

Falklands War: Sailors suffer horrendous burns because Flash Protection gear (the white hoods and gauntlets) was made from Nylon. fking nylon to protect from fire for crying out loud. It had originally been made from cotton in the 60s and 70s (IIRC), but was switched to Nylon to save money.

WW2: Countless examples - every single British Tank to see active service in WW2 was undergunned except the Comet and Firefly (both hasty conversions of existing tanks). Read 'Death by Design' to get a clearer picture. HMS Hood sunk by Bismarck due to total lack of Deck Armour... she'd been scheduled for refit in 1933, but it was put off repeatedly due to cost.

That's just three examples of penny-pinching costing lives that I can quickly type out at work. There's plenty more.

[Jezza30]

wrightyrs said:

JMGS4 said:

DJC said:

I think we might be seeing the resurgence of pride in our Forces.
About time in my humble.

A very moving and totally spontaneous honouring of our guys, my thanks, as an ex-pat ex HM Forces, to all honourable Brits.

DJC said:

What are the chances of our Lords n Masters realising this?

FIRSTLY they are NOT our lords and Masters, they're our foo kin EMPLOYEES!!!
Second, realise it? only crocodile tears when it helps their cause, a cynical use of bodies to bolster their lies.... The barstewards talk constantly about increasing spending/helos etc, where in the last 10 years they've REDUCED spending by 20% and bodies by 17%. They, Labour, are directly responsible for the deaths, nothing less!

+1

+2

Was supposed to play cricket last night but on the way realised that the 8 soldiers cortege would be driving through Oxford... forget the cricket - stood and paid my respects....
Got chatting to one of the policemen on patrol - aparrently the scale of support came as a real suprise and from what i saw all walks of life were out... incredibly humbling and emotional.... big chap standing next to me was in floods of tears..
Brown and Blair have a lot of blood on their hands... will their kids be signing up - doubt it.....

[angryS3owner]

I bloody hope so, they deserve all the credit they get even if they are under funded and run by civil servant cretins.

[onomatopoeia]

DJC said:

Whisper it but I think we might be seeing the resurgence of pride in our Forces.

I don't think it has ever gone away.

[Eric Mc]

onomatopoeia said:

DJC said:

Whisper it but I think we might be seeing the resurgence of pride in our Forces.

I don't think it has ever gone away.

Oh I definitely think it had.

In my opinion, the Northern Ireland conflict had lot to do with the armed forces being low profile.

[ewenm]

Unfortunately the scenes yesterday are not uncommon in Wootton Bassett. The village always turns out to honour the returning fallen troops.

I have pride in our Armed Forces, they do the job they've been assigned to the best of their ability and usually that's better than any other forces in the world. Whether I agree with the job they've been assigned or not is irrelevant to that feeling of pride in our forces. Any disagreement would be directed at the Government, not the forces.

[Dunk76]

Eric Mc said:

In my opinion, the Northern Ireland conflict had lot to do with the armed forces being low profile.

I think you're right.

A number of guys I went to school with were whisper squaddies in the Princess of Wales, and they would rarely admit to being in the Army.

[DJC]

onomatopoeia said:

DJC said:

Whisper it but I think we might be seeing the resurgence of pride in our Forces.

I don't think it has ever gone away.

It had...big time. Defence was a dirty word. We were living in the "Peace divided" following the Cold War, so there should be massive savings, hardly any need for armed forces or defence spending now. Francis Fukyama had told us all it was "the end of history" with USSR going belly up. Of course nothing of the sort happened. Gulf War 1 happened. The Balkans flared up. Sierra Leone. Rwanda. 9/11/, AQ & bin liner. Iraq/GW2 & Aghanistan. Constant use of the armed forces. Now we are seeing the return of piracy in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and because navy spending on ships has been run down the RN has hardly any power to do anything about it. The Yanks are somewhat occupied and even their Navy isnt what it once was.

The public *expected* a shift in spending away from defence. It actively resented money being spent there and it presumed in the complacency that the Forces would be relatively inactive. Its taken 10yrs or so but the public has once again woken upto the fact that the British Armed Forces are rarely inactive, esp when the Govt is actively committing them to 2 theatres at once.

Such was the perception of a feeling of resentment that most of the last decade, with the rise in the "anti-" mob, the MOD and defence industry started to place a natural assumption on public opinion going with mobs like the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and those working in the industry would be seen as a social enemy. Pretty much like has been happening with the Life Sciences mob at Huntingdon. We were all advised never to reveal what we did for a living, to avoid things like Friends Reunited, facebook, myspace, etc. and never put any details down anywhere that might indicate what industry or who you worked, as civvies in the defence world were being targetted by the campaign groups. There was absolutely a feeling of society was against you.

It is good to see this slowly coming around.