Commanders on the ground were concerned about helicopter shortages

Colin

So what?

We're long past the point where careers should have ended and where governments should have fallen; as a result of the sheer incompetence, negligence and mendacity that have been the hallmarks of the conduct of the labour regime.

Sadly, nobody of any influence or importance really cares enough to do anything. The electorate feel isolated and impotent, but very, very angry.

If there were a campaign of sufficient ferocity, such as the Telegraph campaign on parliamentary expenses, something might happen.

As a nation, we can't afford another six to 7 months of this God awful government. I listened to that useful idiot, Jackass Stirrup on the radio this morning, the man is a charlatan.

For the love of God, someone do something...

Austin Barry

Do not fight any war - unless one of absolute unavoidable national defence - if you are not prepared to give the troops the tools they require. To do otherwise and our soldiers die is manslaughter.

Owain

Richard North over at eureferendum blog has a good take on this. He does lose his rag from time to time but he is fairly sound on defence matters.

strapworld

The opposition parties must resist extended point scoring, - the public's contempt for Brown and Ainsworth is sufficient in any case.....David Blackburn.

I am now of the opinion that the Spectator has been taken over by idiots from another planet.

IF Cameron does not fly off the handle over this I will never forgive him.

Blair, Brown and all the dreadful cabinet and the useless Labour MP's are all guilty. They have blood on all their hands. Complacent compliant toadies all!!

The troops need helicopters today, not next week nor next month. It is time for Brown to get on his knees and beg from whomsoever to get helicopters to our troops.

If Margaret Thatcher can mobilise troops and get ocean liners and other ships adapted over a matter of days to ensure everything was in place for a war thousands of miles away in the Falklands...

The question is, Why could not the Labour Government? And its compliant compacent toadies wearing the uniforms of the Chiefs of Defence Staff.

We have been ill served by them all and they should all be facing a war crime tribunal.

But they will not. Nobody will resign, nobody will be sacked, just poor old tommy will continue to be maimed horribly or killed or mentally scarred. Lives ruined, wives and husbands find their lives ruined. Children find their parents unable to do what they did just a few months before!

The time has come to bring all our troops home. It has been a disaster.Poor planning (IF any!) Poor supplies, Poor equipment, and as for political leadership, totally lacking.

BROWN, if he had any sense of honour and public duty would resign immediately. But the EU must come first and this governments selling of this once proud nation to a corrupt totalitarian regime must be completed!
Mr Blackburn stop this stupid nonsense please. Men and women are being maimed or killed almost daily. They are living lives of hell in Afghanistan and reading this total rubbish must do untold harm to their morale.

Olaf Rye

It is obvious that Labour hates the armed forces because they obdurately refuse to espouse the ethos of these Marxists and actually embody the values of patriotism, discipline and duty. All these things are anathema to the Labour Party and its avid supporters. They would nevertheless love the armed forces and the police if they could be trusted to stamp out the enemies of socialism at home and abroad and were some sort of revolutionary guard.

Olaf Rye

Was it not the socialists and the Labour Party faithful that, during the Falklands War, chanted 'One, two, three, four, we hope Argentina wins the war' ? They obviously had no problem with a foreign power invading and attempting to annexe British holdings and were happy to support a real fascist regime in the hope of getting rid of Thatcher. The left in Britain cannot be trusted with national defence.

Irene

Stirrup has been wheeled out to give the party line - I am apalled.
Each day there seems to be some new revelation. a page is turned and so we go on to the next one.
Now I see that Heseltine is sure there will be a hung parliament. God help us.
I honestly don't know how I will be able to get throught the next few months with all this rage I feel about this government

Moraymint

Colin said, "The electorate feel isolated and impotent, but very, very angry".

You've summed it up, Colin. In my life I've never felt as utterly detached from the workings of the state as I feel today. I used to be "establishment" (I served for 20 years as a commissioned officer); now I despise the establishment.

Thanks to 12 years of Labour rule, our country is now divided. There is the class that rules over us incompetently, serving itself, protecting its interests and cocooned in hundreds of thousands of state employees, quangos and other hangers-on embedded in our society. In just 12 lethal years in power, the Marxist nutters running the country have created a soft totalitarian state of the UK.

And then there's the rest of us, out here whose mission these days is simply "to cope". Nowadays, I find myself despising all things government: national and local. I despise the politicians, the bureaucrats who serve them and the million petty and unchallengeable rules that now intrude into every nook and cranny of our lives, rammed down our throats daily by the likes of Brown, Balls, Harman, Straw and all the other third-rate tossers that call themselves "the government".

What are we supposed to do? The Tories offer a pathetic alternative. The Liberals are pointless. My preference is to get serious about Rod Liddle's proposal for some civil disobedience.

For as long as our democracy in the UK remains shot, direct action is the only rational alternative ... if we're not to end up being treated and looking like the citizens of the old East Germany.

Do you fancy that? I went there before the wall came down, and it was not a nice place to live ... like the UK is rapidly becoming now.

If Labour's great Marxist project is not to be allowed to finish us off completely - they've done an excellent job thus far; I'm on my knees - then the time to act is approaching fast.

Our political class needs to watch its step; they're on borrowed time.

Nicholas

The British Army learned full well the dangers from dependency on the roads during insurgency in the war in Ireland from 1918 to 1921. The insurgents then were using exactly the same tactics with roadside IEDs. Then the Army had no alternative but in the 21st Century with the helicopter an integral and essential component of warfare for 50 years it is an absolute scandal that British troops have been exposed to unnecessary risk in this way.

No excuses can be made for the malicious, mean-spirited and parsimonious Marxist government in general and the communist ogre Brown in particular. But one has to wonder how much grit and determination in pushing the issue the most senior officers in the military have shown. They also seem to have had insufficient appreciation for the historical record of their own Army.

Nicholas

Btw Moraymint you are not alone. After a lifetime of "serving" the establishment in various roles I too also despise it. It is now the enemy. You have exactly summarised what has happened in this country and East Germany is an exactly appropriate comparison.

A historical perspective, whether British or Anglo-centric, is necessary to appreciate just what has been lost and what special qualities have been destroyed or discarded. How our laws and legal system have been traduced by charlatans arrogantly presuming that they know better and trampling on the good common sense of the past (Jack Straw one of the worst culprits - the sooner that odious creep is out of our politics the better).

I despair too. But who to lead us?

strapworld

Why has the Queen remained so silent on this and the EU Lisbon Treaty, which she signed whilst it opposed everything she said in her oath, to her peoples, on her coronation.

She promised to defend the faith! Not much evidence there. Especially as her son and heir is saying he wants faith changed to FAITHS!

On the EU where does she and her family go when the EU Presidento takes over? There can be no royal visits as head of state as we are no longer a state!

But her military will soon be the EU's military. They are already calling the navy the EUNavy! She has not stood by her most loyal subjects.

I am sorry to say this. I have always considered myself a Royalist until now. As far as I am concerned the Queen has to be the last sovereign.

Moraymint

strapworld, you'd expect an ex-serving officer like me to stand up for the monarchy and, indeed, I do.

But I take your point that HM Queen should really be doing more for us under the circumstances. I'm not a historian and am happy to stand corrected, but has our country ever been in such a dire political and socio-economic situation before, or at least in recent times?

We now live in a soft totalitarian state, suffering the effects of 12 years of unreconstructed Marxism, gross administrative incompetence, unfettered immigration (never mentioned in any political manifesto), political deceit and immorality, EU laws imposed upon us without the consent of our citizens, state spending gone off the scale, millions of people dependent on the state for their livelihoods and the inevitable robbery of taxpayers that goes with it, and last but not least, government's utter contempt for the armed forces ... all for what exactly?

If ever there was a time when we needed the institution of royalty to take direct action (even if this is behind the scenes) then that time is now. And I really mean, now.

If not, then I would hope fervently for civil unrest in the UK in the coming few years. How else do we stop what's happening?

Pot Head

You don't catch The Taliban moaning about helicopter shortages. They just get on with it !

mac

Strapworld; Moraymint:

I share your intense frustration towards this appalling, deceitful government, but conjuring up a royal intervention under the present circumstances would be even more divisive (do you really want a republic with a tuppenny ha'penny, second-rate ex-politico (imagine the candidates - think Hattersley, Kinnock or Brittain) or, in this dumbed-down society of ours, a 'celebrity' as head of state?

Not until there is a serious breakdown of parliamentary procedure, overwhelming popular demand for the removal of Brown and his fellow charlatans (and a Tory poll lead even of 17% ain't it) and, crucially, near universal pressure from the fourth estate, should the monarch become directly involved. Currently, Mandelson & co would have a field day presenting a royal intervention as a 'threat to democracy', 'unwarranted interference with a properly elected government' etc etc; it would be the very deus ex machina our marxist masters have been looking for since Brown bottled his 2007 GE opportunity and so spectacularly bust the national economy.

Holly ......

I have come to the conclusion that sites like CH are put here so we can vent our spleen and make ourselves a little less likely to do any 'real damage'to the politicians.
NOT one 'political editor' or journalist is holding Brown,Darling,Mandelson or any of the Labour government to account for what they are doing to this country, yet the Conservatives come against Labour and all hell breaks lose.
Maybe we should all go on blog strike?

Moraymint

Holly

Yes, there are times when I wonder what difference, if any, the blogosphere makes? Are we just a self-selecting bunch of ranters? Are we heard? Do we represent a significant proportion of the population, or are we just a weird, furiously typing minority?

Does the mainstream media monitor what is being said in the blogosphere and draw conclusions from it ... or do they just ignore it? Do politicos read blogs? If they do, do they give a toss what they read?

Are we wasting our time? Are we fantasising that this is democracy and freedom in action?

I've no idea. The more I muse and post, the more I think that direct, street action is the only real way to achieve change.

Blogging would not have brought down the Berlin Wall.

Pot Head

"Charlie didn't get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death, or victory."

JohnT

A great man, who died courageously. Requiescat in pace.
The lesson, surely, is that we cannot afford to carry on warring with the Taleban in Afghanistan and their tribal cousins in Pakistan. The best solution is to get rid of the Taleban from London, Birmingham and all the other cities they infest.
If we can't manage that, what hope have we in a terrain where the British and Russian armies have both - perennially - never conquered.