How, as Mayor, I would help our brave troops

D Short

It's just silly and tokenist for someone who has no link or experience of the armed forces to write this sort of stuff. I know it's the sub-editor who picks straplines, but please don't talk about 'brave' soldiers. They're there because they're there because they're there. Just a job. And I would have preferred a cleverer approach - were these soldiers 'officers' or 'ranks'. Was the woman 'officer class' or 'common'. If she were officer class, did she berate them because they were 'other ranks' and would she have done so if they had been officers? I think I know the answer before I am told. Why has The Spectator become so dumb?

David Cram

Why does this wretched website flicker so badly? And no, I won't buy a Speccie until the flickering stops.

Alan Stoddart

The reason our troops are treated with such disdain is journalists who trot out trite little articles like yours Boris. An unpopular war? Only because the the media says it is. Had Saddam still been in power we would be trying to work out how to deal with his nuclear ambitions..as we have dealt so successfully with Iran's(see Melanie Phillips). According to Gorgeous George 1 million Iraqis were killed by Saddam's neglect during the 12 years of sanctions. Sanctions were going to end, Ming Campbell was at the forefront in campaigning against them, and the war..so what did he have in mind? A letter to the Times condeming, in no uncertain terms, Saddam's actions? Speaking of Gorgeious George isn't Boris' stand against the war just a sop to the 800,000 Muslims in London...guess like Galloway, Livingstone, Straw he throws his principles out to garner the ethnic vote. Chavez lives.

ian skidmore

You are absolutely right. It is perhaps trite to recall Kipling's Mr Atkins, or that homeless sailors after the armada were pilloried. It ws ever thus. The woman, however, did seerve a useful purpose. She led me to make a hefty contribution to the Help for Heroes Fund to which you are donating your fee. I suggest other readers who are appalled by the treatment of our soldiers do the same. Happily not everyone is as mealy minded as that appalling women. (Surely she should be named and shamed) In East Anglia and in Cardiff at least homecoming soldiers have marched through towns to the cheers of the populace.

Noshir Patel

Perhaps the woman's behaviour had more to do with the "Me Me Me" culture and the "there is no such thing as society" ethos inculcated by Mrs Thatcher and the Conservative Party.

Adam

How about organizing a private prosecution against this unnamed woman for a breach of the peace?

walter10021

It strikes me as highly unlikely that such an event occurred, and if indeed it did, it reflects badly on the young woman and says nothing about politics. As for Boris Johnson, his taste for the nasty and the dishonest, which he shares with most rightists, is clear.

walter10021

What's more, whoever may be said to be responsible for the condition of these soldiers, it is certainly more likely to be Mr. Johnson and people like him rather than anyone opposed to the war.

Guy Newman

Walter, you know nothing, do a google search and youll find that this incident did happen, Mole Valley District Council, who run the leisure centre has even commented on it on their website. Get your head out of the sand and have a look at the reality of the world we live in, the wars may be unpopular but these soldiers arent the cause of them, spare a thought for what they have been through and how their lives have now changed forever. Good on Boris for giving up his fee in support of the Help for Heroes Charity.

Filbert Fox

good post Guy, Walter sounds like a dick, he is just like most of the Labour govt, quite happy to put their names to the war but then try their hardest to blank out or distance themselves from the reality of war by claiming these things dont happen (cant have happened, these injured people dont exist), they do exist and they are suffering, they need the support of everyone not just the military community and this includes not having some jumped up tart gobbing off at them at a swimming pool while they try to get their lives back to some semblance of normality. Good of Boris to give his fee to such a worthwhile charity.

John Ware

At last, a land fit for heroes!! Free bus travel!!!

Tim Castle, Ex Serviceman

Good on you Boris, I would like that that respect for those who fought for you agenda to be extended to all of us who served and are still around! I see every year at the reunion many old friends struggling to cope with what was done to them whilst trying to maintain peace and law and order at the behest of our political leaders. Let us remember that wars occur when politicians fail!

alex cooper

Well done Boris for raising this issue, and donating your fee to a very worthy cause. D Short, Nosher & Walter, you need to get your heads out of your hoops - you are the ones who know nothing about this subject. A sad (& slim) majority elected this shambles of a government, which has committed our forces to far more (elective) overseas adventures than its Conservative predecessor. The electorate, and not the armed forces, is ultimately responsible for the government's actions and must take responsibility. If I were a Londoner (which thankfully I'm not), I would vote for Boris.

rickshaw-major

There are a few posters on here who seem to ignore the reality of the situation in the world. The troops were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq on a shoestring. Whether people agree with the war is neither here nor there; our Government sent them in our name. Soldiers do not start wars - politicians do. Having served for 24 years I can assure you it is more than just a job. Did the whiners complain when our Servicemen and women were firefighting, rescuing people during floods etc? Do they complain when Bomb Disposal teams remove the 200 tonnes plus of Explosive Remnants of War (ERW)that are regularly collected from around the UK every year. Are they pleased that when some nutter plants an IED then the "Its just a job" squad turns up? D Short appears to be on some sort of Class kick - well I am working class stock and went to Sandhurst! Although on second reading its is dribble with no concise meaning.

Richard

Whatever you think about the war, they are still lions and still being led by the donkeys. Surrey woman is clearly way down on the food chain, her amoeboid behaviour beneath contempt and more a reflection of class attitudes towards the military rather than towards the war. At least here in the US Americans separate the war from those fighting it regardless of their position on the political and social scales. As a Brit -who'd have thought it!

Verity

Noshir Patel, who is snuggled into a time warp: In, I believe, 1993 - 14 years ago, Mrs Thatcher made this correct observation. There is no such thing as society. It doesn't walk around. It doesn't breathe. It doesn't eat. Society is, as Mrs Thatcher pointed out, a community of men, women and families. There is no such thing as society without those components. Mrs Thatcher didn't "inculcate" - whatever you meant in the context; it's not clear - there being no such thing as society. It always baffles me how socialists manage to live in the past, misunderstanding it on a heroic scale, and refusing to judge events by the world they live in - the present. The woman in the Leatherhead swimming pool was just a couple of months ago. Our time. the tail end of 2007. Welcome to the 21st Century, which is now almost a decade old.

Reid

Most who joint the army (both in the UK and US) are those who can't get a job elsewhere and usually comprise the yobs who we are better off without on our streets. If they were foolish enough to fight an illegal war and even get paid for it, what do they expect if they are not killed or maimed. They and their supporters should not whinge or moan at others who don't make allowances for them. It's tough-if you don't like the results, pick another career or live off the dole.

H J Osbourne

I do like Boris Johnson's idea of bumper stickers supporting the very real and unacknowledged sacrifices our people are making for our country and its principles. Though it is against my natural sense of reticence I believe is the very least I can do and I shall have some made and display one proudly on my own car. Will any other people be interested in doing so?

peter kilbryde

A dole of a free bus pass, O mayor!

Duncan Gordon

Well Done Boris. I have always observed, you are a man apart. With any luck, Lord Mayor of London will not be the zenith of your public life.

As a veteran from a prior unpopular war, during the era of the Beatles that Harold Wilson did not join, there was perception on the part of older veterans "noone will listen to those ratbags..." the protestors. They were the next generation, went nowhere did nothing, dominated the public service, politics and public perceptions. The other rank veterans were thrown to the wolves of public animosity.

Does the woman in question continue to berate veterans and dominate the swimming pool?

Perhaps you might suggest to the people who film "Grumpy old Women" they could feature the woman in question and widen their coverage.

Will the people in the Crown Prosecution Service, ardent in the chase to hound serving soldiers in Iraq take on the perceived humiliation of the young veterans?