New SofS - Ideally qualified ?

[Navy1]

Fantastic

We now have Browne as SofS ... another Minister who has never worn uniform, another bloody lawyer, an ex treasury minister (who will try and screw us even more... if that is possible) and best of all a former Minister of Immigration at the Home Office (who may just have had something to do with the mass release of immigrants from prison?).

 

[PompeySailor]

A Celtic season ticket holder, Human Rights specialist. Oh dear.

 

[ThePunisher]

He's a Human Rights specialist, a politician AND a Celtic fan? I hate him already.

 

[SailbadTheSinner]

He's a Scot though - that's all that matters right?

 

[ThePunisher]

No. I'm one of God's Chosen as well - and I still hate him.

 

[McHammock]

Oh no, he comes from Kilwinning !
ANyone from that part of the world will know that Kilwinning people are the nearest UK equivalent to Bennies.

 

[hobbit]

Fantastic

We now have Browne as SofS ... another Minister who has never worn uniform, another bloody lawyer, an ex treasury minister (who will try and screw us even more... if that is possible) and best of all a former Minister of Immigration at the Home Office (who may just have had something to do with the mass release of immigrants from prison?).

Seems to be the way of politics with lawyers,( should be liars,) grabbing the top positions. The piece below from a book in America says it all I reckon. The lowest form of life on this planet IMHO,

:mrgreen:




Taken from Chapter 1 of Wake Up and Smell the Lawyers — One Hell of a Bad Smell.

Law and odor in America. There’s one hell of a rotten smell emanating from virtually every corner in America and like most disgusting odors that linger in the air, this stench isn’t going away. As a matter of fact, the odor seems to be growing stronger and exponentially more offensive with each passing day. This sickening bouquet has permeated virtually every facet of the American way of life and, given enough time, will ultimately taint anything and everything that it comes in contact with it. As these noxious fumes waft their way across America, each of us are forced to pay an immeasurable price. A once proud nation, where energy and resourcefulness ruled the day, is being methodically reduced to a rubble.

We’ve become a squabbling, quarrelsome pack of money grubbing whine bags who routinely sue each other for such nefarious grievances as slipping on a grape in a grocery store, spilling hot coffee in the lap while driving, falling off a toilet seat and for getting a bad hair cut. Yes, these insane lawsuits really did happen! Just what in the hell is going on here? Law and odor, that’s what, and boy, that’s a rot gut combo to be sure. To succinctly paraphrase a borrowed slogan from an old cigarette commercial “We’ve come the wrong way, babyâ€. Oops, that may be a poor choice of words. In today’s increasingly litigious society, even casually making an off the cuff inference to an old tobacco related commercial could prove hazardous to my health. With blood sucking lawyers circling over the tobacco industry like famished vultures hovering over a decaying carcass, I sure as heck don’t want to get caught up in that line of fire.

Where were we? Oh yeah, we were talking about lawyers and the offensive and nauseating malodor that accompanies them everywhere they go. Lawyers are everywhere you look - and it’s not a pretty sight to behold. And every place you find a lawyer, you’ll discover a putrid, pungent cloud billowing up all around them. Lawyers, by and large, are a stinky lot and all of the deodorant in the world isn’t going to mask the foulness. Unfortunately, far too many of us have gotten so accustomed to holding our noses for so long that we scarcely even notice the awful smell anymore. Lawyers have been surreptitiously working overtime to permeate our subconscious minds, incrementally brainwashing us in the fine art of becoming helpless victims - and the years and years of hard work is now paying off in spades.

Lawyers have us right where they want us - busily scurrying all around looking for all sorts of inventive new ways to sue somebody over something. Where innovation, creativity and ingenuity were once the magnificent cornerstones of America’s entrepreneurial drive and spirit, these precepts are now merely platitudes lawyers manipulate while seeking out innovative, creative and ingenious ways to sue the pants off those around us. Lawsuits, conflicts, fighting, fusing and fuming now rule the day while the lawyers, not surprisingly, rule the roost.

 

[asst_dep_to_dep_asst]

Perish the thought that we in the civilised world will be denied the chance to laugh at the guy who bought a Winnebago and sued when, after getting up from the driver's seat to make a cuppa, the thing crashed while in "cruise". And if you didn't laugh, despite the cruelty, when the woman won her case when she dried her rat-dog in a microwave, there's something seriously wrong with you.

Mr Browne needs to know that, if he is up front, honest and leads the MoD better than any of his predecessors has, he will be given the benefit of the doubt. Universal acclaim takes a little longer in this brief. We are generally good at what we do and most of us love our work, but we don't like to be patronised. We know we feel we are more important than the country does, but tell us that the next time the firemen go on strike.

Just don't wear combats (they make politicos look stupid), do take the job seriously, do care and don't embarrass us.

Thank whichever God you like that Mr Prescott was never allowed to be SoS for Defence.

 

[PartTimePongo]

Reid was ok , and did care about us.

I fear Browne is the Chancellor's hatchet man.

 

[PompeySailor]

I dunno, Prescott would have been OK. Shagged around, got in a few fights, obviously likes his beer and his pies. Perfect matelot material. Then again he was a P&O Steward....

 

[Reservist-Monkey]

I vaguely recall hearing on the Beeb that they were going to offer the SoS job to...



... Charles Clarke!

 

[ThePunisher]

PTP - Reid only ever cared about Reid.
The last politician to care about the Armed Forces was, of course, Churchill. And no politician now walking the earth is fit to be mentioned in the same breath as ol' Winston.
They don't make them like him anymore.

 

[GCYZ]

Earlier this AM the MOD website had his picture on his statement about the deaths in Iraq-some idiot used one of him smiling! Thankfully it's been removed now. Glad to see someone's on the ball.

 

[come_the_day]

Maybe they're just sliding in a load of Brown(e) jobs to take over the government? It doesn't look like much yet, but it's coming......

 

[Navy1]

Reid was ok , and did care about us.

I fear Browne is the Chancellor's hatchet man.

Having worked in the MOD (twice) I find the notion of a Politician 'caring ' about us quaint, soft and fluffy maybe but simply not true. A politician in Defence is either one who is on the way up the greasy pole to a more high profile department (Reid and Browne are examples) or on the way down or no hopers like (Buff-hoon). If they are on the way up they will do exactly waht the top two tell em .... PM and Chancellor ... and not rock the boat in preparation for their next promotion, or if they are the other type they will sit tight in their cosy number earning £133,000 per year plus perks and, again, not rock the boat. And regrdaless of up or down, none of them have served the Queen in uniform and none of them understand us or our issues. However it is not the SofS that we should be concerned about. It is the underlying party policies that they bring with them and the senior civil servants who 'advise' them and I suggest our biggest weakness is the latter bunch of jobs worths. Two tours in MOD has convinced me where the cock ups and arse policies come from...

Pay peanuts ... you know the rest.