The sheer Hypocracy

Am currently serving on an Army base in the south of England. A stripe heavy Defence Committee is meeting here in the next couple of weeks.
The general standard of accommodation here is passable, but there is a lot of grade 4 - pretty shocking. I found out from an oppo last night that 20 of the better rooms in the officers' mess have had the present incumbents kicked out into alternative rooms. The rooms are then getting a full Dhoby, new carpets and furniture if required and a lick of paint as well - for a 1 night stay.

The thing that really bugs me is that if a Senior Officer comes to visit, if we go out of our way to make things appear better than they are, then how the FF can we expect them to know what the current state of affairs is. Ontop of this , I think the money would be far better spent improving the accommodation for the JR's who really need it.

Am wondering if this could have something to do with the fact that the base is mostly run by a contractor who will want this opportunity to make themselves look good. Meanwhile a mate of mine has got cupboard doors not fitted, a broken Khazi and a shower that would be better suited to Damien Hirst exhibition! (some of you may say at least he has them - fair point) And the chance of getting it fixed is minimal as the effort is going into the aformentioned visit. Or that is the way it seems.

 

I agree it stinks, but it was always like that even when the services ran much of the stuff themselves. Only the bits that mattered got done up for visits. Hints to the local rag or MP may be the way forward here as that can be a way of at least embarassing the perpetrators, though it will probably change little, it is the way of things.

 

I agree with Maxi, you could however also make your post on Arrse as a lot of journos seem to read it and one might pick up on it...........

 

Agree with Maxi's suggestion - an anonymous tip off to the local paper or even the Daily Mail, Sun or Mirror may cause them some embarrassment, especially when service accommodation has a higher news profile at the mo.

 

Apart from getting this off your chest here have you done anything else? Flag this up to your CO for instance...

 

I live and work in a military environment and whilst I go along with the general theme of your comment I don't think blabbing to the press should be the first course of action. If we follow this route automatically it makes us (the military) look completely inept. It also displays a complete lack of trust in the ability of the command.

‘Joe public’ could well think that this applies to the whole organisation; I don’t think this is the case. These problems (cleanliness, serviceability and maintenance of accom) stem from many factors – funding and fecking useless contractors to mention just 2.

If you work within an organisation where your boss is useless, or you can’t approach him/her to raise these issues correctly, ask yourself a question – why am I still here?

 

Did anyone watch that D-DAY program that was on last year where they trained up a group of todays youngsters as the soldiers, sailors and airmen were trained for D-DAY.

They stayed on HMS BRISTOL while doing part of the RN training. The mess they got was well nice. Brnad new lockers that actually locked, new carpet, showers etc that worked and a well kitted out mess square. I'd only been on it the weeke before the program was aired and i stayed in a right sh*t hole.

Trying to make it look like something it isnt.

On the otherhand did anyone see the two soldiers getting interviewed on ITV news last night. They were actually honest about how they felt the war in Iraq is going. That was a refreshing change to the gung ho, everythings fine brigade.

 

Photographs would be most welcome! To be honest, I would suggest you contact Dr. Liam Fox (Shadow SoS for Defence) about this, discretely of course. His details are below:-

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 020 7219 4198

Fax: 01275 790091

PS: Would the standard set out recently by the Minister below have anything to do with this, I wonder?
http://www.rumration.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/viewtopic/t=2379/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=58.html

 

Snorko,

BAFF have an active campaign going on this at the moment, and the ear of a lot of media and parliamentarians.

http://www.baff.org.uk/Campaigns/Campaigns.html

Let them know.

 

Cheers everyone. Will mull it over and decide what is the most discrete way of flagging it up!

The idea about ARRSE is a good'un. And isnt Liam Fox and ex-pongo anyway?

 

Dr.Fox worked as a Civvy Army Medical Officer.

See: http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&personID=4515