Infantry crisis as troops quit

[ap1]

The only way to stop soldiers leaving is by paying them a decent wage. Bonuses here and there will not work. It needs to be a massive pay rise for the Pte/LCpl and bring them into line with a firefighter/Policeman.

Spot on. A Police Officer earns £28,000 after 5yrs service, that is before any overtime. A pte or Lcpl will not get anywhere near that. After 10yrs service police officers are earning in excess of £32,000.

The bonus that was recently offered to soldiers on active service in order to damp down the media, is in my view a slap in the face for all of us who served before and were always told, all our efforts were covered by the mystical "X" factor. Remember Bosnia and Gulf War 1, married soldiers were deployed from Germany and had their LOA seriously reduced, so that their families suffered. This has always been the forces way, and the guys and girls grin and bear it, and continue to suffer.

They need some real root and branch reforms of the whole of their service conditions, and quickly.

I still want a General to resign on the steps of Whitehall

[Beano Hind]

Thats probaly why recruiting ages have gone 30 +

[Paul Hinge]

jcj is spot on with what he says in his first posting.
Retention is a massive problem!
The figures the MOD have released of 12700 or so recruited yet 14700 odd leaving shows the problem has to be internal with the management of the rescouses i.e. trained personnel leaving because of overcommitment and feeling that their worthless. I'm sure if an Audit (of any worth) was carried out on Value for Money, the MOD would be in deep ****.
What can be done?
Well, those in power need to understand that with a Services that are under strength, under resourced and overcommited, the need is to address what the Forces are there to do in the first instance. First and foremost they are there to aid and protect the homeland not support what I consider, as do many others, a USA thirst for hegemonic (overall) dominance of the world.
Our boys deserve better. The Generals are now speaking up. Perhaps more of this is needed without the threat of outdated sanctions hanging over their heads.

Hingey

[Paul Hinge]

They may well sit up and take notice if a general did resign. However,I doubt it they are all part of the establishment! They have been very verbal recently so even they are feeling there must be some truth in what is being said by those in the frontline.

[Smokeyjoe]

I agree with a lot of the comments so far, I remember the same issues being raised over the years but in different ways, all the political parties have made their views known in the past from "We are 100% behind our boy's" to "we will change the system for the better" and of course "We will provide our troops with the equiptment they need when they ask for it".
The comments have always been made when the Party's are in opposition.
I am afraid the sevices in general are not appreciated by the general public or politicians until the proverbial hits the fan.
Regards,
Joe.

[Paul Hinge]

Joe your comments are completely correct.
I'm afraid that when politicians get into power they go 'native' and subscribe to the Sir Humphrey syndrome. These senior civil servants (Permanent Secretaries rank), have such a hold on how the country is run any politician wishing to make waves just like Jim Hacker tried in the sitcom Yes Minister/Yes Prime minister find that inertia occurs, so they play along with the status quo. We are seeing some sort of clearance happening in the Home Office at present but I can guarantee it will not be enough to make a real change to the establishment.

Hingey