UK Service Chiefs

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FD2
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UK Service Chiefs

#1 Post by FD2 » Fri May 26, 2023 10:38 pm

There is a big article about the retirement of Sir Mike Wigston, CAS, in the Telegraph today. He doesn't seem to attract many favourable comments below the article, such as this from some calling himself 'Hedley Shannon':

His retirement was rushed because he was an operational failure.
We know his brain isn’t wired up properly, which is why he is being pushed out.
So what makes him think we have any interest in what passes for thought inside his scramble-brain?
Well, apart from this:
“ this period where we sowed the seeds, both culturally and by investing in the right areas of our business, to really get after some of those, to get ourselves set for the 21st century. It won't be about me, it will be about all of the people that were leading the air force at this time.”
He appears satisfied that his damage is done and the RAF is infected with clone idiots who are now on track for RAF leadership after being given preferential access to gateway positions and certification processes. That must be undone and unsuitable types ousted and “de-tracked”.
People who would have put forward for recruitment or who have been refused now need to be sought out.
“He said dismissals and other disciplinary action ‘sent a very clear signal to the whole service that it didn't matter which part of the organisation you are, whether you're an elite display team or whether you are a rank and file… those behaviours have no place in our air force in 2023’.”
But risk-tolerant alpha males behave like risk-tolerant alpha males. Maybe reduce distracting temptations in their work environs (not add to their number and percentage). But purge out alphas and you get defeat-prone betas. It does make a difference. People with those skills are rare and if he wants a sex-free workspace keep the other sex out of the workspace, not the bl—-y pilots.
This man is infuriating in the fatuity of his thinking. Is he a KGB mole or something? Or just a prime example of a grinning idiot delighting in his inane density.


And this from 'Harry Maskers':

I left the RAF in 2016, I enjoyed my time and service after 27 years. This guy has turned a professional outfit into a ramshackle bunch of politically correct woke nerds who are more scared of saying the wrong thing than getting their hands dirty in any conflict. Shame on him. The reason he has no regrets coming to the end of his service is that he walks away with a pension only the average man can dream of. Good riddance - I won't call you Sir.

In a quick scan down the comments it's difficult to find any favourable ones but that's maybe because it's a 'far right' Tory rag newspaper... #:-S

Disregarding the fact that he was in post when the racist recruitment policy was exposed, my question is should the service chiefs (x4) be bending over backwards to reflect and appease current trends in society such as the trans and woke agendas or be concentrating on recruiting and retaining the most effective people for the reduced number of jobs which the many defence cuts have left available?

I will copy some or all of the article below because of the paywall problem.

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#2 Post by FD2 » Fri May 26, 2023 10:46 pm

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/0 ... gston-raf/


Russia ‘poses danger to UK’ if beaten in Ukraine


Sir Mike Wigston, the outgoing head of the RAF, tells The Telegraph that Vladimir Putin will be 'vindictive' if the war against Kyiv fails
By Dominic Nicholls, Associate Editor 26 May 2023 • 9:41pm

Russia will be “vindictive” if it loses the Ukraine war and poses a direct threat to the UK, the outgoing head of the RAF has warned.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, the Chief of the Air Staff, has told The Telegraph that Russia’s air force, surface navy and submarine force are a threat to Britain and Nato and that this is something “we must focus our minds on”.
He warned that the threat will endure or even get worse if Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is ousted.
The RAF has provided intelligence and material support to Ukraine since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February last year.
Addressing the conflict, Sir Mike said: “When the Ukraine conflict is over and Ukraine has restored its borders, as it must, we will have a damaged, vindictive, and brutal Russia, whose means of harming us is through air attack, missile attack and subsurface attack.”
After four years at the top of the RAF, Sir Mike is set to step down next month.
He has led the air force during a period in which the force has been engulfed in a diversity scandal, after the head of the recruiting and selection branch resigned over claims she was under pressure to pause the hiring of white men to meet targets.
In his final interview as Air Chief Marshal, Sir Mike acknowledged for the first time that improving diversity was put into personal targets.
He also addressed the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military, saying humans must always make decisions on lethal force.



There's nothing in the Guardian apart from an older article about the diversity issue:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ment-drive

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#3 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Sat May 27, 2023 5:57 pm

I would say the service chiefs are far more victims than criminals in this. The top guys get picked by the politicians because they will do what the government says they want AND say they can still achieve the task. Except they can't achieve the task. The civil servants effectively control who gets promoted below service chief level, because they can stall progress or screw budgets for those who won't "co-operate".

And this is as it should be, because we place the politicians in charge, and the civil service is trying to achieve what the government wants.

So the politicians are where the blame lies, because what they want is impossible, and they bin anyone who tells them so.

The last senior RAF guy I knew (from when he was a squabbblin' bleeder) was a fine chap, tried to tell Cameron the task was unachievable with the resources and controls provided, and got the boot immediately. Everyone since has said "Yes, of course we can achieve the impossible with 3 toothpicks and a paper aeroplane".

I have no respect for the service chiefs now, but the government gets the service chiefs it deserves.

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#4 Post by FD2 » Sat May 27, 2023 8:38 pm

Some politicians who have been in power for too long eventually come to believe that no one else can run the show - perhaps Thatcher was a good example of that. The budget for all the ships, aircraft, tanks etc is controlled by the government of the day. Some senior people in the services have been bold enough to state publicly that their service has been stretched too thinly and some have been even bolder and resigned on principle for that reason. Some of them no doubt pray that no conflict arises on their watch and they will emerge with unblemished records. The so-called 'peace dividend' has been a godsend to unscrupulous politicians, whose main priority should have been the protection of their people. The argument then follows as to whether being involved in military engagements around the world is something the UK should be doing or should the country be 'cutting its cloth' accordingly.

Politicians still want the country to be involved in world affairs but the money does not seem to be available (or the time perhaps) to equip their forces with what they need for the task. Sir Henry Leech persuaded Thatcher that the Falklands could be retaken - she jumped at the chance of the reflected glory - but it was a close run thing involving much scraping of the barrel and I doubt it could be achieved nowadays. The weasel John Knott was busy trying to sell Hermes and Invincible to the Australians at knock down rates at the very time Argentina invaded. Elements of the UK's participation in Basra did not reflect well on the Army's conduct. Was General Sir Mike Jackson a good CGS in his control of the Army despite claims of equipment shortages and the legality of the Iraq war or was he a man who really knew what his people were capable of?

Politicians are ultimately responsible for the state of a country's armed forces. They need to have the guts to employ and have candid opinions from the service chiefs and advisors, and disregard the more obvious inter-service rivalries. The state of the carrier force and its F35s is a very good illustration of the failures of successive political 'leaders' and those below them in the food chain.

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#5 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Sat May 27, 2023 9:15 pm

At the time of the Falklands, half of Thatcher's cabinet had served in the regular forces, most of them in combat. She had good advice.
Bliar had no one for most of his government. Bliar himself had even skived out of the compulsory CCF at school.
Now, there's Ben.

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#6 Post by FD2 » Sat May 27, 2023 10:26 pm

I tend to get more than annoyed when the name of Bliar appears. I think his sources of advice were his wife and Alistair Campbell. He periodically sticks his head up and offers an opinion on some contentious matter and is loudly shouted down by critics. In my mind I can only think of the cartoon of his feet emerging from Bush's backside in the lead up to the War.

Despite those critics screaming about Thatcher and so-called 'comedians' rejoicing after her death I think that on the whole the country was better run then than it has been on many occasions since. She obviously fell short on some matters though. Westminster at times has descended into chaos since, aided and abetted by the pompous little former Speaker Bercow. Cameron's reign seems to have started a run of particularly inept and cowardly governments.

The UK has been correct in its rapid military aid to Ukraine - now let's see how fast the country's armed forces are re-equipped.

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#7 Post by barkingmad » Mon May 29, 2023 6:44 pm

Never fear, rescue is at hand!!

I don’t think this little snippet from our favourite taxi-driver cum undertaker will be featured on MSM, but if true then our brave boys, girls and in-betweens will have to brush up their ‘furrin’ language skills and the UK’s abysmal defence equipment history will be no more;



And returning to the OP and this thread, FAO those who’d like to distract from the topic (!), WTF are our current ‘defence‘ chiefs doing letting this slip past their eagle eyes?!?! X(

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#8 Post by OneHungLow » Mon May 29, 2023 7:16 pm

That bloke with the moustache is a shoe in for my window cleaner, one of the most right wing, and one of the most ill informed men, and lunatic conspiracy mongers, that I have ever had the misfortune to have to listen to, that is until I watched that video. :))

Does that chap genuinely think that the UK (under any government) is going adopt a totally isolationist defence policy in the context of the current European, or rather world order, what with Russia and China making ever more belligerent demands and the former country involved in waging a criminal war on Ukraine and threatening to nuke both the UK and EU countries on an almost weekly basis.

Read the sample comments below the video to understand the lunacy of some of the people who take this guy seriously.
"The only acceptable military action the UK should have with the EUSSR is to turn Brussels into a rubble pile and then make the rubble bounce just to make sure."

"I feel like my 35 years of RAF Service was all for naught. I am absolutely disgusted by this news." (Not you I hope bm? :)) ) =))

"Outrageous but predictable so. depressing they have already given most of their military resources to Zelensky."
Good God, the man is a total loon and his angry army a bunch of disconsolate frothers!
The observer of fools in military south and north...

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#9 Post by barkingmad » Mon May 29, 2023 7:26 pm

OHL, any more of that blasphemy and I will be provoked into posting a video of Nigel Farage, on any topic, in order to raise your blood pressure to a meducally acceptable level !

Please don’t make me do it ! :-o

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#10 Post by OneHungLow » Mon May 29, 2023 7:42 pm

barkingmad wrote:
Mon May 29, 2023 7:26 pm
OHL, any more of that blasphemy and I will be provoked into posting a video of Nigel Farage, on any topic, in order to raise your blood pressure to a meducally acceptable level !

Please don’t make me do it ! :-o
Don't, don't bm, have mercy on this man who needs to renew his Class 2 medical next month! ;)))
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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#11 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon May 29, 2023 7:48 pm

OneHungLow wrote:
Mon May 29, 2023 7:42 pm

Don't, don't bm, have mercy on this man who needs to renew his Class 2 medical next month! ;)))
Just be glad that you don't need a First Class and your livelihood doesn't depend on it! :))

PP

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Re: UK Service Chiefs

#12 Post by OneHungLow » Mon May 29, 2023 7:50 pm

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Mon May 29, 2023 7:48 pm
OneHungLow wrote:
Mon May 29, 2023 7:42 pm

Don't, don't bm, have mercy on this man who needs to renew his Class 2 medical next month! ;)))
Just be glad that you don't need a First Class and your livelihood doesn't depend on it! :))

PP
Yes, that is one consolation PHP! ;)))

Good health and long life to you Sir!
The observer of fools in military south and north...

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