The MOD has had to fill in a 20 million pound hole in it’s accounts that has suddenly cropped up. They decided to get around this by not paying TA soldiers who are not on, or are about to go on (read: In pre-deployment training) operations. Everyone else gets no money. Until April 2010. The RAF and Navy, the two biggest drains on the MOD, and the two arms that are doing the smallest, tiniest edges of fighting when compared to the Army commitment, are totally untouched.
I mean, what the flying fecking shagging sodding HELL are the MOD thinking?
But of course, Labour will be out by may. They don’t give two shits the mess they leave for the next government to clean up.
NB: I’m doubly annoyed as this affects the ACF as well. I will not be going on any training weekends, any shooting or any exercises next year as we will not have the money for it. I won’t progress, I won’t achieve anything. And just as I was about to get my third stripe.
PNB: This is a rant, it doesn’t nessecerily make sense. This is what the soap box is for, YELLING AT THE WORLD.
It might be a blow for a country’s ego however it makes sense for a government to scale back on declaring expensive wars on other countries. Particularly with weekend Quasar enthusiasts whose contribution to British national security is less useful than Israel’s volunteer weekend force…
In a recession, it makes sense to improve domestic infrastructure rather than squandering money.
Come on get a grip lad… they gota fund there second houses and their porn films… in that fact even their first house… before they can fund anything else
the armed forces and others like nurses are underpaid and should have a decent wage rise.
its the poxy tube lot and others that should be on less
are’nt tube workers on nigh on 15g more than armed forces? go figure, and they strike regular for more.
Slightly misleading topic thread here me thinks as it sounds like you’re talking about this :
Does strike me as somewhat short sighted in light of the TA involvement in Afghanistan, particularly when in the overall scheme of things £20 million is barely a fraction of a pittance.
And with train drivers their training pay is what a infantryman would get after training… once a train driver has passed all his/her tests they are on silly money…
I can’t say I understand this issue at all. The Times article seems to paint a very different picture than the ‘Army pay freeze’ buzzline.
The bottomline is that there isn’t enough money in the country to go war mongering, let alone provide healthcare; pay pensions for the over 65 and maintain current standards for an increasing population with a widening gap between rich and poor. The pay freeze for the TA is inevitable: the consequences of political shortsightedness. It leaves an impotent TA ;(
Does anyone know why it is, in our unwritten constitution, civilians are permitted to strike, but military and police people aren’t? Apart from lacking sheer commonsense that is
He could. Israel’s army is mostly conscription (5years for men, 3 for women then 1 week a year till you are 55 ) and most still volunteer on top of that.
Pay almost non exist but they are still (in comparison to their size and the size of the country) the most powerful army in the world and they have the best intelligence service in the world.
they knew Saddam had no WMDs. And they were smart enough to keep that to themself so someone else son’s wold fight their war…
Oh and may i add to the fact of what you mentioned about the Navy and RAF having such a small part inthe conflict… They are actualy on about getting rid of the RAF and merging them into the Army and the Navy
I’ve heard this from a couple of sources, too. Returning, in essence, to the WWI way of doing things.
We no longer really have a need for a large-scale air force with air-to-air capabilities with the kinds of wars we seem to be fighting, and the majority of CAS at the moment is being carried out by AAC or the USAF, and a good chunk of the UK strike commitment is the Naval Strike Wing with their Harriers. We can also get rid of the complete chocolate teapot that the Eurofighter is, that or give it a ground strike package to make it useful.
Fold all/most rotary-wing assets into the AAC and stick all fixed-wing flight with the Navy, and give them ground stations to fly out of. Sounds like a plan.
Although you’d anger a lot of pilots who would have to re-badge and change their ways.
thank fuck i got out before pay 2000…that was a serious finger in the anus…
i dont get this country atall…we need all armed forces RAF…Navy …Army…ohh go on then…and the marines…(shudders)
we should be ploughing all the cash we have to give our lads the best guccie kit around and not have to have them fish around in millets before a fuckin tour…and i’ll tell that camron twat too his face if i ever meet him…cnut…
give our lad a fighting fuckin chance will ya…Terry’s are all over us ffs!!!
This is a two year pay freeze for the Armed Forces just like for the Rozzers and the NHS (Sorry Mel). However, bear in mind that the operational allowance has been greatly increased for those on ops.
As a current serving member of the RAF, I’m not happy about a pay freeze, but as many others are loosing there jobs I’ll take that any time. This has nothing to do with Pay 2000 but the last governments decisions.
This disbandment of the RAF is news to me!
Oh who maintains the Apache helicopters? RAF techies, as the AAC mechanics aren’t trained to repair the avionics suit!
Who’s base does the Harrier strike force reside on and were all the 2nd and 3rd line maintenance is for all the Harriers? RAF Cottesmore!!!
Oh by the way Jamesy D, the RAF and RN are fully involved with ALL operations and ALL services are loosing lives. With the exception of ASBO, how many of contributors to this little thread have been on live ops in the last 5 years? Over the last 5 years, I’ve spent 4 birthdays in the Middle East, one of which was during a 6 months tour in Baghdad, which included being mortared on a daily basis - but I’m RAF so I don’t contribute to any conflict! I get peeved off by weekender’s bleating on about crap they don’t actually know about, live it, breath it, **** it - don’t just play at it…
Now Now ladies Everyone knows its ‘Army Be The Best’ :D:hehe:
Oh and Rob its just sumat ive herd on the rumour mill about the RAF bein merged into the Army and Navy… dont know how true it is or how it will work. I know there is an RAF base that is being closed aparently, cant remember what its called but i met an RAF copper that worked there who mentioned that to me.
And army pay is shite… low pay band for dog hanlders when they are the ones in front of everyone searching for explosives yet obviously the infantry is on high, engineers are on high, REME is on high… pay reveiws are crap and even when they go your way it turns out there aint enough money in the budget… arwell, give it 2 years then i can and will be signing off… unfortunately im time barred cuz i transferred from 1 cap badge to another
To be honest, there are at least three RAF bases closing between now and 2015. One of the rumours I had heard is that some of the Typhoons will be sold abroad instead of coming to the RAF, only half of the new Astute class of sub will be built, the new carriers are under risk and I heard that there will not be a replacement for Challenger II MBT untill about 2020 at the earliest!
In the RAF, pay depends on the lenght of training and the technical ability to do a job. As a Comms NCO, my pays pretty good.
At the end of the day, this country finances have been badly managed for ages, now when times get harder the chickens come home to roost and its biting this government up the arse. I’d rather suffer a freeze for a couple of years (just as the rozzers and NHS are to name but two) and help the general recovery than be unpopular and insist on some stupid pay rise, against the rest of the national trend.
Everyone knows its ‘Army Be The Best’ :D:hehe: