Monday, October 02, 2006
Our poor bloody infantry
Read this What a surprise,the US military being exempt from paying tax on active service while the British Army are taxed to the hilt and payed peanuts,below the minimum working wage.This I am already painfully aware of from my own time serving Queen and country and it has always been a bone of contention with myself and my former comrades in arms at the blatant unfairness of it.Since before the days of Waterloo the British squaddie has never been payed a kings ransom and never expected one.We didn't join the army for the money and we certainly never hoped to make it into a higher tax bracket.We joined for many reasons-patriotism,adventure or just wanting to experiance a life out of the ordinary,away from a dreary existance of the nine to five prison sentence that many "Civvies" serve their whole lives.For centuries the governments of Britain have always had a policy of low pay for our servicemen and it has become the accepted norm for all concerned,but now we are in the twenty first century and soldiering has evolved far beyond the days of forming a "Thin Red line" of poorly educated musketmen who didn't have to think for themselves but blindly obeyed orders to the highly trained soldier of todays battlefield,skilled in sophisticated computer operated weaponry,thermal imagers and laser guided smartbombs.It is a discrace that needs to be addressed immediately!Our servicemen's pay needs at least to be brought up above the minimum working wage.Is the government suggesting that street cleaners should be payed more than British Soldiers who are daily risking their lives for this country?A pay rise is long overdue and I believe that a tax exemption for soldiers on active service is an excellent idear and a small way for the nation to say thank you to those who are willing to sacrifice their all on our behalf.
I see Blair has just jumped on Cameron's bandwagon
I see Blair has just jumped on Cameron's bandwagon
