Hostage Crisis, Stable door bolted after horses have bolted

Apparently the Cretin* Des Browne, currently Defence Secretary (though possibly not for much longer of Tony Blair had both sense and power, though he appears to have neither), has now banned the selling of stories by servicemen.

Well it is a bit late now isn't it?

Not only is there the morale sapping issue of many many service personnel who put their lives on the line on a daily basis not getting windfalls for surrendering** who must wonder what the armed services have come to.

Then there are all the relatives of those who have lost their lives and received at best a widows pension. They have taken their loss with dignity. We as a nation owe them our thanks.

What is worse however is the stories they have told. I have not read the scum media that paid for the stories myself because they make me sick, however I am led to believe that the youngest soldier complained of having his ears flicked, being called mister Bean and fearing they were measuring him up for a coffin. He then related how he cried like a baby in his cell. Ah bless.

It is one thing all this being true, it is another blazing it across the red tops. What was he thinking? He has made all his colleagues look like wimps as well as himself. They must be livid. It hardly brings glory to our armed forces, nor is it likely to strike fear into the enemy is it? Prat.

Faye Turney apparently was stripped to her underwear and feared she would never see her daughter again. Well that is a risk run in the armed services. If you don't like it get a job doing something else. People in the armed services die, it goes with the job.

The other thing is that this was all a bit predictable. I heard Max Clifford on BBC Radio 4's one o'clock news this afternoon, whilst I was out digging in my allotment.

I am not quite sure whether he said he was consulted or whether he was saying what he would have said if he was, but over the course of the interview he made a number of key points.

Firstly that the selling of the stories was some kind of counter propaganda attempt that has obviously gone badly wrong.

Secondly and more obvious with foresight rather than hindsight,if you sell a story for cash, it has to be an exclusive. If it is an exclusive then there are a number of tabloids who don't get the story and set about destroying it, and the people involved. This is in part happening.

He would or did have strongly advised against.

Meanwhile the papers have the following:

The Times front page has this, with this inside on how the officers involved did not want payment, and this leading article which says ministers can't escape responsibility.

The Daily Mail has this by Richard Littlejohn, who is pleased his father is not alive to witness this, this on the U-turn and this reaction from the mother of Eleanor Dlugosz who died on the day the 15 were released.

The Telegraph has this.

* If any cretins are offended by being compared to Des Browne, I humbly apologise and am truly sorry for any offence caused.

** I am not suggesting that in the circumstances there was another option other than surrender, it is however not an event we should be dwelling on.