Army troop budgets

meghatronic said:
Of course they can!

Only not under a Labour government: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ele...ection-2010-soldiers-may-not-get-to-vote.html
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All soldiers are encouraged to set-up other means of using their vote whilst deployed either abroad or on operations. Having lived in Germany for the last three years I know very well that soldiers are reminded regularly to apply for vote-by-proxy.

It really has nothing to do with the Labour government. Or any government. The truth is that those soldiers who are not registered to vote were either too apathetic or lazy to set-up an alternative way to vote - despite the MOD sending them the paperwork in the post.

The soldiers on operations know full well that normality is left well behind as they step on the plane.
 
subrosa said:
All soldiers are encouraged to set-up other means of using their vote whilst deployed either abroad or on operations. Having lived in Germany for the last three years I know very well that soldiers are reminded regularly to apply for vote-by-proxy.

It really has nothing to do with the Labour government. Or any government. The truth is that those soldiers who are not registered to vote were either too apathetic or lazy to set-up an alternative way to vote - despite the MOD sending them the paperwork in the post.

The soldiers on operations know full well that normality is left well behind as they step on the plane.
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All the papers are suggesting that those that wish to vote in person, rather than via proxy, may be unable to do so due to the late and snap call of the election (ballot papers etc).

What's more, under the "Representation of the People Act 2000", military have a choice of putting their names on the electoral roll through the Armed Forces or as civilians. If the former, they must re-register every year. Hence, as people are inherently lazy, this unnecessary Labour bureaucratic step has meant service voters dropped from 139,000 to 21,000.

Also, "Andrew Robathan, Conservative defence spokesman, conducted a straw poll while in Iraq in February and found that eight out of 10 troops had not registered and had no idea that they had to. He said the Electoral Commission was "patently not interested in making sure that people serving their country are able to vote"."

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04276.pdf
 
meghatronic said:
All the papers are suggesting that those that wish to vote in person, rather than via proxy, may be unable to do so due to the late and snap call of the election (ballot papers etc).
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I don't disagree with this at all. However, the whole purpose of vote-by-proxy is to mitigate this. If the soldier chooses not to accept this alternative method of making their vote, that's the risk they take.

What's more, under the "Representation of the People Act 2000", military have a choice of putting their names on the electoral roll through the Armed Forces or as civilians. If the former, they must re-register every year. Hence, as people are inherently lazy, this unnecessary Labour bureaucratic step has meant service voters dropped from 139,000 to 21,000.
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I use the former method. Every year I receive paperwork to my home address which takes me 2 minutes to complete. I don't know why it's necessary to re-register every year but it has the benefit of forcing me to review what system of voting I have set-up. :)
Also, "Andrew Robathan, Conservative defence spokesman, conducted a straw poll while in Iraq in February and found that eight out of 10 troops had not registered and had no idea that they had to. He said the Electoral Commission was "patently not interested in making sure that people serving their country are able to vote"."

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04276.pdf
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A fallacy I'm afraid. A different conclusion that I could reach would be that 8/10 soldiers didn't listen to the advice their units gave them. If I had a pound for everytime I heard that a soldier didn't know they had to do x, y or z...:D In fairness, soldiers are swamped with information and things to do before deploying. Ensuring they were registered to vote would be close to the bottom of the list.
 
scorza said:
They deliberately starve troops of equipment if they didn't they'd have a load of happy marines on their hands. They don't want happy marines, they want unhappy, angry, aggressive marines.
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Generation Kill??



I don't think it is that the budget is too small, (it's the second highest in the world for god sake), I think it is more the moronic things they are forced to spend it on, e.g. Health & Safety, committees etc. That and the MoD who supply the army is run by Civil Servants who are famous at being able to waste money!!
 
I'd be willing to bet that your mate isn't missing 'essential' kit, if he's able to source his missing kit from Poundland.
 
naffa said:
Can I just ask something (hopefully fairly obvious) here.

If your friend the Marine was in need of equipment, and had to buy it himself, what equipment required for Iraqi/Afghan warfare would be found in Poundland? :confused: I'm at a bit of a loss for what he would actually need if he was able to source it from there.
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id like to know this too as i suspect it puts a totally different angle on this thread
 
who here has never moaned about not having everything they need at work ? this is the case here. theyve surely got enough to get by and do the job. just maybe not the best stuff but who does
 
always been the case i think im in training there and alwasy seem to spend at least 100quid on my own kit every month if not more, some of it essential/ forced to buy.

For example they were trying to give people cable ties for broken ammo pouches...compleltely bonkers so we have to buy our own if break them (which seems to happen) bivvie poles another example would be screwed without them (couldnt do the job realstically)
 
"andy" said:
who here has never moaned about not having everything they need at work ? this is the case here. theyve surely got enough to get by and do the job. just maybe not the best stuff but who does
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bit different when you're job is getting shot at though. How would you like it if you got a job and had to buy your desk, computer etc ?
 
Jokester said:
My mate was having to buy boots and clothing as the stuff they were issued with was useless for Afganistan.

Have we already forgotten the numerous news reports of family mailing out all this stuff and more to them?
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The kit issued for Afghan is now very good. The boots are fine and soldiers wouldn't be wearing any non-issued clothing. I think most of these stories come from our 2003 days in Iraq—we weren't prepared at all for that.
 
etom said:
always been the case i think im in training there and alwasy seem to spend at least 100quid on my own kit every month if not more, some of it essential/ forced to buy.

For example they were trying to give people cable ties for broken ammo pouches...compleltely bonkers so we have to buy our own if break them (which seems to happen) bivvie poles another example would be screwed without them (couldnt do the job realstically)
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etom, you should not be forced to spend money like that. If your issued kit is broken, ask your CQMS/QM's Dept to exchange it.

Officers at Sandhurst aren't allowed to take any non-issue kit on exercise. They do that to demonstrate to us that issue stuff is just fine. And yes, that meant no bivvie poles! ;)
 
well they don't have enough of the kit in the stores (and it doesnt help ran by civvie idiots) to actually give you replacement ammo pouches for example. Someone broke their zip on daysack and still can't get that replaced. Not bad for a lot of things wouldn't have problem getting new boots or whatever haha, just ammo pouches / bergans / webbing in general forced to either bodge a repair or buy our own as they won't have any kit in until like july lol.
 
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