Thin Pinstriped Line

Why the Falkland Islands are unlikely to be invaded again. A perennial favourite headline of so many newspapers, particularly tabloids, is to proclaim that Argentina threatens the Falklands, that the Royal Navy couldn't possibly mount a task force again, and that western civilisation as we know it is threatened by the fact that a   territorial dispute exists between Argentina and the UK. For this inaugural analytical blog article, I want to try and look beneath the dispute, to try and examine the real level of threat to the Falklands, and to also explain why it is highly unlikely that the Argentineans could repeat 1982 without some spectacular investment, planning and luck. Argentine Bellicosity The Falklands are an election issue, and an easy means of unifying the Argentine people against an external wrong that must be righted. At its most simple, the dispute has little to do with any geographic claim, but instead provides successive Argentinean leadership figures with an easy me...

In todays press (28 Dec), there is a report based on a hansard answer suggesting that the MOD has 690 press officers. Cue massive complaints across the board, and perceptions that the MOD somehow has an entire batallion of press officers ready to do battle with the true enemy of fleet street. ( http://newsnetscotland.com/index.php/scottish-politics/3960-mod-criticised-for-spending-on-media-personnel-in-wake-of-defence-cuts ) The reality is somewhat more prosaic - all units at any reasonable size have a press officer. Its usually a job given to whichever junior officer or SNCO isn't fast enough to get out of the way. The role is simple, try to turn the general activities of the unit into something which over time can be used across social media, press, networking sites and so on in order to show what the unit is doing, and how this adds value to the MOD, and justifies taxpayers spending money on it. Larger units have their own more full time press officer (by full time I mean ma...

Hello there, welcome to my defence blogging site. This site came about as a result of immense frustration about the lack of sensible, balanced coverage in the media, and on the internet about defence related issues. I've been commenting for some years on sites such as ARRSE, and Rum Ration about the importance of defence, but also trying to put a bit of balance into things too. My aim with this site is to use it as an occasional blog, talking about defence issues of the day, and trying to put longer thoughts together from time to time, which set out things that some media commentators may have missed. I dont know how often I'm going to be able to update this site, but my intent is to do it as regularly as time permits.