A group of former leaders of the British Army is concerned that “the reputation of the armed forces is being tarnished by right-wing political “extremists”. Commander of the Desert Rats in the first Gulf War, Major-General Sir Patrick Cordingley, generals Sir Mike Jackson and Sir Richard Dannatt and former Chief of Defence Staff Lord Guthrie don’t seem to be playing it for laughs when they write on behalf of a campaign called Stolen Valour:
“We call on all those who seek to hijack the good name of Britain’s military for their own advantage to cease and desist. The values of these extremists – many of whom are essentially racist – are fundamentally at odds with the values of the modern British military, such as tolerance and fairness.”
What seems to have irked these champions of tolerance, fairness and going into other people’s countries to kill them is the use of a picture of a Spitfire fighter plane by the BNP during its European election campaign which it fought under the slogan “Battle for Britain”.
The trouble with adopting a new corporate ethos is that it does take rather a long time to change perceptions of what your organisation does. Although Rudyard Kipling did have a similar spin I must have missed the advertising campaigns announcing that the new purpose of the British Army is to bring the values of tolerance and fairness to benighted savage races It’s labouring under the handicap that it has spent several centuries trying to position itself as the brand leader in killing machines, usually of folk of a slightly darker complexion than those currently permitted to join the BNP. If we quickly survey the post WW2 period it’s hard to find many examples of the British Army’s liberal values in Kenya, Cyprus, Malaysia, Aden, Iraq or Egypt just to pick a few random post colonial entanglements.
With racist historical baggage of that calibre in your kit it’s not too hard to work out that you might have something to offer the demoralised angry racists who join the BNP. That’s one side effect of having a substantial part of national identity tied up with former imperial victories.
Liam redux 
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