SINCE when are soldiers given priority over women and children? I ask this question after watching a Royal Navy ship sail out of Santander with 500 soldiers aboard while 150'000 Britons remain stranded across the world because of the European no-fly zone.
Now, this is not a criticism of the solders who have been serving their country in a war zone for six months and put their lives on the line, but I do feel that this whole operation could have been managed differently. I am sure that some of the soldiers would have happily stayed in Santander, (which is rather a nice place) if they had known that their berth on the ship was being taken-up by mothers with children or even the elderly.
The soldiers simply were not asked and it was just another example of the Ministry of Defence failing again. The role of the armed forces in this whole affair has not been great; navy warships are diverted and then not needed and where was the Royal Air Force? Surely people who were stuck at Calais could have been airlifted back to Britain either by helicopter or Hercules transport? (which are propeller driven). At fault for this whole fiasco are not the ordinary servicemen but the Ministry of Defence and its small army of civil servants.
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