Evacuation from Libya

[sweetgilly]

AIBU to expect those individuals who accept high tax free salaried positions in hostile environments, to then meet the costs of evacuation should the need arise. Why should the British tax payer meet the costs?

'I think the armed forces provides a platform for those in society who wouldn't necessarily be able to gain employment in real life'

Really?

DH spent years training to be a Propulsion engineer in the RAF.

He was overqualified for plenty of 'civvy' jobs when he finished his 13 years service.

at your opinion of the intelligence of servicemen and women.

'And how many of those sailors have a degree and a masters in electrical engineering and can fix a gas turbine so it'll work and oil can be pumped out the ground? People generally get paid what they're worth in a business/financial sense.'

Several will, and some won't, as you are using sailor in the generic term. Many of those sailors you sound contemptuous of cannot do their job without their degrees in electronic and mechanical engineering, many will have their CEng and their Masters degrees as well. They also work on the principle that you don't ask your team to do anything you can't do yourself. However, the sailors without degrees can fix the turbines that keep the ship running without needing an MEng to do so.

Those in Brits who needed help in Libya should have got it. I hope however that the MoD won't be footing the bill for the use of the military, and that it will come out of the contingency fund.