>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Prince Harry is coming home<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

[RTKangaDYSONMummy]

MOD have announced

ANMHE - LOL that's always the question when Hazza's under scrutinty. Maybe that's why the poor bloke feels he has so much to prove.

Pennies...but it would be the worst pr army can have...I mean...it's not like the war is exactly great pr to recruit new blood...and I am pretty sure the whole...oh we send our Harry out there, just to make it more dangerous for yer lads...is not a good stunt...which was why there was such a hoohah those month ago about sending him out in the first place.
You clearly haven't got army connections, do ya...
and I think pointydog was being sarky, btw...but I might have got that wrong, of course...

Re the DNA, FFS, read this:

Check out the order of the alleged lovers:

I was half wondering the same as Pennies tbh.

He wanted to go. They said no. He got very pissed off. They say he can go. It accidentally gets leaked. He gets pulled back. They swear to him that it was all a giant cock up and not planned.

He is appeased and feels he has gotten to serve his country, it does help both the royal and army pr.

I think it's more likely a journo than a conspiracy.

sarky about the PR? I wasn't actually. Just a different opinion

Amidst all the speculation about Harry, his posting, his parentage and journos, I hope the story that there are thousands of Afghanis suffering from extreme cold and lack of food right now gets some prominence. You can help them if you want here

Pointydog...but they're not recruiting are they? The Armed Forces, all of them, are undermanned and overstretched, and are having difficulty in making the numbers up. I think the total is something like 10,000 in total. Boots the Chemist employs more people than the Royal Navy for god's sake. I don't think that having had Harry out there will make one jot of difference to recruitment..at the moment you have too many tours with little respite in between and the families are beginning to get pissed off as well. This is in the newspapers all the time...lots of separation, bad standard of housing for families, equipment not up to spec./ Why do you think the Govt sanctioned the 2.6% pay rise for the Armed Forces this year? Because they can't afford for them to get any more unhappy than they already are. People are walking in droves, especially at the mid ranking officer level, and they will soon have no-one with the requisite combat experience to go and fight.

I'm speaking as an observer, not as someone with family connections to the armed forces. I know recruitment is a problem.

The Harry documentary is excellent PR. I'm just stating that as a fact (to an average punter like me) not as a criticism

Does anyone else find it hard to take seriously a man called 'Jock Stirrup'?

PMSL at picture of Harry in Grauniad (referring to hat he is wearing); 'Harry bravely combines tan and ginger'

Pennies I only got halfway down page 2 and agree with you completely.

Someone is saying why should the army toe the line? Er, because harry's grandmother is its Commander in Chief!!!

He wants to go to the front line. people say no cos it will put others at risk. People will critisise his 'special treatment' if he doesn't go. So he gets to go, but whether Harry knows it or not, he will be pulled as soon as either the press find out, or its conveniently leaked to the press.
Harry gets to come home with everyone saying 'isn't he brave', army and royal family praised for letting him go.

Sorry, pointy, wasn't having a go...honestly thought you were being sarcastic...just an honest mistake!

As for the whole recruiting issue...wellllllllllllllllllll, don't get me started...because here is one pissed off Army, almost Ex-army wife...dh would have loved to extent, but due to major cock up on their side, it ain't happening...and well...if one things army treats their squaddies bad, they are even worse when they "dump" them...fecking bastards....me bitter...oh well, why would I be....dh has served in the armed forces for 22 year this april, I met him about half way through, and therefore have had to really put my own life on hold...Nursing became impossible, due to his shift pattern, and us wanting at least one "certainty" in our Kids life...and other Jobs are also highly dependent on how he works, etc...it's ridiculous...but it was his life, therefore it was mine...and it pisses me off how they are basically just discarding of him....especially as he was more then willing to go on further tours into warzones...but hohum...there loss...blardy idiots...

3andnomore - surely your post just goes to show how putting they're troops at risk isn't so crazy because they clear treat them all really badly as a matter of course from what you're saying.

As for the question over recruiting - the armed forces are ALWAYS recruiting.

Interesting timing of this article here - wasn't it the day before Harry left to go out there?

Then in January Army glamorises itself for recruitment purposes which brings us full circle back to those fab foremarms and light tan....

I was talking to DH about my view on this today and he was with me 100%. He is not a member of any UFO spotters club nor is he related to Lord Lucan. Got to dash, Shergar needs exercising.

Pennies - did you actually read ALL of your second link? Including the bit that said the report was misleading and out of date! That article was essentially pronounced a load of bollocks shortly after it was released (before January - the paper has just rehashed it).

Not everyone gets treated really badly. Of course it's shite what has happened to 3andnomore's dh, but think of it from another perspective.......after 22 yrs he has some rank, and is paid more. They can keep him in and keep paying him more cash or they can recruit someone new who gets paid less. We are undermanned and our budget has been cut (again and again and again) so have to make savings wherever poss. It doesn't excuse it, but goes some way to explain it.

Prince Harry had a job he wanted to do, and by all accounts has done it very well. He was supposed to stay out there for longer but an American website blew his cover. Staying out there is no longer an option, for his own and his boys safety therefore he comes home. That's it, no conspiracy, no spin. No need to be paranoid!

(3andnomore - has your dh thought about FTRS/NRPS appts.....always a lot of those around)

Im really not big on the Royal family but I dont see this as a PR stunt - if you think about it despite being "rich" Harry doesnt really get to enjoy it does he - if he gets pissed & falls out of a nighclub (yes like your children and mine WILL at that age) he is villified for it.

William is "the heir", the one the girls (strangely) swoon over, Harry is the ginger fallback...this is probably the first time in his life he has had a chance to be a man and come out from William's shadow. Not really surprising Harry & Margaret were wayward, it must be sibling rivalry x 1000 in their situation.

Pulling him out once it was made public was totally the right thing to do though, not totally convinced he is that much safer here now though.

How could ANYONE doubt his paternity - you only have to look at him LOL

Pennies,I don't think that what "happened" to us is comparable to assuming that this whole stuff is a PR stunt...whilst I am very pissed off on a personal level, for the reasons Mouse states I can see the sense it makes from their perspective....and of course, my dh actually wanting to extent should also show that of course the army hasn't always treated us badly...! He wouldn't want to extent otherwise.

Oh and mouse, excuse my ignorance, but what are FTRS/NRPS appts???? I should probably know this, lol...but can't work it out.

3andnomore. Full Time Reserve Service and Non Regular Permanent Staff. Very (very) basically it means leaving at his 22 yr point then joining the TA, but in a full time appointment. With one you get your pension plus your new wage, with the other you get your pension and your new wage 'tops it up' to bring you back to the wage you were on before. Both carry min terms of 5 yrs. If he can get onto MS Web from work (or ask his clerical staff) he could see all the rules and current vacancies.

HTH

Blimey, so it's not just Mohammed Al Fayed who sees conspiracies everywhere, then!!

Harry is a soldier. He wants to deploy on operations with his soldiers. He wasn't allowed to go to Iraq because the fact he was due to go was leaked in advance. So the MOD got the British press to agree to keep his deployment to Afghanistan quiet until he came back. At that point, they would be allowed to release all the footage filmed during the deployment. Some scummy little pond-dweller ruined things and Harry had tocome home early, which he must have been gutted about. That's it. No MI6 involvement or double decker buses on grassy knolls.

Sheesh.