Baldric - /////don’t ever think that serving makes you a better man///
I don't, nor have I ever expressed that opinion. //
A fair point - but your barbed observation certainly pointed in that direction.
//What I will always say is that if you have never been there and experienced it you will not understand the humour that goes with it. //
I don't agree at all.
I have never been in Belsen, but I certainly have a robust opinion about the Final Solution.
The notion that you need to experience something directly in order to have an informed opinion about it is not valid.
I write for technical magazines about drums, bass guitars, acoustic guitars and electric guitars. I play none of these, even badly, but I am able to have an informed conversation with top level musicians who do, on their level, because I understand a seriously large amount about them and the instruments they play.
It really does not work in Civvy Street where uninformed opinions are the norm, //
Again an assumption which I do not believe has weight.
//and it should never have been put out there because it just gives the anti Services brigade something else to whinge about. //
And there we are absolutely in agreement. It was a rather juvenile prank, and it should have stayed in-house.