These people are in a no win situation. They have been used as political pawns by the Iranians and Blairs govinment. Now they getting knocked for trying to pick up there pieces of their lives and move on. If they write books or go on TV or sell stories to newspapers, then shouldn't they be allowed to. Laughing at them is bad. They could get seriously depressed and then what? If we laugh at them we are partly responsible for their misery. Shouldn't we leave them alone now?
In this country we expect a great deal from our armed forces...and that includes preserving the dignity of themselves and the country. You wouldn't expect Hardy to have done a kiss-and-tell would you? They should have maintained a dignified silence to demonstrate the difference between the media-directed ordeal they went through and the British response. Instead they're showing the Iranians that they played the hostage crisis exactly right.
While I don't condone their behaviour in selling their stories, I honestly cannot believe what a fuss has been made about all this. It's really not that big a deal.