We Can Hardly Blame The Younger Generation Now...

...not when their so-called leaders display such a woeful lack of courage and judgement, can we?

Picture the scene: Down in Plymouth, a town with a long and proud history of military service and tradition, the young cadets have spent months drilling to represent the cadet service on Remembrance Day.

And a member of the public wasn't happy about this. Because of the noise? The disruption to traffic? Why, no.

Because they were drilling with weapons.

And this oh-so-sensitive soul did what all such cretins now feel empowered to do when they see something which offends their delicate sensibilities - he or she complained.

And that would usually be an end to it, because such complaints would have been brushed aside by the cadet top brass. But we don't have people of the right calibre in these important roles any more.

Instead, we have the likes of Major David Waterworth:

...Devon Cadet Executive Officer Major David Waterworth put an end to the tradition after he ruled that carrying weapons was 'not good for the image' of cadets, who can join between the ages of 12 and 18.

Whereas, I suppose, it's good for the image of the cadets that the man in charge is the sort of person who, on meeting any kind of resistance, flings himself to the ground and rolls over on his back, lips pulled back from his teeth in supplication, tail between his legs, pissing himself in submission?

'I stopped it as soon as I heard they were doing it.'

Well done! My god, we could use men like you in....well, I'm not sure where, exactly. Certainly not in any leadership capacity.

'It's not good for our image to have children carrying weapons in public.'

No, indeed. Far better they learn that, instead of tools to be used by those for whom they may be needed, guns are quasi-mystical objects before which superstitious fools cower in fear.

That'll solve our 'gun culture' problem, I suppose?

'We are not members of the Armed Forces - we are a youth movement sponsored by the Ministry of Defence.'

You'll be dropping the 'Army' bit of the name, then? And the Army-based uniform? And the Army-based command structure, that allows a little popinjay like yourself to strut about on weekends and give orders to people who have, no doubt, accomplished far, far more than you ever will?

Good grief, man, you didn't even have the courage to OWN your decision, instead whining about having no choice in the matter:

He added that a ruling against children carrying rifles had been in place for ten years, but had not been enforced until now.

No doubt those years were in the charge of men with a better grasp of their role than you evidently have.

As I believe a far, far greater military man than Major David Waterworth could ever hope to be once said, 'Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men'...

It seems that the problem stems from a ruling ten years ago, when the UK signed an agreement against 'using child soldiers'. Which naturally, to those unable to think clearly, meant that cadets should no longer drill with weapons.

So, iDave and the coalition - who's going to tell the Cadet top brass that there's a new sheriff in town. I mean, there IS a new sheriff in town, isn't there?