@Teribus 11 Nov 14 - 08:37 AM
You obviously didn't live in the UK in the 1950s/60s. Harry Enfield's take on the Public Service style was funny because it was so damned accurate, these were the people who'd been military in WWII and thought that that gave them a sacred mandate to continue to be Captain Mainwarings until the end of their born days. The soldiers voted the Tories out in 1945, but couldn't get rid of their influence until cockups like the Irish bombing campaign and Bloody Sunday made the military command wake up. I was in Occifer Training during that period, and it was very much like the Army in 1941, when the old timers where booted out for having schlerotic thinking. Frank Kitson's work on terrorism was almost a litmus paper for it, if you thought it was crap you were out - thankfully so, because it clued us up to where we are now.
So when did the Military take over? WWII, and their fault was they never let go, the only miracle is we didn't have a Revolution in 68 like the French did - but then again, the use of D-Notices was prolific. This is still part of that heritage, as we haven't finished the job yet.

Once upon a time the Military used to vie for the honour of receiving the first shot in a battle. Bugger the poor sod who actually got shot. It's this same kind of Redcoat BS that they still have stuck up their arses. The Guards Division still wear the redcoat. Heck, the party at the Tower was stiffened with ruddy Tudors, bestockinged and all. Pretty they may be, but is pretty what builds the peace?

The military in every democracy have a fine line to walk between guarding the Nation and bullying it. The first question is, who is the nation? People like our beloved PM would doubtless say big business, the oldtimers Debretts (we fired that bunch from commanding the Army in 1871, but have they got it yet? Like hell - the Officer Corps still has its subtleties in whether you can afford the kit or not - we may have stopped purchasing commissions, but officers spend instead on comic-opera dress uniforms. Brigadier expletive deleted Gerald Grosvenor being a case in point).

We have eased their grip - but what we must beware of is allowing them to impose it again. The US Homeland Bill and the equivalent jiddery=pokery here are favourite toys in that direction - do you think it by chance that the abuse of anti-terrorism legislation by local Councils only produced a slapped wrist?