Teri, it's what he said (maybe with a bit of the folk process).

I now use his SAS presentation dagger as a paperknife, I've seen him climb out of a wheelchair and end up with his knee on the throat of a bloke of about 6 foot 6 and 17 stone, I've seen his score sheets from when he shot for the Navy at Bisley, and the bit about the charge is true - I saw the paperwork, and the bail condition is true - I was there.

You are I think generally well informed on military matters, but you don't know the facts of this case.   


Mither, your words "brave people who took exception to being treated as pawns by those who were supposed to be representing their interests". I know not and care not much whether you have a "bob or two" (an expression that one of the most loathsome women I ever knew used to use) but I do care that most of the time you are actively on the side of the oppressors (at least in argument here) and every so often you say something that looks as if you have a social conscience.

Oh, and by the way, Thatcher's "clarifications" affected the ability of people to get legal aid not one whit. Other things may have done but not that. My recollection is that NAFF (the aptly acronymed "National Association For Freedom", Ross McWhirter's far right association of abusers of wealth and power) funded many of the legal actions against the trade unions during the Thatcher period and I thought that the one you are so proud of was one, but I may be eliding more than one event from the 70s.   Engaging with society (or at least the parts of it you cannot bring to order) is exactly what you don't do. All you do here is call for repression that will aggravate alienation. Much as I hate to quote Cameron, "Hug a Hoodie" - you won't integrate him into society by punishment.

There was a church near here that used to put up posters, and one said "You'll never knock Christianity in to anyone with a hammer, try a screwdriver and a few good turns".