[Remembrance Sunday]
There are penpushers and then there are penpushers, and - as you will surely recall - I never said all of
them should be hanged. In fact, the work of some of them, even though
they may be a tiny, endangered bunch, is quite commendable and
deserves a long-overdue pay rise. Among them there is the Royal Army
Pay Corps, aka 'The Ink Slingers' and 'The Quill Drivers'. “An army
runs on good food, dry feet, cheerful comrades, effective officers
and regular pay (although not necessarily always in this order)”,
someone once said**. And if anyone wants peace, as I do, they must appreciate those who help the army run smoothly and remain in peace-preserving war-readiness.
I could bet your bottom bullet that
each army has an ever-expanding, mindless, useless and
overpaid pen-pushing division, but I would never put the Pay Corps in this
category, because I believe in British generals and admirals (actually I have
met a couple and formed a rather pleasant opinion of them; I must admit
though, that my judgement may have been swayed by a glass or two
of port – i.e. a glass or two too many) and even if I lost my bottom
bullet in the first bet, I would win it back in the second one: I can bet your second bottom bullet that British generals would never allow British soldiers to go unpaid or
be treated unfairly, money- and other-wise. At least not until
British politicians step in. In fact I'd go as far as to say that if
British politicians looked after their voters even half as well as
British generals look after their soldiers, this would be a
completely different place. (And, to uphold my anti-democratic
credentials, at the moment I'd rather the nation be run by generals
than by politicians).
*I salute you!
**and a topical booklet found in a local library repeated.
