hot news – Advancing Aberystwyth “advanced” the wrong way , now 5 miles out to sea in Bae Ceredigion and sunk without trace !!! Well, we can all wish.

Small world ! I suppose us blokes knowing about each others antics and capers from way back is no different to belonging to the masons, except our networks had a load more integrity about them.

RF is correct about his comments on racism.

When researching the ‘BritRight’ and ‘TrendyLeft’ ideas on prison reform, ‘Harsh’ v ‘Soft’. The Home Office had inadvertently included a military prison in the statistics. It was about black prisoners as a proportion of the general population, and re-offending rates by race. The Colchester establishment stood out as it showed a LOWER re-offending rate amoungst black prisoners than white, and a HIGHER educational ettainment amoungst black prisoners than white’. Prisoners discharged on release.

Prison reform isn’t about ‘harsh v soft’. It’s about discipline and opportunity. I don’t see prisoners at Swansea doing a full kit inspection and a perimeter run before breakfast, but I also don’t see busses taking them to technical school or university. This is what the army provides. Even their prisoners.

I think the 69 discharge, as RF says a catch all, was more about saving the army from embarrassment. The ‘Finn’ press release was an attempt at diverting the gaze of the public. You certainly cannot aquire citizenship by enlisting if you’ve already sworn an oath to a ‘foreign’ power. Finland has compulsory national service and not a Nato member. He was British by citizenship, prior to enlisting.

How can a Lance Corporal afford two houses in rural Wales?
Why such a low rank for such long serving smart shooting trainer?

He might have been busted before, and the property in Llansilin owned by his mate, the one who cannot be named.

There is a difference between an ‘informant’ and a ‘QE’ witness.

An informant can be a person already serving a prison term and if correctly registered by the police, the co-operation can be bought to the attention of a judge only at sentencing stage. Not a fact of evidence in the trial. Whilst an informant can be asked to give evidence in court (which would mean disclosure to the defendant) there are cases where this is not required. It is not compulsory.The police may rather that an advisory note to the judge as the best option, especially if there is further investigation on other matters.This is provided for in correctly registered informants.

He was indeed based in Alltwallis for a while. And his surname was Thomas.

I think I knew the bloke who did the Jack at Murrayfield. Did his dad do a stint as village bobby at Alltwalis before moving on to bigger things – something Thomas ?

50 years is a long way back. If the Windsors had any sense of decency they’d organise a 50th anniversary bash next year and let all their opponents have a re run of those lively times, plus give all the youngsters a chance to fire up some hwyl. Of course there must be a significant anniversary of some of the Meibion fires coming up soon. There’s a lot of potential in all these anniversary events !

A mate and I travelled to Aber before the Investiture with the plan of beheading the statue of a former ‘PoW’ in front of the Old College building. We were caught, but the hacksaw marks can still be seen on the back of the statue’s neck. So we were hauled off to Aber police station. The desk sergeant was the father of a mate of ours who was himself arrested for hauling down the Union Jack at Murrayfield. (Our mate, not his father.) It made all the ‘papers, though ‘Police Houses, Penparcau’ as our mate’s address didn’t go down well with the chief constable.

So we spent a weekend in the cells – spaghetti rings for Sunday lunch – then it was a special magistrates court on Monday morning where we were bailed until the next Cardiganshire Quarter Sessions. Before heading back to Swansea we decided to have a farewell pint. We picked the wrong pub. The only topic of conversation was “those bastards who tried to take the head off the statue”. All of a sudden I heard this voice, “Oi, that was us”. It was my mate. All eyes turned on us and I just managed to grab him and get us through the door before the lynch mob organised itself.

Happy Days!

You make the British army sound like a mercenary force rather than a national army.