Tag Archives: firing range

Divided nation: Reaction to video of soldiers shooting Corbyn poster shows danger to democracy

This is a media-led scandal; if the Tory-dominated mass media had not spent the last four years demonising Jeremy Corbyn, members of our armed forces would not have used an image of him as target practice.

And supporters of the armed forces would not have voiced their own hatred of Mr Corbyn. Consider the comments of Trevor Coult, founder of ‘For Our Veterans’ – and the organisation’s own comments in support of him:

It does say much about both the organisation and the man.

But with 13,000 veterans homeless thanks to Conservative government policies, and Jeremy Corbyn the only political leader likely to change that…

… these servicepeople are going to feel like a proper bunch of patsies if they actively oppose him becoming the UK’s democratically-elected leader – as some are predicting:

Senior voices in the Army are playing the incident down as an “error of judgement”:

“Apolitical”, is it? Here’s one ex-serviceman’s response to that:

Meanwhile, members of the public have been making up their own minds – and they’re not impressed:

(Robert Peston, below, is one of those best-placed to answer his own question, as a member of the mass-media representatives who have been so instrumental in demonising Mr Corbyn, in accordance with the wishes of the Conservatives.)

https://twitter.com/MattTurner4L/status/1113461221574029312

https://twitter.com/Aman_Sez/status/1113360112096358400

Whatever the facts of the matter really are, this incident has undermined trust in the UK’s armed forces – to a devastating extent.

People no longer believe they can trust the services to defend our nation, its laws and the way of life that we, as citizens of the United Kingdom, hold dear.

Instead, it seems the forces have been perverted until they exist only to defend the ruling class – meaning the Conservatives and representatives of the political far-right.

What will their leaders do to repair the damage – and will they even bother?


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Soldiers in Afghanistan were filmed shooting at a poster of Jeremy Corbyn

Soldiers having a laugh? Or a serious threat to democracy?

The Ministry of Defence said it has launched an urgent investigation after a video appeared on the social media showing members of the Parachute Regiment at a firing range in Kabul, shooting at a poster of Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Here’s the footage:

Here’s the MoD’s response:

Mr Bunkall also tweeted that there are images of “other celebrities” on the range, but as VIPs to be protected, rather than targets.

The footage raises serious questions as it suggests that members of the UK’s armed forces are being trained to consider one of their own political leaders as an enemy.

We need to know who authorised it and why, and we need to know what the soldiers who fired at the poster thought was the aim of the exercise.

Of course, it seems likely they’ll all just claim that it was ill-judged humour – but was it?

At a time when the Labour leader has already suffered one assault, other politicians have received death threats, and less than three years after the Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered, the possibility of our own military being trained to consider him an enemy could be considered a critical threat to the UK’s democracy.

What will happen when Mr Corbyn finally becomes prime minister? Will the military turn on him?

These are questions that should be unthinkable, but the video revelation makes them absolutely necessary.

It seems to This Writer that any UK soldier, firing on even an effigy of Mr Corbyn, is a potential security risk. They should be trained to defend all UK citizens, and any member of the armed forces who cannot do that – for whatever reason – should be drummed out.

And how many others are carrying out similar exercises in which they attack Mr Corbyn in effigy?

I fear this video may be only the beginning of the scandal.


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