Lions led by pansies?
They may have served the Crown fearlessly, but it seems in yet other fit of Ministry of Defence inspired political namby pamby utter poncy correctness, the most potent symbol of the Brigade of Guards is under threat. The Foot Guards have sported bearskins since they doled out a proper bulldog kicking to Napoleon’s Imperial Guard at Waterloo – relieving the fallen & captured froggies of their head dress. But now, in a fit of Nu Labour save the potted shrimp animals have more rights than our fighting men – the bearskin might be replaced by a man made alternative.
Apparently, the Services textiles agency (oh my god – we have one of those as well?) is currently testing the alternatives when they might find their time better employed producing better issue underwear – as any one who has ever sported said item of kit will know, they are not known as ‘meat grinders’ for nothing. Clearly the Chief of the Defence Staff thinks that time & resources are better spent on pseudo-bearskins than say … getting our radios to work.
According to tofu munching PondlifETA co-ordinator, Andrew Butler (doesn’t tofu have rights as well?),
“It is outrageous that bears continue to be killed in Canada for a ceremonial hat in Britain.”
Ah, the usual logic of the animal rights movement that completely ignores the fact that as a spokesman for the Household Division, pointed out,
“Twenty thousand black bears have to be culled in North America each year, from which we buy fewer than 100 pelts a year for the Guards’ bearskin caps.”
But as any half sane, half sober person knows, the bunny huggers have absolutely no regard for either the truth or common sense. As for PETA’s threat to send a member dressed as a bear to stalk the Queen during her ten-day tour of Canada – maybe they might just want to consider this; Phil the Greek, notwithstanding his presidency of the World Wildlife Fund, is a keen & accomplished game shot … now that would make good viewing on prime time … the Duke of Edinburgh taking a ‘cull’ bear !
What is even more concerning however, is that the MoD feels the need to pander to these extremists - fighting extremists on the streets of Iraq is OK, but its unconditional surrender at home! And Grandfather FM fought & killed Huns in the mud of Ypres, armed only with a tin of bully beef, for this???
Comments
The really sad part of the article was that drummers now wear fake leopard skin.
True leopards are getting a bit short of supply but instead of replacing them with nylon tat why not skin some PETA members. Some of the women feature pelts that would make the typical grizzly hugely jealous.
Posted by: klu01dbt | May 11, 2005 2:45 PM
It's at times like this I'm glad I failed my medical...
Posted by: The Alchemist | May 11, 2005 3:44 PM
Yes & no ... leopards I can understand - after all, they are in short supply, but bears ???? it seems we have plenty of them left!
As an alternative, maybe the Guards could use whale skin?
Posted by: Mr Free Market | May 11, 2005 3:44 PM
How about sealskin? We could deploy the Household Div to Norway to participate in the annual cull.
That would get PETA foaming at the mouth.
Posted by: nbc | May 11, 2005 5:18 PM
Last I heard, leopard number in sub-Saharan Africa were pretty damn good; so much so that when sport hunting was cut off in some countries, the farmers & ranchers began trapping & poisoning them because of the damage they were doing.
Posted by: Mark | May 12, 2005 3:50 AM
It's not like NuLabour's 'British Army Lite' needs more than a handful of Guradsmen's hats anyway........
Posted by: Stuart K Jarman | May 19, 2005 2:59 AM
What the PETA types want is an end to the culling of overly-aggressive bears, and a start to the culling of slow Canadians - and even Olympic decathlon champion Canadians, when there aren't any slower ones around to be caught and eaten first.
Posted by: markm | May 21, 2005 10:15 PM
as a t-shirt i had once said,''save a tree,wipe your ass with a owl''.
Posted by: reb | May 15, 2009 5:44 AM