Media darlings

John Bolton is the new darling of the BBC. But "darling" I mean, they like to have him on the shows, wind him up, let him spew and spin and spin and spew all in the hope of winning over public opinion for air strikes in Iran.

Mr Bolton's been very interesting during the British hostage crisis. Saying before and after that Britain had no back bone. Hmm... that may be true, but I don't think that the way that the UK government dealt with getting 15 kidnapped service personnel back from Iran was an example of lack of back bone. Saying that Britain had no back bone when these kids came back alive without handing over anything and without bloodshed is a sign of no class.

Wasn't this John Bolton guy kinda fired anyway?

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Guess who else has no class? The UK Ministry of Defense. Yep. They've allowed the 15 detainees to sell their stories to tv and tabloid.

The Iranians have been having a field day. They say that the UK is using these sailors and marines for propaganda purposes. Ha. Ha. Ha. Pot. Kettle. Black.

Well, they're British service personnel and so the British government can use them for propaganda - because you see, they're our employees. Just like the stuff I do is used for promotion for my employers. That's normal.

But I don't normally expect to use my employment experience as fodder for this personal blog. And I wouldn't expect to be able to sell my story about my work to a red top tabloid paper for a six figure sum and still show up on Monday morning.

Service personnel are free to write books and sell scripts or give interviews for money - after they no longer wear the uniform of service. While serving, they need to have clearance from the press and PR functions of their branch of service. And no money should change hands. You've already taken the Queen's shilling.

I don't blame the sailors and marines. They're young. They've just come out of a scary spell of captivity. People are thrusting wads of money in their faces. If one agrees, then the others think "Am I missing out?" I blame those who've allowed them to do this.

The Great British Public concur. They're not too happy about this - and that's classic British understatement. They're disgusted. But that's OK, because now the Labour government have changed their minds:

The government did a U-turn late on Monday, reversing an earlier decision to allow service personnel to sell their stories. [Defence Minister Des] Browne said the sale of stories had been a "tough call" for the navy but those involved now accepted it had "not reached a satisfactory outcome" and lessons must be learned from the review.

No, Mr Browne. The problem is not a lack of a satisfactory outcome. That's the point of acting on principle. In some areas, the ends (which actually haven't been that bad) do not justify the means.