Labour destroying the Marines

I make no apology for that statement. Having watched closely Channel 4's Commando -On the Front Line - I have reserved my comments in deference to the young men risking their lives in our defence. But the latest enforcement of the 1st Rifles joining the Marines is ten steps too far.

Enough is enough.
I have no complaints about the Pongos. That Labour has destroyed the family ethos of the British Army is now a record of history. But to integrate an entire Battalion as though they are Marine Commandos is an insult to the history of both the Royals and the ancient regiments of the British Army.
The unique position and training of the Royal Marines allows them to integrate into the Army with no difficulty, but to reverse that process is unimaginatively naive. The Commando Course is not the end of a Royal Marines training, but an elevation to a level which only few Regiments achieve. Entering active units allows the recruit to advance their training amongst experiences and knowledgeable soldiers. Invariable, a trainee joining a unit does not acquire Marine First Class status until at least three months after receiving the coveted Green Beret.
In 1971, the MoD in it's ignorance, forced the Commando's to receive recruits not able to fulfill their full obligation by following the Army practice of putting recruits into a Commando, which then had to continue basic training. The object of the Commando was to be fully ready to go to any theatre of war anywhere in the world. That was made impossible if you are taking replacements and having to train them.
Before that date, all recruits to the overseas units were greeted with an acclimatisation period in which the skills learned at Lympstone were honed to a level of the men serving in the line.
So will Percy Pongo be doing the Command Course en-mass? No.
So to become a Bootneck all you have to do is join the 1st Rifles - whoever they are?
Well done Labour, you have achieved the impossible.
For information, my great uncle Norman was one of the original instructors at Achnacarry, a member of the Loyal Regiment - long since discarded to history. When I entered his pub in Central Lancashire with his brother, my grandfather, you could be excused if you'd have thought he was my granddad and the proudest man in the world, because I donned the Green Beret - something Uncle Norman never received even though he had been an instructor at the original Commando Training Centre.
I know I cannot do the thirty miler nowadays. I do not have the capacity to drink so much tea or eat so many bananas, and the stopping every half hour for a health check would destroy my rhythm. Whatever happened to being thrown out the back of an enclosed truck and told to find your way to the first check-in point? I know! My Zimmer frame would get stuck in the bog of the Moor. Easy.