Blackpool paper censors debate

Blackpool's local newspaper cannot discus gender unless it is censored?  This, from a paper who cannot define HERO and who openly supported someone facing criminal charges for child molestation offences.  Hmmm!!!!  Very QUEER...

 The average, intelligent person has had enough of this unwarrantable interference in open debate.  Just remember that Sir Jim Sa-Vile was not homosexual, nor Stuart Hall queer, that PUFFs are a legal term in contract law and that Gay used to mean jocular.  The offence is implying that homosexuals and lesbions are not caring, not normal or thoroughly decent people.  That is unless you use your sexuality as a means to intimidate others, as some female soldiers and homosexual police officers seem to have done.  Not that the gender war is confined to non-normal freaks as some would like to suggest.  It happens within the brains of those who try to be something they are not.  If you are no bloody good at something, like many local reporters turn out to be, it does not matter that criticism is not personal but what they write is utter rubbish, often fabrication and too often without foundation.  Lord Leveson has tried to make the industry realise this, but like smokers their addiction cannot be rationalised irrespective of the damage they do.  That's why politician select purveyors of death from the tobacco industry to be the heralds in such a department as the Ministry of Justice.
It is not Gordon Marsden's sexuality that makes him unpalatable, but the questionable manner he represented my community and my profession and the fact that he has allowed his sexual bias to make him judgemental over those who risked their lives for his every opportunity.

Nelson at Trafalgar 2013

Nelson: "Order the signal, Hardy."
Hardy: "Aye, aye sir."
Nelson: "Hold on, this isn't what I dictated to Flags. What's the meaning of this?"
Hardy: "Sorry sir?"
Nelson (reading aloud): " England expects every person to do his or her duty, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious persuasion or disability.' - What gobbledygook is this for God's sake?"
Hardy: "Admiralty policy, I'm afraid, sir. We're an equal opportunities employer now. We had the devil's own job getting „ England " past the censors, lest it be considered racist."
Nelson: "Gadzooks, Hardy. Hand me my pipe and tobacco."
Hardy: "Sorry sir. All naval vessels have now been designated smoke-free working environments."
Nelson: "In that case, break open the rum ration. Let us splice the main brace to steel the men before battle."
Hardy: "The rum ration has been abolished, Admiral. Its part of the Government's policy on binge drinking."
Nelson: "Good heavens, Hardy. I suppose we'd better get on with it full speed ahead."
Hardy: "I think you'll find that there's a 4 knot speed limit in this stretch of water."
Nelson: "Damn it man! We are on the eve of the greatest sea battle in history. We must advance with all dispatch. Report from the crow's nest, please."
Hardy: "That won't be possible, sir."
Nelson: "What?"
Hardy: "Health and Safety have closed the crow's nest, sir. No harness; and they said that rope ladders don't meet regulations. They won't let anyone up there until proper scaffolding can be erected."
Nelson: "Then get me the ship's carpenter without delay, Hardy."
Hardy: "He's busy knocking up a wheelchair access to the foredeck Admiral."
Nelson: "Wheelchair access? I've never heard anything so absurd."
Hardy: "Health and safety again, sir. We have to provide a barrier- free environment for the differently abled."
Nelson: "Differently abled? I've only one arm and one eye and I refuse even to hear mention of the word. I didn't rise to the rank of admiral by playing the disability card."
Hardy: "Actually, sir, you did. The Royal Navy is under- represented in the areas of visual impairment and limb deficiency."
Nelson: "Whatever next? Give me full sail. The salt spray beckons."
Hardy: "A couple of problems there too, sir. Health and safety won't let the crew up the rigging without hard hats. And they don't want anyone breathing in too much salt - haven't you seen the adverts?"
Nelson: "I've never heard such infamy. Break out the cannon and tell the men to stand by to engage the enemy."
Hardy: "The men are a bit worried about shooting at anyone, Admiral."
Nelson: "What? This is mutiny!"
Hardy: "It's not that, sir. It's just that they're afraid of being charged with murder if they actually kill anyone. There are a couple of legal-aid lawyers on board, watching everyone like hawks."
Nelson: "Then how are we to sink the Frenchies and the Spanish?"
Hardy: "Actually, sir, we're not."
Nelson: "We're not?"
Hardy: "No, sir. The French and the Spanish are our European partners now. According to the Common Fisheries Policy, we shouldn't even be in this stretch of water. We could get hit with a claim for compensation."
Nelson: "But you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil."
Hardy: "I wouldn't let the ship's diversity coordinator hear you saying that sir. You'll be up on disciplinary report."
Nelson: "You must consider every man an enemy, who speaks ill of your King."
Hardy: "Not any more, sir. We must be inclusive in this multicultural age.  Now put on your Kevlar vest; it's the rules. It could save your life"
Nelson: "Don't tell me - Health and Safety. Whatever happened to rum, sodomy and the lash?"
Hardy: As I explained, sir, rum is off the menu! And there's a ban on corporal punishment."
Nelson: "What about sodomy?"
Hardy: "I believe that is now legal, sir."
Nelson: "In that case................... Kismet, Hardy."

There may be those amongst you who recognised the one factual alteration to this ancient saltire and, like me, appreciate the significance especially in a week when the tragic but heroic ventures of a young Briton leads to his posthumous Victoria Cross (Lance Corporal James Ashworth, 23, died after a battle with Taliban fighters while on patrol with the Reconnaissance Platoon of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province on June 13 last year).   During this momentous epoch, we had to witness the absolutely absurd fiasco of Politicians playing Word Games with every issue from homosexual marriage to the subjugation by Europe of the British People. As I have so often said, you voted for these morons so what do you expect?  Their agenda is definitely not ours and whilst they hide in the Political Shabeens in London and now Hollyrude, fiddling still their expenses whilst ordinary people can’t afford a decent pint of British Beer, the inevitability of the British Nation collapsing completely will have occurred and they will not care nor comment on its passing.

Cleaning detail should look at themselves

There is a self elected group of purportedly Former Soldiers who are griping about a park that no-one wanted but which has been accepted as a memorial garden for the fallen.  In the Gazjet they are complaining about lack of money for its upkeep, but not a word about the Secret Accounts that the whole world once listened to before they stopped recording their less than open meetings.  There is also the £30.000, that's right, the thirty thousand pounds that the Council and the Cabal ignore completely that could pay for a disabled veteran to do a few hours casual work to maintain this area with the respect that cabals can never give.
As I peruse the photograph I have to ask, and out loud, will this group be parading at the Courts to defend their protege against child porn charges with the vigor that they attacked Wendy Lewis on the steps of Blackpool magistrates court? Of course not.  It would show the hypocrisy of following those who never fired a shot in anger or fulfilled their contractual obligations to heroes by promptly ignoring every aspect of respect or beholdance to those who sacrificed and never asked for anything other than what they earned.  
Perhaps those who kept stum about Sir Jim Sa-Vile for so many years should not be fronting organisations that purport to be a CHARITY?
Shit sticks, but not in Filthpool obviously.

Sunday Sermon of hate

We have to thank the Political Parties for flooding the Country with child molesters, illegal migrants, rogue Catholic priests, those who dislike Freedom of Speech, millions who get fat on the Blood of Britons who are doing what they ought to have done, fought for their rights in their Third World Countries.

Arboretum Service

Child abuse, race and establishment cover-up

Ann Crier, a political adversary in so many views, has had my fullest support and sympathy with her endeavours to reveal the extent of gross national grooming of children for sexual exploitation.  The evidence that Ms Crier was ostracised and castigated for even broaching the subject is indicative of the depths that those who oppose Free Speech are prepared to plunder.  The supporters and excusers of child exploitation have infiltrated the very conscience of a Once Great moral society with the Royal Marines leading the way.  The adoption and tacit defence of the paedophile Sir Jimmy Sa-Vile OBE needs explaining.  For forty years they have been ignoring many of the voices of concern from amongst the RANKS of BOOTNECKS whose distaste at this evil thing being lauded against their wishes.  It illustrates more than anything that “Socially Acceptable” means more to the establishment than those with courage to anger and challenge the establishment by talking out against criminality.  To the ranks and fallen of a great Armed Service I apologise for giving any impression that all Royals accepted the instructions from on high that discourse was treasonable.  The Nuremberg Defence is not acceptable and never should be acceptable.

The ignominy belongs to those who deny expression and reason, well rehearsed through centuries of effort, on behalf of the Common Man on the Clapham Bus.  That the establishment gave succour to the likes of Stuart Hall and the paedophile mentioned above and cannot criticise or discipline the servants of society as with highly paid officials without the miscreant getting comfort from lunatic legislation, as with Sharon Shoesmith, says so much as to the moral decline as a million words of condemnation.

The chief executive of Oxfordshire County Council has insisted she will not resign after the abuse of young girls in the Oxford area.  But Joanna Simons admitted that the council and others "take enormous responsibility for what's happened".

Seven members of a paedophile ring were found guilty on Tuesday of raping and trafficking girls aged from 11 to 15.  The crimes spanned eight years and social services and the police have apologised for not acting sooner.
Ms Simons, who has been the council's chief executive since 2005, said she had asked herself some "very hard questions" about her position.  She said: "There is going to be an independent serious case review which will look at the actions of all the agencies concerned.
"My gut feeling is that I'm not going to resign because my determination is that we need to do all that we can to take action to stamp this out.  These are devious crimes that are very complicated."
Hercomments came after an Old Bailey jury heard six girls were drugged andsuffered sadistic abuse.  The court heardvictims were plied with alcohol and drugs before being forced to perform sexacts. Some had also been beaten, burnt and threatened.

On this mornings 5Live the apologist for religion and cultural integration are publicly condemning Ann Crier for repeating facts she has come across as an MP in the highest court in the land, Parliament.  That she has been largely unsuccessful and hordes of non-British paedophiles clasp their British passports in child brothels around the World, including Bradford and Oxford, does not mean that the crimes do not get committed, but it means that the vile truths cannot be placed before the Sharon Shoesmith’s of the World as it may offend their sensibilities.  Forget the children who are murdered, raped and evilly exploited by evil people.  No, defending the sensitivity of overpaid public officials is more important than protecting children.  It is time that the Racial Card was burnt along with all the Laws that put private sensitivity above moral obligation

The YHA is great, inexpensive and available to everyone

The YHA is a much neglected and much under estimated National Asset.  It is available to all people of all ages.  Please, use it.

There are Great Places with Great Staff and it beats mortgaging the family jewels to visit parts of Great Britain.

Tax dodging Service Provider NPower not answering clients

Dear Notareargunner, Is it time to teach Npower a lesson? 3 weeks ago they were exposed for not paying a single penny of corporation tax, while channeling UK profits through Malta. But they still haven't accepted they’ve done anything wrong. And, they keep refusing to meet us to discuss our concerns.[1] Luckily Npower customers have got the trump card. We can hit them where it hurts: together we can take our custom elsewhere. So, time to vote - shall we launch a mass switch-off away from Npower now? Voting closes in 48 hours, so please vote now:     YES       NO I’ve been emailing the chief executive of Npower, Paul Massara. The whole conversation is pasted below. There’s been some progress, but in my view his response is just not good enough. Here are the headlines: - He’s refusing to meet with 38 Degrees members, even those who are Npower customers - He still won’t accept that funneling UK profits through Malta to dodge tax is wrong - He makes seemingly contradictory excuses. On the one hand he says that “npower does not engage in tax avoidance” but on the other hand he claims that “HMRC is well aware of the possibility of UK companies using interest payments as a way of reducing their tax bill”. He then seems to admit they were using Malta because it was “efficient" for avoiding tax, but that it's German taxes they were dodging so we shouldn't worry about it! There are some (small?) positive signs too: - He says he accepts that he needs to be more transparent about their tax affairs and has pledged to to sign Npower up to apply the “CBI’s tax principles” [2] - He claims that they’ve stopped using Malta. But won’t confirm that they’re not using new tax dodge routes instead - it looks like money is now being channelled via the Netherlands. [1] What do you think? Shall we launch a mass switch away from Npower now?     YES       NO There are around 30,000 Npower customers who are 38 Degrees members - that means there's enough of us to have a real impact. 38 Degrees can launch a website this week which would make it easy for Npower customers to switch to other gas and electricity companies in their thousands. It’s the last thing that Npower’s CEO will want. But it’ll work. And it will also send a crystal clear message to other companies. Tax dodging has consequences. Shall we launch a people-powered mass switch-off away from Npower now?     YES       NO Thanks for everything you do, David Executive Director, 38 Degrees NOTES: [1] 38 Degrees blog: Npower the Tax Dodgers http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2013/04/30/npower-tax-avoidance-malta/ [2] You can read the full open letter here: http://www.npowermediacentre.com/Press-Releases/An-Open-Letter-to-David-Babbs-38-Degrees-124c.aspx Read more about the CBI’s tax principles here: http://www.cbi.org.uk/media/2051390/statement_of_principles.pdf

From: David Babbs
Date: 13 May 2013 21:31
Subject: Re: RWE npower - Tax Issues
To: :Paul.Massara@rwenpower.com


Dear Paul,

Thanks for your email and attached letter.

I'm disappointed that you still refuse to meet with Npower customers who have joined this campaign. I'm sure that your "customer council" serves a useful purpose for you, but in this case there are tens of thousands of your customers how have specific concerns about how your business is operating.  I'm surprised that you don't think it would be "appropriate" to meet with them.

I've explained already that I have consulted our members on how they'd feel about me meeting you without Npower customers being present, and that they voted overwhelmingly that I should only agree to meet if they could also be represented. So I'm afraid I'm not able to meet with you on the terms which you propose.

Your refusal to meet your customers, together with the rest of your letter, suggest to me that you're still choosing not to engage with the reasons so many of your customers have got involved with this campaign. We've not suggested that your channeling of funds via Malta was "illegal". But whatever the legalities, we believe it's simply wrong for a company that relies on the goodwill of millions of UK consumers to avoid paying UK taxes in this way. Your emphasis on HMRC's view that it is legal is therefore not really relevant.

You've still not explained why you were using this Maltese route in the first place if not to dodge tax; why you've now stopped (anything to do with the German government outlawing a tax dodge structure know within the trade as the "Maltese double whopper", perhaps?); or what you're now up to by channeling funds through the Netherlands instead.

I guess your pledge to sign up to the CBI's tax principles is a step in the right direction. But you haven't even indicated a firm timetable for this, or explained how this might change your actual behaviour or the amount of tax you pay in the UK.

So, my personal view is that your response is not really satisfactory. Ultimately though it's the view of your customers and 38 Degrees members that will decide what happens next with the campaign - I'll be asking them to vote shortly.

I will of course share this correspondence with them as part of that vote. I plan to forward this whole thread of emails as well.

regards,

David


On 9 May 2013 16:01 :Paul.Massara@rwenpower.com wrote:
David,

I attach an open letter to you, 38 Degrees, and all my customers, employees and stakeholders that have been affected by the accusations that my company has avoided corporation tax.

Our offers (of 17 Apr and 2 May) for you to either meet me or our Director of Tax still stand. I am happy to explain why we do not, and will not, engage in tax avoidance.

I very much accept the need to communicate with my customers but I do not believe that selecting only from 38 Degrees members is an appropriate way of identifying people for me to meet. We will continue our ongoing consultation through our Customer Council and other communication channels.

For the past few weeks, I have been taking a lot of time to talk with my employees, my customers and my stakeholders to ensure that they fully understand what we have done and why. Most importantly, I want them, and you, to know that npower is a company to be proud of.

I hope you will take the time to read and pass on to your campaigning members the letter I have attached. It is available freely on our website.

Regards

Paul Massara

letter was attached but can also be seen on the Npower website: http://www.npowermediacentre.com/Press-Releases/An-Open-Letter-to-David-Babbs-38-Degrees-124c.aspx

Islam from another viewpoint

A true recording or otherwise?  What I know is that none of the British media has had anything like this man interviewed.  Every single immigrant has a fixed view on their religion, as the Catholic appear to do with their blindness to their religion and the historic evidence of abuse and nepotism towards human dynasties.

It has taken us centuries to bury the obsessions of religion.  Well almost.  The streets of Belfast and Glasgow suggest otherwise, but who wants to live in a society where the colour of your scarf reflects whether you are safe or not just to visit within a neighbourhood?

Religion is and ought to be a private matter, between an individual and his conscience.  Like many, I take exception when I utter an outburst of "Jesus Christ!" and have the Bible Divisions on my neck for blasphemy.  If you don't like spontaneity, wrap the Book around your ears and leave us to arrest and prosecute your Child Molesting bigots, your adorable purveyors of ancient lies and pure invention.  And if the immigrant does not like Britons questioning their religious fervour and lack of legal propriety, don't fetch your own lack of secular reason into a 21st century situation.  Stay in your Third World and let the despots and mass murderers dictate your lives.

We British fought to prevent that happening for centuries now.  The 1998 Human Rights Act prevents we British from fulfilling an aim of true equality within our Nation by giving rights to religions and people who want nothing more than to destroy us.  If I am wrong, tell me how.

Here are several reports that should make any intelligent person question what is happening.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22452157

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/david-cameron/10050502/Shaun-Bailey-the-Prime-Ministers-only-black-aide-was-frozen-out-by-David-Camerons-clique.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-22379414

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12810418

 One a group of immigrants deliberately went out to rape and molest British children!  They groomed vulnerable English children, plied them with illegal drugs and illegal alcohol, sexually assaulted them and handed them around like 14th Century vassels.  And this was not a Hate Crime?  What planet was that speaker on?

In another article they are concerned that Camerclown had removed a Black advisor from his inner circle of advisors!  I have news for that journalist!  Millions of British, Anglo-Saxon-Celt indigenous people whose only permitted contribution  has been the spilling of OUR blood, have never had access to the vantage point given to immigrants as Lieber proved when accepting a wholly unqualified immigrant lass into a very safe Lancashire Lieber seat.  Whilst the socialist erudite school teachers harp on about the ancient slave trade and what involvement Britain had in getting rich from it, they teach nothing of the dire circumstances that the majority of Brits, and I include the Irish as part of ancient British Islanders, existed and survived in.  I go no further than offer the death list of those killed in the Pretoria Pit disaster in Lancashire’s West Houghton mines.  Where in English schools is this period of English history truly taught?  Answer please to Mr Gove and the Charlie Cairoli’s in that Shabeen in the centre of the New Tribal Trust Lands of British minority London.

Now look at the pictures of the latest convicted child molesters.  Should we add them to the Stuart Hall of InFame and award them OBEs as we did with that Green Beret Sir Jim Sa-VILE?  Or should we execute them under Sharia Law?

Blackpool needs fracked gas, not more drug addicts

 Blackpool leaders auditing the accounts

Fracking simply means pumping water under great pressure into shale beds several kilometres underground; tiny fissures open up which are then kept open by grains of sand so that the gas can flow out. Fracking itself lasts a few days — thereafter the field pumps gas much like any conventional field. Fracking is a tried and tested technology, used since 1947. More than 100,000 wells have been fracked in recent years. Before being ousted from the Department for Energy and Climate Change, John Hayes acknowledged that not a single person had been poisoned by fracking contaminating the water table. Nor has a single building been damaged by the almost imperceptible seismic tremors. Moreover, where UK shales are a mile thick, a single rig may be able to access shales that would require up to 20 drilling sites in the USA.

Ignoring facts, greens have preferred to pay heed to the propaganda film Gaslands, which shows tapwater bursting into flame. Yet its producer, Josh Fox, has been completely discredited. The documentary Fracknation filmed Fox admitting that he knew (but chose not to mention) that gas flowed from taps decades before fracking reached that area.
Sadly, Energy Secretary Ed Davey gave credence to these scare stories by ordering an unnecessary moratorium on drilling, when a fortnight’s visit to the US would have confirmed that they were nonsense. Environmentalists don’t want safer shale gas. They want no shale gas. Professor Kevin Anderson, former head of the Tyndall Centre and ayatollah of the green movement, frankly states that ‘from a climate-change perspective, this stuff simply has to stay in the ground’.
In this respect, the battle over shale gas is only the prelude to the impending energy crisis if we continue to pursue the government decarbonisation agenda. Greens in and out of government imagine that if shale gas can be kept in the ground or little is recoverable, decarbonising the British economy will be plain sailing. As imported gas becomes ever more expensive, the alternatives will grow cheaper by comparison.
Even if UK shales prove unproductive, it is inconceivable that fracking technology will only work in the US and be incapable of extracting huge quantities in other provinces — unless, as the pessimists clearly believe, God is an American. A worldwide shale revolution will dramatically change the supply and price balance in favour of gas.

In a week when some immigrant medic has prescribed to the population of Blackpool and West Lancashire that pensioners don't pay enough for their half pint of mild ale, when the nation is screaming out for clear and definitive debate - wrong - action on Immigration, the EU and corrupt politicians, one kiddie fiddling case continues unreported.  I wonder which former Hero that is?  Oh yes.  That case comes up in the Pervert Protection Coliseum on the 15th July.  I wonder if there will be a Guard of Honor led by false Majors in supports of their friend and partner? 

What is obvious is that the professional politician has high-jacked the agenda to such and extent that debate is now illegal.  Dare to expose malfeasance and the weight of the law is down on you.
Blackpool is desperate for competent governance at a price it can afford, but paying Executives a Kings Ransom for moderate performance is not a way our of penury.  There are lots of competent and hard working staff within the ranks of council employees, but they will never get promoted as they do not belong to that elite group - the Sharon Shoesmith's of local councils - whose position on the executive is enshrined in bad law when those who pay their wages have NO say or input into their employment at all.

The above extract is from the Spectator and should be discussed, and done so intelligently and immediately.  Let the Greens have their say but just ask them how they can support the uglifying of the countryside with a plague of overpriced, ineffectual eyesores that produce nothing more than debt for future generations?  Wind turbines do not work, plain and simple.

Immigration survey shows discontent with Politicians

As changes to immigration rules take centre stage in the Queen’s Speech, a tracking poll of the issues most important to voters finds immigration at highest point since June 2010 

The coalition’s legislative agenda for the year was laid out today by the Queen in a government-prepared speech given at the State Opening of Parliament. The centre piece of the speech was the announcement of a new bill aimed at reforming British immigration policy, which includes measures that would restrict migrants’ access to benefits and the NHS, require landlords to check the immigration status of tenants, and bar illegal immigrants from obtaining driving licences.

Why can't we speak so openly about terrorists?

Has to be watched all the way through.

When the BBC has programmes on distinct interests to the indigenous Briton and has not a single Brit in the audience, isn't it about time we did away with this detestable, pervert protecting monolith?  (BBC1, The Big Question, Sunday 5th May 2013)

Ukip rocks the political boat. Well Done

British politics stink, therefore British politicians stink.  I have never trusted Lieber ever since Harold Wilson promised that the 

It does not mean that the pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued."

I was stationed in the far east and suddenly my Guinea a day was worth just over 18 shillings.  That speech was given by an academic economist with a leaning to the left.  For those who are too young to remember or too sentimentally attached to political dogma not to see reality, their every experiment in social/economic engineering have been a disaster.

Not that the Libs can offer much.  Probably not since Churchill abandoned their ranks and joined the Conservatives has the Yellow Brigade been able to offer British voters an alternative.  This party, whose leaders have been a closet faggot - legal to say as much in the sixties - a complete alcoholic - well if you mixing with such comedians a touch of Highland Water has to be advantageous - a serial shagger, an Olympic lawyer whose debating skill asks much of his professional ability, and a no-body.  Sound like the Conservative Party to me.

The voice of the English voter has been strangled by the group of three for too long.  Insults to candidates are nothing more than insults at the electorate.  Pity is that in some areas dead monkeys can get elected before the most erudite individuals.  As we can see from the dross that has governed this country for the most of the past century plus, academic qualifications are no expression or evidence of competence.

Ever since the Conservative stayed silent as the cowards in Westminster murdered the best Prime Minister in Peace Time, that Party has lost the Right to represent True Conservatives who still are the real backbone of this once great nation.

Well done Ukip and all those who voted for them.

And the Whole World is Silent

I wonder if the Police will knock down my door and charge me with Hate Crime?
Do not view this video if you are of a delicate nature.

3 More Dead, KIA in Afghanistan

Three soldiers of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland killed in Afghanistan

Organisation:  Ministry of Defence

Published:  1 May 2013  Field of operation:

Afghanistan

It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must announce that 3 soldiers from 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland were killed in Afghanistan on Tuesday 30 April.

The soldiers’ vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device whilst on a routine patrol in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province. They received immediate medical attention and were evacuated by air to the military hospital at Camp Bastion, but could not be saved.

Spokesman for Task Force Helmand, Major Richard Morgan, said:

It is with deep sadness that I must confirm that 3 soldiers from 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland have died after their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province.

Their deaths come as a great loss to all those serving in Task Force Helmand. Our thoughts and prayers are extended to their family and friends at this difficult time.

Next of kin have been informed and have requested the customary period of grace before further details are released.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said:

Our thoughts are with the families who have lost loved ones in this incident, which underlines the threats faced by our personnel as they continue to hand over security operations to their Afghan counterparts ahead of UK combat operations concluding by the end of next year.

Security in Helmand, where most UK forces are based, is steadily improving, with Afghan forces already responsible for the bulk of the province - but the environment in which our troops operate remains risky and dangerous, including the threat of improvised explosive devices and insurgent attack.

We will continue to do all we can to minimise these risks but they can never be removed entirely.