00:00good afternoon yeah i mean it's crazy isn't it um and uh it's just you know it's in line with the
00:06kind of moral ambivalence and um lack of you know it's all tokenistic interest really we see
00:13in the veterans and in the military in this country and to be honest i think a lot in the
00:17military community are pretty fed up with it um it's it's it's embarrassing um and i think you
00:25know the key thing is it doesn't really represent what ordinary folk think right ordinary folk are
00:29incredibly proud of the military they're uh you know they want to get days like this right um but
00:35uh you do have these outliers who who seem to think that uh everyone hates the military now
00:41they're a terrible uh organization whereas in fact they're you know this incredible force for good
00:46this incredible life chances machine that you can go and have a great career afterwards from so
00:50look i think it's really sad but it's it's the world we live in i mean you you've seen under
00:55this government veterans rights slowly sort of corroded and you know progress being undone and
01:00things like that so i'm not surprised um but i don't think uh many of us are going to let it
01:06happen without saying something what what protests do you think they're nervous about johnny
01:10oh god knows i mean you know we've got a government that uh is is going from you know legislation to
01:19protect veterans in northern ireland to paying jerry adams compensation right so i think that's the
01:26way the political tide is going at the moment and i just think this is a wider reflection of that it's
01:31not actually in keeping with the way most people feel about the military um i think it's you know and
01:38i just want people to know that it doesn't you know it doesn't really reflect the nation it doesn't
01:42reflect the way people truly feel about about the military but it is a really good example of you know
01:48if you look at the statement your council put out about how they really kind of you know talk about
01:53the armed forces covenants and how their gold award holders and so on but they're not prepared to show
01:58military kit on parade on armed forces day and it just shows you the kind of tokenistic approach that
02:04i'm afraid some of us are quite sick of uh in uh in the uk um and shows that really you know there
02:11needs to be better metrics and better better way of holding local authorities and and groups that
02:18support the military government to account well this is the thing that annoys me johnny i mean
02:22it's like you know it's the military it's the armed forces that protect us right okay we know there's
02:26not enough of them we know they're not paid enough we know we treat veterans accordingly all of those
02:30things apply but the bottom line is we rely on the armed forces to protect us okay so i i have not
02:36we are going to read the statement out from your council in a minute as to their reasons behind it
02:40but i suspect reading between the lines here they're worried about the flag we constantly see on our
02:45streets at the moment and that's the palestinian flag
02:48well look i'm not i'm not going to get into that issue i think that um i i just think that it's a
02:56sad reflection of where we are right you know i think that um it's like i said not in keeping with
03:01the way people feel um i understand you know people don't protest on force today but i've never
03:06seen that or heard of it um you know certainly where i'm from in plymouth it's an amazing day for
03:12everyone to come together and reconnect with the military community and uh it's it's a fantastic
03:17initiative and a good chance to go and you know really find out what a career in the military is
03:21like there's so much so many misnomers around it there's so much misunderstanding um but like i said
03:26you know the key for me is is the difference between what york city council actually say and then how it
03:32feels like to be a veteran or to uh be in the armed forces and for me you know how that reflects among
03:38the service community and and makes them feel is what bothers me um and uh yeah that's that's why
03:43i think we've still got more to do in this space
03:45you
Comments