My thoughts precisely – and one wonders if the rump can remain viable. I watched a forlorn David Davies talking about fighting for Brough but what can be done? And if you multiply each primary job by 4 for the knock-on effect it makes for grim reading. All of those skills and experience!:(:(

“As for what the government’s 20% should be spent on; does it really matter? In relative terms it is a tiny amount of cash and successive governments have wasted (and are going to waste) tens-of-billions more…….”

Exactly. £30 million is peanuts in the scale of waste so I think we can confidently to hear no more of it from HMG’s point of view. As for the £120 million for the salvagers I wonder how much of that will be spent salvaging it. There might not be much left at the end of the day……….

The postman has just delivered a big box!!:D:D:DAnd just in time before I leave….check your PMs Blue!

I thought the second programme better than the first. It went into detail on the options the cadets will have to confront and I thought it revealing on just how important it is for them to accept and come to terms with the possibility of their and others deaths in the field of duty.

However the fact that anyone who watches television can see at first hand exactly what life is like on the front line I was surprised that that reality came as a surprise to some of the cadets. We have all been exposed to the facts of war in the Middle East for years now so anyone considering a career in the Army should reralise that they will have to kill peolle and that they might be killed. As indeed didm one of the cadets when commenting on his colleague’s decision to leave.

That’s OK, James – I think I echoed your thought in my reply to Tim -Cottesmore.

And more reading suggestions from ozplane – thanks.:)

Which is why there seems such a gulf between this series and the previous one made many years ago. Times and standards have changed, I suppose. I will continue to watch it to see how the cadets manage the remaining weeks of the course and how many survive.