In response to Patrick Benham-Crosswell: Our shrinking Army has lost its way, David wrote:

I agree with everything in this article. Both local, county links and seeing soldiers in uniform circulate amongst us in everyday life are important. But it misses two other contributing factors that are probably making recruitment more difficult.

Firstly there is the leftie mainstream media portraying anything associated with the military and weaponry as in some way linked with right wing extremism. Why, even lawful civilian ownership of guns for sporting purposes or pest control is regarded as a bit odd, if not suspicious.

Secondly there is the fact that the government, and Blair in particular but also Cameron, involved us in hostilities that to the average member of the public were not linked to defence of the realm or our interests. It is one thing to be prepared to risk dying to defend your country or its vital interests, as did my great-grandfather, grand-father and father, but quite a different thing to risk dying for a pointless war of no relevance to your own people.

All these reasons, both mentioned in the article plus my suggestions, are all about the crass decisions of politicians who have forgotten, or actively dislike, factors such home, family, local associations, our historic faith, loyalty and the sheer impracticality of remaining safe in what will always be, until The Kingdom of God arrives, a very dangerous world. This is because the vast proportion of our politicians have become followers of our increasingly toxic media and therefore culture.