By the left...

Shocking to hear of the redundancies being made by the Army, as they try to reduce capacity to just 82,000 soldiers, and it does make you wonder just what is a safe occupation to get into these days.
(Ok, the words soldier and safe don't belong in the same sentence, but you know what I mean. Long-term security. Job for life. Nice early retirement, cushy pension etc., etc., etc...) Well, undertakers are sorted, that's for sure - we're always going to need them (Sadly, we'll certainly need 'em as long as we've got soldiers!) - and so is Being Queen - she's in a job forever and ever. But what else? Oh, Scottish voice-over artists! They're safe, too! It feels like they're going to be in work for a long time yet. (The Co-operative, Gid with Fid anyone?) But that's about it, isn't it? I mean, we all know there's no future in a job on newspapers. I spent half the Jubilee weekend consoling a journalist pal who'd just had redundancy dropped on him from a great height, and as I said the other day, we now live in a world where daily evening newspapers are happy to take free pictures from Twitter rather than employ a photographer. Last weekend I enjoyed a great Shoot'nTutor session with a young girl who's going to take Photography at A Level next term, and I advised her not to consider photography as a full-time career! How bad is that? Reminds me of when I was a nipper rushing home from a careers lesson at school. "What did you say you wanted to do?" asked my Mum, as she peeled ten tons of spuds. "I said I wanted to be a photographer.." I gasped, excitedly. Mum put down the peeler, wiped her hands on her apron and said "There's no money in that! Go and join the Army!"

Today's shot is from my 'Don't Miss That' series, shot in Eccles in the mid '70s. Eccles Army Cadet Unit, marching up the street outside their HQ! By the left...