Send in the army ..

So, let me get this straight..

The task in hand is pretty important but, to save money, you sack the professional and get a part-timer in, someone who does the work as a hobby at the weekends. Right? Well that sounds a recipe for disaster if ever I heard one! And what if they get killed? It doesn't bear..

Oh, sorry! No, I'm not talking about Wedding Photographers here (As if I'd complain about people booking cheap amateur 'photographers' - ie: camera-owners - to cover their Weddings! As if...) No, I'm talking about the Army, which is to lay off 20,000 troops and replace them with part-time TA soldiers. I mean, I've got nothing against the TA - I'm sure they strive hard to achieve the standards of the regulars - but there goes another layer of professionalism down the pan as we yet again we hear the cry of "That'll do!"

Actually, "that'll do" should be printed on the mast-head of the Manchester Evening News. It was bad enough when it layed off the last of its staff photographers (Hi Mark!) but now it's decided it's not even going to employ freelance photographers, and will make do with shots supplied by its coterie of weekly newspaper shooters and erm .. the public! Recently there was a fire in South Manchester and the MEN tweeted "Anyone got any photographs of it?" "Why.." I replied "don't you send in a photographer?"

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...