According to this report by the Daily Telegraph, an adviser to the Ministry of Defence has warned that the Armed Forces remain "critically ill" and recent proposals amount to "little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic":

(Update 02 Nov: MoD response below). Various media have carried the story that apparently for the first time since the Falklands War in 1982, defence cuts have left the "stretched" Royal Navy unable to provide an emergency standby ship to protect British waters for a month. The Daily Telegraph reported that:

UPDATE: Aasmah Mir's report, which was in many ways uplifted by the positive approach taken by former Iraqi local staff who were relocated to Glasgow under the UK Government's Iraqi Locally Engaged Staff Assistance Scheme, is now available from the BBC iPlayer at the link shown below.

British troops serving in Afghanistan could miss out on mail from their loved ones because of the "huge and unmanageable" amount of donations sent by members of the public, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has said.

Army chiefs have revealed they are being "overwhelmed" by the volume of parcels and shoeboxes sent to unnamed British service personnel overseas.

They say that makes it more difficult for frontline supplies and post from families to get through. BritishForcesNews reports (16 Sep).

Poles, Czechs and Slovaks fought in British skies, far from home, and helped win the Battle of Britain.

Those service personnel who joined British forces in the skies and on the ground are being honoured in an exhibition at the RAF Museum in north London. BritishForcesNews reports (19 Sep).

Guardian 14 Sep 2011: "A family who were repeatedly denied compensation for their internment during the second world war were treated disgracefully by the Ministry of Defence, which acted in an "extraordinarily insensitive" way towards them, the parliamentary ombudsman has ruled." The story continues:

This year's Continuous Attitude Survey was published some days ago, but due to competing armed forces stories has received unusually little media attention. BritishForcesNews reported on the same day as the report was made available on this website for logged-in BAFF Members and BAFF Military Supporters. Now today's Mirror has a story about the survey.

A BAFF spokesman was asked about morale in three recent radio interviews about the tranche 1 redundancy notifications. Talk of "low morale" in the armed forces can be easily misunderstood, so our man made it clear that people generally were "not going about with long faces", and that service personnel were getting on with their jobs as they always do. But

On the last day for posting parcels to Camp Bastion, BritishForcesNews reports (02 Dec) that with comedy home movies posted on the internet having become something of a seasonal tradition, first out with their camcorders this year are the men and women of the Royal Logistic Corps's Eighty Postal Courier Squadron bracing themselves for a busy time ahead... Related links below.

The British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) has been quoted again in Parliament.

The British Armed Forces Federation takes the view that the Baha Mousa Inquiry chaired by Sir William Gage has made a fair and thorough job of a difficult and painful investigation. In addition to the fullest possible implementation of the recommendations, BAFF regards it as a further test of our system that any further investigation, prosecution or administrative action be conducted fairly, and not in the atmosphere of a witch-hunt or for reasons of political expediency.

While there can be no excuses for the criminal or undisciplined mistreatment of anyone in the custody of British forces, comparatively junior individuals must not be left to take all the blame after what the Inquiry found to be a clear “corporate failure” by the MoD to adopt a proper and consistent doctrine for detainee holding and questioning. Failures to plan and provide adequate resources for the occupation also played their part.

According to a story in the Telegraph (09 Sep), "Nineteen soldiers could face criminal charges for their role in the death of an innocent Iraqi man after a public inquiry found he was the victim of “appalling and cowardly” violence while in British custody":