The British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) will be responding to the UK Government's consultation paper on how a "legal, fair and decisive" referendum is to be conducted.

Responses to that paper are due to the Scotland Office (a UK Government Department) by 9th March, 2012.

Similarly, BAFF is likely to respond to the SNP Government's own consultation paper which it intends to publish later this month. UPDATE:  We are now starting to add our comments below as an indication of our likely responses to the consultations, subject to any further views received from BAFF Full Members or Supporters.

In February 2010 the Council of Europe issued detailed recommendations to its member states on the human rights of members of the armed forces.

Below is the main text of Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)4 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, about the human rights of armed forces personnel. Our notes in square brackets are not part of the recommendation. Click here for BAFF introduction to this document. Click here for Council of Europe's Explanatory Memorandum to CM Recommendation on human rights of armed forces personnel.

A Welsh Territorial Army soldier who shot dead an Afghan he believed to be in the act of laying an IED could become the first British soldier to be charged with murder in that theatre. While any charges under military law would be a decision for the independent Service Prosecuting Authority, BAFF has commented on an aspect of the case.

According to the armed forces mental health charity Combat Stress, defence cuts could see thousands more combat veterans needing NHS help to cope with a range of mental illnesses

From a story by Nick Hopkins of The Guardian:

A soldier in Afghanistan wearing the new camouflage pattern. Picture: Corporal Barry Lloyd RLC, Crown Copyright/MOD 2010According to the Army's in-house magazine Soldier, the relatively new PCS field uniform in Multi Terrain Pattern (MCP) camouflage material has been criticised as a "fashion faux pas" which is shapeless, too American and more akin to an Action Man costume.

We havent picked up such strong feelings before, to be honest. What do you think?

Inevitably, the dreaded "jacket v shirt" argument has been resurrected again! That particular argument goes back as far as the Second World War, when the Army supposedly rejected a jacket-type top because of representations from the Brigade of Guards, and the undeniably smarter short battledress jacket was adopted instead for temperate uniform.

Many members of the irreverent 'ARRSE' community website have been expressing their concern and good wishes for the early recovery of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh after an emergency hospitalisation. This video report shows HRH on duty earlier this month at RAF Kinloss, where he presented new colours to The Highlanders, 4th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, recently returned from Afghanistan:

Earlier this week Forces News revealed that there has been an alarming rise in the number of service personnel struggling with debt.  Today Forces News takes a look at Germany and how the change in overseas allowances and debt is affecting those living in BFG. BritishForcesNews reported (22 Dec):

The Ministry of Defence has published the first interim report on the Military Covenant, as required by the Armed Forces Act 2011. We quote in full this copyrighted story by Huffington Post UK, because of its obvious interest, but also because of its multiple references to "those representing rank-and-file-officers".

They mean the Mod-supported service family federations - but not any federation specifically representing personnel. In fact, the MoD's report goes out of its way to say that personnel are not entitled to (collective) representation by a federation.

The Army Welfare Service in Germany has described the number of people approaching the organisation with debt problems as only the tip of an iceberg. AWS's message this Christmas is that, however large the problem, nobody in financial difficulty should fear seeking help and that there are free specialist services available. Some of these help sources are listed at our Web Links page. BritishForcesNews reported (21 Dec):