Should the sailors be allowed to sell their stories

No i dont. part of this story was debated on Talksport radio last night with that Obnoxious George Galloway.

To me this could Just give Cart`e Blanche for others to jump on the band wagon, also now can be open to abuse.
I mean Now any Service Personal could Just say "My Horror at the Hands of My Major" ect.

Back down to that old chestnut, Money Talks.

I cant remember the artist name who was a P.O.W. but he drew what was going on when he was a P.O.W. and they were far as i know never sold for gain. I think they were put on at a Gallery, to draw (excuse pun, not intended.) attention that Some of the P.O.W.`s that survived were forgotten, and also to remind people, that this must never ever happen again.
Just seems to me if they did sell their story, It be a Betrayal of some sort to their Fellow Commarades. Seems to be No honour now-a-days.

How long before one or more of them start to appear on reality TV shows?

How long, for that matter, before one of the TV companies commissions "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Iran!"?

No I don't think they should, I was amazed that the MOD said they could. It got me thinking that they possibly have an ulterior motive for letting them do that. Maybe a bit of propergander for when they eventually go in.

Why not? They weren't POWs, because we're not at war with Iran. They were hostages, effectively. Let them make a bit of extra cash - I doubt the navy pays them all that much.

name rank and number only happens if you're at war with the country in question, and even then only if the country in question is signed up to the geneva convention. nothing that happened is too startling, standard tactics that iran uses to unnerve and disorientate hostages without doing them permanent injury, so i've heard.

if people are prepared to pay for the stories, then fine. i've read all i want to read in the express already.

I have followed this debacle with great interest and I am amazed that the MoD are going to allow these guys carte blanche to publish their stories.They are,after all still serving in forces, and what sort of precedent does that set for the rest of the guys out there in Iraq and Afghanistan getting shot at and bombed.
...... "Hey man the next time we bump into the Taliban let's just run up the white flag and get a slice of the action!"

What a damned good question. I don't feel that I can submit an very good answer, because my feelings are ambivalent.

On one hand, it doesn't seem to sit well with what I thought the ethos of the armed forces. I thought they had a similar kind of confidentiality culture as we do in the NHS. I thought that servicemen never divulged anything... any information had to come from the MoD.

I think the MoD is allowing his, purely to reinforce their credibility, as Wolfie said. The whole thing was a media pig-circus, and they came out with lots of egg on their face. I see it as a propaganda tactic that is in the same ball-park as those employed by the Iranian, when our sailors and marines were in their custody. Thankfully, this will not be traumatic for the personnel, as the experience they had in Iran.

Then, like Vultan said... why not let them make a bit of cash? I can only say that it goes against the grain, to my mind. If I was being utterly pragmatic, I would agree. However, it just doesn't sit well with what I perceived to be military culture... the reassurance that these people serve out of loyalty, and not for profit. That's what mercenaries do.

That said... in a society that pays for stories, and many are more expensive, trite and banal than the drama that these 15 people endured, should we not expect that they would have been made offers? I think that what it really boils down to is the shift in our society's values. Money is what drives our lives now. Everything has a price, but no longer has any value.

In the end, as reluctant as I am to condone it, I would rather see these people paid for their stories than some pseudo-reality-celebrity, WAG or politician-turned-convict. Until society gets its house in order, I don't have a problem with the servicemen taking the money and running.

I certainly believe it is an insult to the families of the many brave British forces personnel who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. They have been given little or no sympathy nor sympathetic press coverage, never mind proper financial compensation for the distress and misery their bereaved families suffered!

Yet this lot have seemingly been given Her Majesty the Queen's and Tony Blair's joint blessing to sell their stories to the highest bidders because, instead of fighting back, it would appear they meekly surrendered and then co-operated with "the enemy"!

It all seems pretty tacky to me, particularly as it also seems to mean they will each pocket £100,000 or so to tell any "porkies" they like not only to help the newspaper get a better selling edition but also to enlist the services of a newspaper's ghost writer to fantasise they were all really UK versions of Rambo throughout the period rather than failures.

Whatever the newspapers do now print will not be believed anyway in the Islamic world nor even in the West, because we all know the tabloid press in Britain does not make a habit of "spoiling a good juicy story just for the sake of inserting a bit of boring truth" into wording used. They will also be exposed, through their own words to have contradicted what they said before Iranian TV cameras, and thus be highlighted as already proven liars whenever the pocket lining amount is high enough.

Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, George Bush - they will all hit the really lucrative after dinner talk circuit and make millions. And that is OK.
If they can talk why can't Joe or Jane Blow?
Selling their story at least gives them an exclusive and keeps all the other door-stepping apologies for jounalists off their backs.
So long as they are telling the truth then it is no different from Terry Waite making endless bunce out of being chained to a radiator.
What is the difference? That they are serving soldiers?
If the MOD is not invoking the Secrets Act when it could then the MOD/Government is cannily or snidely expecting their stories to sway public opinion into their own camp.