[BITList] The Civilians To Soldiers BBC film prompts army to tone down language | Daily Mail Online

[John Feltham]

> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3456576/Stop-swearing-like-trooper-Sft-Major-Army-orders-instructors-tone-orrible-language-F-word-TV-outbursts.html <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3456576/Stop-swearing-like-trooper-Sft-Major-Army-orders-instructors-tone-orrible-language-F-word-TV-outbursts.html>
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> Stop swearing like a trooper, Sft Major! Army orders instructors to tone down their 'orrible language after F-word TV outbursts
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> Being on the receiving end of a tirade of expletives by a furious Sergeant Major may soon be a thing of the past because the army fears the language will be 'offputting' to delicate young ears
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> IT’S an uncomfortable rite of passage that generations of Army recruits have endured. 
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> But being on the receiving end of a tirade of expletives by a furious Sergeant Major may soon be a thing of the past.
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> Army instructors have been ordered to tone down their language when drilling discipline into their rookies for fear of it being ‘offputting’ to delicate young ears.
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> Top brass ordered the clampdown after a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary exposed the full force of the fury.
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> The Civilians To Soldiers film showed one Corporal unleash the F-word four times in a matter of seconds after teenagers undergoing basic training failed to clean their rooms and prepare for a map-reading test.
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> Their instructor, a Corporal Thompson, screamed: ‘Seriously, I ask you to do one f****** thing, it was to do that f****** list on the board which I had the kindness to write down for you lot. Well that didn’t work. Right now, you lot have got me f****** raging! Mr f****** Nice Guy is not coming back!’
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> But one senior officer told The Mail on Sunday such a tirade was unwarranted. ‘School-leavers today just aren’t used to being spoken to in this manner,’ he said. 
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> ‘To many of them it is off-putting to have F-words bellowed at them. We must address this matter if we want to improve recruitment of young people.’
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> However, Colonel Chris Kemp, who led UK troops in Afghanistan, disagreed that any change was needed. He said: ‘Swearing is part of the Army’s language, always has been, and always will be.’
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> Although the Ministry of Defence has denied that any policy changes have been made, The Mail on Sunday understands that instructors have been told informally to mind their language.
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> In one scene in the film, made for the BBC’s Newsbeat website, a Corporal screamed at recruits on a three-mile march: ‘Stop feeling sorry for yourselves, and get up this f****** hill right now!’
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> In another, a female Corporal yelled at a badly dressed trainee: ‘Sort your f****** beret out, it’s doing my nut in.’
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> In an interview to camera, Cpl Thompson explains his outburst, saying: ‘The drama is that I am asking them to do simple things… They’re choosing not to do that, and to spend their whole time down the NAAFI [social club] eating pizza and watching films.’
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>  <>Cpl Thompson loses his patience on BBC's Civilians to Soldiers
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> Top brass ordered the clampdown after a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary exposed the full force of the fury
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> Last night, Col Kemp attacked any attempt to curb the Army’s Sergeant Majors, whose legendary bluntness has long been a staple of films and comedy shows such as It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.
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> He said: ‘Swearing to add emphasis or make an important point is fine, so long as instructors are not personally abusive towards recruits. The guidelines that cover the instructors’ conduct are good enough.
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> ‘What you don’t see in a TV documentary is the hundreds of hours the instructors spend helping recruits reach the required standards.’
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> Most of the recruits featured in Civilians To Soldiers are understood to have passed the 14-week Army entry course. They also earn praise from Cpl Thompson for becoming more disciplined and improving their soldiering skills.
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> Under Army regulations, instructors are supposed to ensure their language is never ‘excessively foul, profane or abusive’ when they are teaching recruits, but swearing is not banned.
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> The MoD said: ‘It is a long-held policy that the Army does not condone the use of abusive or insulting language towards recruits.’
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