This is a frivolous post about what is a grimly serious topic.

According to the BBC the RAF is letting its servicemen grow beards in readiness for deployment to Afghanistan. The idea is supposed to be to fit in with Afghan cultural values that a beard represents maturity and manliness.

If it’s so that off-duty RAF men don’t stick out like the proverbial sore thumbs against the Taliban, I can tell them now it’s never going to work if the picture of the red-bristled corporal halfway down the page is anything to go by.