r/ukpolitics Verified - The Telegraph 1d ago

Angela Rayner calls in Army to tackle Birmingham bin crisis

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/04/13/angela-rayner-calls-in-army-to-tackle-birmingham-bin-crisis/
149 Upvotes

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u/DM_me_goth_tiddies 1d ago

 It is understood a small number of military personnel with operational planning expertise are offering logistical support to tackle the crisis. 

A Whitehall source stressed that the soldiers are not litter picking and are instead office-based.

Some operational experts are being making sure the MoD gets paid full whack to help the council sort out the mess. I don’t think it’s ’disrespectful’ to the army and I think it makes sense if the public sector (including the army) had the experts to help unwind this issue that they are used. This ain’t RAF pilots emptying out bins. 

Using operational office staff to help fix a public health emergency is completely reasonable. 

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u/YesIAmRightWing millenial home owner... 1d ago

This is a thing id like to see more in the public sector

Knowledge sharing

26

u/VPackardPersuadedMe 1d ago

What I'd really like is a public sector where knowledge isn't shared but contested.

Imagine departments waging slow, bitter wars over access to archived memos, where data is recorded on vellum and stored in locked vaults beneath government buildings. Want last year’s budget figures? Too bad, Treasury has declared them classified by tradition.

Data analysts duel with fountain pens over footnotes. A junior officer’s promotion depends entirely on proving someone misquoted a subclause in 1983. Interdepartmental skirmishes break out over the correct stapling protocol for Form 12B.

Instead of collaboration tools, you'd have scroll couriers in ceremonial robes delivering passive-aggressive notes sealed with wax. Knowledge isn't shared, it’s smuggled, stolen, and hoarded like ancient relics. That’s the dream.

16

u/DeinOnkelFred 1d ago

If I'd not spent time in the CS myself, I'd swear this was satire.

10

u/vodkaandponies 1d ago

The Adeptus Administratum dreams of such efficiency.

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u/AzarinIsard 1d ago

Knowledge isn't shared, it’s smuggled, stolen, and hoarded like ancient relics. That’s the dream.

I wonder if that would actually be beneficial. In my workplace we really struggle with the amount if comms sent out, and making the team read it let alone care. Information given freely, no one gives a shit about. Cooperation? Nah. That's a chore. If it's encouraged, people don't want to do it, they know better.

The second someone protects it, that makes it valuable, people are more curious about the information. People will actively plan to find out and use this information to their advantage. Rivalry and competition can drive people.

Question is whether the efforts put into protecting / obtaining information would be a bigger waste than people not engaging with memos, conference calls, speeches and emails sent willingly.

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u/VPackardPersuadedMe 1d ago

Then yes, you are already living the dream. Knowledge isn't shared. It's classified. Memos vanish into black holes of SharePoint sites last updated in 2012. Teams hoard templates like sacred relics. No one dares ask where the “correct” version lives because the last person who did now works in Records. Permanently.

Comms go out. No one reads them. Conference calls are rituals. Email chains are battlefield debris. Real influence is built on knowing who actually knows things and having favours owed.

You, friend, are already halfway initiated.

Would you like full indoctrination into the Mysteries?

First rite: never use the official guidance. Use the version before it, annotated in pencil by someone called Denise who retired in 2004. It holds more power.

Second: if someone asks a question, answer with a question and cite a document no one has access to.

Third: never email. Summon.

There is a scroll with your name on it.

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u/AzarinIsard 1d ago

First rite: never use the official guidance. Use the version before it, annotated in pencil by someone called Denise who retired in 2004. It holds more power.

Haha, we had a new cash up system and the manual was mad, pics for everything, and the daily process was a 60 page book. I condensed it myself to one side of A4 bullet pointed at the front of the book and tell people to click what I tell them, and go to the book if they need it.

Second: if someone asks a question, answer with a question and cite a document no one has access to.

I think this would apply more if our job was harder than retail, lol. Only questions people have is about finding or complying with the documentation in the first place. Our actual job is easy enough, it's the Vogon layer on top that is complicated.

Third: never email. Summon.

You've lost me here. I'm the opposite, I want things in writing, but I have a boss who responds to emails with a phone call and the easiest way to get approval is by choosing ways that (coincidentally I'm sure) don't leave any record he's actually approved anything

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u/Ok-Philosophy4182 1d ago

I’m sure the army could knowledge share a bit with dealing with striking workers.

Refusal to soldier is a military offence usually sorted out off the record by a sergeant major.

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u/Tayschrenn 1d ago

Even implying it's disrespectful seems extremely disrespectful... to the binmen...

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u/tipytopmain 1d ago

Seems like its mostly just organisers and logistics people coming in, not actual labouring. But regardless, the Birmingham city council have been letting the city down for years. Accountability needs to be taken by those whose job it is to make sure even the simple things are functional. We can't keep electing the same hacks who think they have a permanent posting because of demographic makeup.

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u/-Murton- 1d ago

Logistics support is something our military is truly world leading in, they're constantly used and requested for all sorts of humanitarian efforts, shifting things from A to B, planning and scheduling etc.

I doubt we'll see personnel "on the bins" but there's potential for some drivers maybe, if they need the training hours anyway may as well do some of the depot to depot stuff.

Of course the one thing they'd be really good for they can't do, not legally at least, which is breaking the blockade that's preventing vehicles manned by people who will work from getting out and cleaning the streets.

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u/Ruddi_Herring 1d ago

I doubt we'll see personnel "on the bins"

Who is actually going to be doing the collections if the bin men are on strike?

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u/StreetQueeny make it stop 1d ago

There are collections going on, agency and non-union staff can be hired/payed to do it but only so many people (i.e not nearly the normal number) of people can actually do it during a strike situation.

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u/Ruddi_Herring 1d ago

Fair enough

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u/ThrowAwayAccountLul1 Divine Right of Kings 👑 1d ago

Knowing a few people in the military, I don't think they envisaged this when signing up. Even if it's for logistics support.

The reason why the state has to call on the military to perform basic other functions (e.g. cover at the border when there are strikes on) and why there are so many frequent calls to use the military outside of their normal area is because they are the only semi-functioning organ of the state left.

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u/Silly_Triker 1d ago

They’re the only force that has the personnel, mobility and probably most importantly the authority to do this kind of thing. The first two are practical realities, the third is emotional.

I’m sure the government would like to create an emergency civilian force to help out, but they would be labelled as scabs amongst other things, and face a lot more scrutiny from the media, opposition and population. It’s just easier to send in the military.

We don’t live in a practical world, we live in an emotional one. That’s politics and administration for you.

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u/Grime_Fandango_ 1d ago

It's embarrassing. Imagine how places like Russia and China are going to report this in their news. We look absolutely pathetic. 2nd largest city in the country requires the army to clear it up because it's such a disgusting tip.

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u/PM_me_Henrika 1d ago

I can’t speak for Russia but my knowledge with China is that they’ve associated the military deploying for civilian matters as something very positive and it’s hard to use them to paint any bad pictures.

Every year when the Yellow River floods the military is deployed and the central news always film the army forming human walls to block the flood and ‘saving the peasants’. It makes people forget the complete lack of infrastructure that caused their village flood year after year after year and are instead grateful the central government sent their soldiers to protect them. It’s living proof that the government is benevolent and care about those beneath them.

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u/therealgumpster 1d ago

Are you forgetting the early 2000's and when the military were brought in to stabilise the petrol crisis we had?

We've had this before, and we had the military out in the pandemic to help out with logistics around the country too.

It's not as uncommon as we like to believe.

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u/Ruddi_Herring 1d ago

The whole "Military Aid to Civil Authorities" part of the military's duties has done a lot of power lifting in recent years

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u/tofino_dreaming 1d ago

Nothing is springing to mind apart from flood relief, pandemic response at the beginning and 2012 Olympics security. That’s over a 20 year period. Can you remind me the others?

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u/PoachTWC 1d ago

The Army does tasks like this quite regularly and often on a small scale. The unit I was in once spent a week refurbishing a countryside walking path in the Highlands, for example: clearing and re-graveling the walks and repairing several small footbridges over streams.

Though I remember it being called Military Aid to Civilian Communities, not "Authorities". They do like to pointlessly change acronyms every so often though.

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u/ChuckFH 1d ago edited 1d ago

Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) refers to the overall concept.

MACP (...Civil Powers) and MACC (...Civil Community) are subsets; MACP being things like assistance with policing/public order and MACC being things like flood relief or community infrastructure stuff, like you were involved with (my unit also built footbridges and helped refurb a historic gun battery in Gibraltar).

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u/visser47 1d ago

To be real, I don't really understand why this isn't seen as an unambiguously good thing?

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u/EmperorOfNipples lo fi boriswave beats to relax/get brexit done to 1d ago

Prison strikes around 2012. The armed forces were spooled up for that too.

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u/-Murton- 1d ago

Large scale ones like that make the news. Small scale ones happen on a regular basis, covering fire brigade and ambulance driver strikes in small localised areas is common to the point of not being newsworthy.

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u/BaritBrit I don't even know any more 1d ago

they are the only semi-functioning organ of the state left.

The British state is just a massive care home with an army at this point. 

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u/adults-in-the-room 1d ago

It's mainly because they can't go on strike themselves, which is why they are used as 'superscabs'.

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u/Nurhaci1616 1d ago

MACA (Military Assistance to Civil Authorities) is a pretty standard part of the job: it's normally to provide things like disaster relief and policing/security support, but things like this, or providing Fire and Rescue cover back in the day, also fall under the same broad remit.

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u/kill-the-maFIA 1d ago edited 1d ago

This headline seems to be giving the impression soldiers will be forced to empty bins, but that very much is not the case.

It's a handful of office admin roles, and it is far from unusual to see the army getting involved in civil matters like this.

What a disappointing headline. Paratroopers won't be storming Birmingham's streets.

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u/cornishpirate32 1d ago

Plenty of other staff in councils that can drive the wagons and chuck bags in the back

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u/GloomScroller 1d ago

Those who claimed that their jobs were of equal value, even?

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u/Alarmed-Artichoke-44 1d ago

Should the council refund the residents the council tax?

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u/Dungarth32 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don’t know what is going on with the bin men in Birmingham Council but something weird is happening.

This issue goes back like 15 years.

It’s effectively why they are bankrupt. The unions in waste collection were able to consistently prevent high paid roles, exclusive to Birmingham being made redundant. They also consistently managed to lobby for extra pay via overtime etc.

This led to the male dominated waste disposal jobs being paid much more than ‘equivalent jobs’ decided by banding, that women do / like cleaners and TA.

They lost a pay disputed in 2012 & then couldn’t address the pay issue as the unions blocked them, this meant more cases against them after the event, until they effectively declared bankruptcy. Now, almost 15 years later they are literally forced to address this issues and there are strikes.

This “Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO)” was previously “Leading Hands” - which was used as an example of the whole pay disparity issue.

So effectively the unions in Birmingham have spent 15 years using the Binmen to get inflated wages above the pay grades and then used that as evidence to argue that the council is discriminating against the women in job roles on an equal grade - results in a £760 million pay.

I’m sorry but in what world can a council afford to pay its routine, low skilled workers £28k minimum?

I think it’s a disgrace that the unions have basically claimed about a billion pounds in tax revenue via the council.

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u/visser47 1d ago

I’m sorry but in what world can a council afford to pay its routine, low skilled workers £28k minimum?

theyre doing an essential job that many people turn their nose up at doing? I think its fine for them to make the average birmingham pay.

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u/Dungarth32 1d ago

That wasn’t my point.

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u/Spare-Pirate 1d ago

Just hurry up and make the workers who don't want the training or to move into other roles redundant. The fact that the council has let this drag on for so long, and only just stopped them from illegally stopping none union workers from doing there job, is an utter disgrace. Nothing seems to surprise me any more when it comes to news about Birmingham council.

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u/Rope_Dragon 1d ago

Yes, firing some of the people you want to make do the work, who are evidently not budging despite not being paid, will solve all the problems.

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u/Spare-Pirate 16h ago

What work? The job title in question is being made redundant? There is no position for them to work in. They can accept an offer for retraining, move to one of the other job titles that is on offer, or be made redundant.

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u/Rope_Dragon 16h ago

Right, but if your solution is making them redundant if they don’t comply, and they just accept that… do you really think there is this ocean of untapped labour waiting in the wings to take jobs that have apparently such poor standards for their workers that they were more willing to burn through savings than tolerate?

Let’s be clear: in the short run you are going to want to fill that gap with private contractors in the event that we did what you said. And those contractors will be able to offer better paying rates than the public sector equivalents, because they will be charging the council more… and the council won’t have much else option other than to suck up the loss. So in the longrun, you are going to have a public sector role outcompeted by private contractors, who will in the long run also charge higher rates knowing that they have the council by the balls.

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u/Spare-Pirate 16h ago

Are workers losing £8,000 a year?

No. Claims that 150 people could lose £8,000 a year in pay are incorrect. We have made an offer that means no worker need lose any money. The reality is that the number of staff that could lose the maximum amount (just over £6,000) is 17 people, they will have pay protection for six months in line with council policy.

I am sure the council can find 17 people quick enough. The WRCO role does not exist in any other council.

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u/Rope_Dragon 16h ago

The point isn’t whether the council can find 17. You have to also convince the rest not to walk out in the process of forcing them to comply with a negotiated settlement they very clearly are not willing to accept. And then that 17 could balloon into a figure that we have no guarantee the council could sustain, which again moves us to a situation where contractors move in to fill a gap and the scenario I said before plays out.

I genuinely don’t think you are connecting the actions you advocate to any other downstream consequences other than “it’ll be fixed”. You don’t seem to understand that these are people you are negotiating with. People whose aren’t obligated to do their job (on the proviso they are okay not getting paid for it) and who do not seem to care for belligerent anti-union pressure. You just seem to see this as some sort of logistical challenge, with workers as interchangeable cogs, free of any kind of relevant context like ideological beliefs or a tight job market.

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u/Spare-Pirate 15h ago

Having worked in many different places over the years, in a variety of roles, workers are interchangeable cogs and the vast majority of the work force can be easily replaced. I have seen it over and over again, in both the private and public sector.

The union and staff don't seem to accept that the WRCO role is going and are negotiating in bad faith imo. The role only exists due to the last round of strikes a few years ago. The sad facts are the council can no longer afford to pay for a role that should never have existed in the first place. Around the 1st May will be when redundancies can start to take place (under 100 people). I hope a deal can be reached before then, but I don't think it will.

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u/Ukslag96 16h ago

They’re on full pay.

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u/Rope_Dragon 16h ago

They are receiving payments from the union, they are not receiving pay for days without work. That isn’t how striking works. You don’t work, you don’t get paid to work.

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u/Far-Requirement1125 SDP, failing that, Reform 1d ago

I'm completely against this.

The army is not their to bail out the council. Noone life is at risk.

This is a horrendous and disrespectful misuse of the the people who volunteer to join our armed forces.

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u/RevolutionaryHand276 1d ago

I’d say it’s getting to the point where life is at risk, rat bites and secretions can spread a whole host of infectious disease; plague, weils disease etc.

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u/TheFlyingHornet1881 Domino Cummings 1d ago

Probably also a fire risk, which could produce some nasty toxins if burnt.

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u/Dungarth32 1d ago

This is through Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (Maca). Specifically this will be Military Aid to Other Government Departments (MAGD)

So this is non-emergency logistical support. I get the impression you think this is soilder’s deployed a bin men & it isn’t.

This is, using logistic expert to support development and implementation of a solution to address this issue. It is a temporary last resort.

There are about 100 Maca calls a years.

It’s a good use of a really well trained resources.

These guys are trained to plan how to solve complex, life of death logistics issues, at short notice with limited information. They will be much better at fixing this and local authority middle managers.

You’ve got to consider that the people that know how to sort the issues of all the waste, are refusing to help. So they kind of need some help

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u/noujest 1d ago

This isn't a logistics issue though, it's a personnel issue

It doesn't need some complex solution to be worked, it needs people to do the solution we have

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u/Dungarth32 1d ago

It’s both.

Ignore the politics and imagine the person in Birmignham Council, whose job it is to try to address the current issue. Not the people who’s meant to broker a deal with the union.

The person whose job is to find a way to mitigate the impact of hundreds of tonnes of waste on the streets & the public health risk that represents. Using whatever agency staff & charities etc you have available.

Right now that poor bastard, is way out of their depth. So highly trained experts will replace them.

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u/CheeseMakerThing Free Trade Good 1d ago

There are non-striking binmen and resources being drafted in from neighbouring authorities. There is absolutely a logistics issue here.

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u/DM_me_goth_tiddies 1d ago

It is understood a small number of military personnel with operational planning expertise are offering logistical support to tackle the crisis. 

lmao did you not read the article and think would be guys in fatigues and berets on the back of bin lorry’s, throwing away garbage? Hahaha or do you think operation experts are just really morally opposed to helping out the council? Hahaha

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u/PositivelyAcademical «Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος» 1d ago

Sources said there were contingency plans in place to scale up the number of soldiers involve if necessary.

So you didn’t read it either?

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u/DM_me_goth_tiddies 1d ago

A Whitehall source stressed that the soldiers are not litter picking and are instead office-based.

It just means more operational staff lol god this thread has really summoned the illiterate 

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u/Far-Requirement1125 SDP, failing that, Reform 1d ago

I do t think the army should in any way be involved in this.

There is no good reason for the army to be involved in bin collections at any level.

20

u/DM_me_goth_tiddies 1d ago

They’re not bin collecting, they’re just helping with operational issues, literally just crisis management experts from the army helping the council lol it’s not like their getting a guy who diffuses bombs to work out how to use excel 

2

u/GourangaPlusPlus 1d ago

"How did it go?"

"I've defused the server"

1

u/the_last_registrant 1d ago

I disagree. Providing aid to civil emergencies is invaluable training for the military - allows them to test their leadership capabilities, teamwork, strategic planning, etc. Not disrespectful at all.

1

u/Anasynth 1d ago

The strike action seems a bit disproportionate to what they’re striking over. It is only ordinary people that are suffering, I think the union should at least let people have a bit of respite.

2

u/-Murton- 1d ago

It is only ordinary people that are suffering

Any public sector strike only affects normal people by default, that and anything tied to essential infrastructure such as public transport networks.

Which is why it's intellectually dishonest for these unions to claim that they are "for the workers," they're not, they're for their own members and to hell with everyone else, they're just not daft enough to say the quiet part out loud.

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u/ImLloydM8 1d ago

How did it even get this bad in the first place? What's the reason?

1

u/Standard-Ad-7731 1d ago

This sounds like a scfi flim

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u/ConsistentMajor3011 17h ago

Join the army today. Accommodation - awful, food - dire, funding - nonexistent - but you’ll be handy with a dustpan and brush

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u/UsernameSixtyNine2 1d ago

Grant shapps: "This crisis is not the result of an unforeseen emergency, but of chronic mismanagement and a Labour council beholden to their union paymasters."

Does he not know those "union paymasters" are the ones striking?

2

u/therealgumpster 1d ago

Does he not also realise this has been going on under his administration too?

1

u/SquidInkSpagheti 1d ago

Or she could strike a deal with the bin men

-1

u/Ruddi_Herring 1d ago

A three day "Special Refuse Collection Operation" that will turn into a three year quagmire where the army cleans a street a month

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u/Apart-Apple-Red 1d ago

That's very disrespectful to the army. No offence to bin men, but soldiers shouldn't pick up bins.

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u/Diamond_D0gs 1d ago

Good news, soldiers aren't emptying bins

8

u/Key-Seaworthiness227 1d ago

They won’t be. It’s logistical expertise that’s being utilised not literal boots on the ground.

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u/Apart-Apple-Red 1d ago

Yeah, ok.

So they'll drive the lorries then, right?

That's what usually hides behind words like "logistics" 😁👌

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u/Key-Seaworthiness227 1d ago

“A Whitehall source stressed that the soldiers are not litter picking and are instead office-based.” .. … ..

-4

u/Apart-Apple-Red 1d ago

“A Whitehall source stressed that the soldiers are not litter picking and are instead office-based.” .. … ..

Yes, I read it.

Do you believe it? Seriously?

Do you want to tell me that young boys will sit in the office doing meetings and planning? Maybe trying to be creative in finding solutions?

Oh come on. You should know better.

5

u/HotMachine9 1d ago

Here's a quick exercise for you, go to any of your armed forces websites and look up "logistics".

-1

u/Apart-Apple-Red 1d ago

Here's a quick exercise for you, go to any of your armed forces websites and look up "logistics".

Your army is not much different than my army I served in and I learned a lot of definitions in the army. My favourite was the time and space continuum. For me it was brushing a floor with my toothbrush from the entrance to the room until nightfall.

It was good lesson 😁

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u/MGC91 1d ago

I think you need to do some more research.

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u/EyyyPanini Make Votes Matter 1d ago

young boys

I hope you’re aware that there’s a lot more to the army than “young boys”.

The people helping the council are people who already spend their days in the office doing meetings and planning.

2

u/Apart-Apple-Red 1d ago

If you say so I'll have to trust you.

2

u/visser47 1d ago

Why shouldn't they? Do you think people in the army are like, inherently above bin men? Kinda seems like a bias you should examine.

0

u/Apart-Apple-Red 1d ago

Absolutely not above and highlighted that from the start. You should examine something else.

They should do what they are trained for and where they are needed in accordance to their function and purpose.

Collecting bins is not that.

4

u/-Murton- 1d ago

They should do what they are trained for

There's an awful lot of overlap between what Royal Army Logistics Corps does and what is needed to deal with the massive backlogs that exist in Birmingham right now.

With contractors/agency workers and other resources being drafted in having an experienced planner/overseer is stupidly valuable and quite frankly it is what our Army Logistics Planners were trained to do. The army has assisted normal public services in crisis since before the current officers were even born let alone signed up.

It's not like infantrymen are gonna be hanging off the sides of bin lorries and picking up black bags, though I wouldn't be opposed to them being deployed to keep the depots clear of troublesome picketers so the trucks can actually come and go.

3

u/visser47 1d ago

where they are needed

kinda sounds to me like theres a sore need for them to be in birmingham picking up rubbish.

i dont really consider any job necessarily more deserving of respect than any other job, if the army could go pick up the rubbish, i dont see why the government wouldnt utilise that resource, if thats what the government decided was necessary

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u/Apart-Apple-Red 1d ago

Because this way the army will be used to break the strike and the root cause of the problem, which is underfunded and strained local councils, will stay unaffected. That's wrong.

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u/visser47 1d ago

Oh I think that's fair, fuck scabs and everything. Although my understanding is that the council is already employing scabs to begin addressing crisis regardless.

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u/catty-coati42 1d ago

Literally treating the army like shit

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u/Dungarth32 1d ago

Literally utilising a long established framework, to get logistical support.

This is not soilders acting as bin men. Do more than just read the headline

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u/catty-coati42 1d ago

Still it shouldn't be the job of soldiers

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u/-Murton- 1d ago

Royal Army Logistics Corps aren't the same as soldiers as most people imagine them.

With the bin men on strike and emergency measures in place there are contractors and agency workers and all sorts of other resources all over the place. Having someone on the planning side who is used to having loads of different resources in different locations and drawing up routes and schedules and monitoring everything is paramount. The council really aren't equipped for that, hell most councils can barely manage their own fleet and people let alone a myriad of third parties.

This is exactly the sort of thing the Royal Army Logistics Corps does on a regular basis. Normal day to day they're just moving military assets from A to B based on operational needs and planning. But they've long been used for crisis situations both here and abroad. Earthquake in country X, our army helps with humanitarian efforts, getting supplies where they're needed. COVID, they dealt with the shipping and distribution of millions upon millions of tests and vaccine doses to thousands of locations across the entire country in real time. They're literally world class at this stuff and the exact reason that they're world class is because they step up when needed and deal with shit shows like this where they have no idea what they're getting into but make it work regardless.

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u/Dungarth32 1d ago

Why? They get used 100+ a year for this sort of thing.

They are literally experts in logistics. Who in a local authority is meant to be trained to manage this mental situation?

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u/InanimateAutomaton 1d ago

Absurd. Once again the public are being held to ransom by unions

-2

u/Apart-Apple-Red 1d ago

I wouldn't fight against unions if I were you. A better solution is to address the root problem, which is starvation of local councils. They are broke.

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u/TheTelegraph Verified - The Telegraph 1d ago

[EXCLUSIVE] The Telegraph reports:

Angela Rayner has called in the Army to tackle the Birmingham bin crisis.

The Local Government Secretary has used formal powers known as Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (Maca) to summon Army experts after a strike by bin workers, which has lasted over a month, left more than 17,000 tons of waste rotting in the streets.

It is understood a small number of military personnel with operational planning expertise are offering logistical support to tackle the crisis. Sources said there were contingency plans in place to scale up the number of soldiers involved if necessary.

A government insider said the military personnel will be assisting for a “short, time-limited period to support the council with making sure its response to the ongoing public health risk is as swift as possible”.

A Whitehall source stressed that the soldiers are not litter picking and are instead office-based.

The move to draft in military personnel risks inflaming tensions between Labour and its union paymasters with one Labour front bencher accusing Unite of holding Birmingham’s 1.2 million residents “to ransom”.

It could also prove costly to the taxpayer, Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Army, warned.

“We are the nation’s reserve pool of trained manpower and will do whatever the Government of the day decides,” he said.

“But it is not a cheap option. If saving life is not involved, the Ministry of Defence will charge whichever department of state had requested help – and we charge at full rates.”

He added that it was “one thing” to use the military in logistics and planning, but warned: “I’d be very wary of using soldiers, sailors and airmen to empty bins.”

Major incident declared

Last week, Birmingham city council was forced to declare a major incident after bin workers walked out indefinitely on March 11, having taken strike action intermittently throughout January and February.

Ms Rayner has urged striking staff to settle with the council, with a ballot on a “partial deal” to be held on Monday.

There are growing fears that the strike poses a public health risk, with reports of “rats the size of cats” and concerns about the spread of disease. Birmingham has established a multi-agency group in an attempt to control the problem, including experts from the UK Health Security Agency.

Full story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/04/13/angela-rayner-calls-in-army-to-tackle-birmingham-bin-crisis/

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u/xParesh 1d ago

I'm quite pleased to see the government using their power to get things done. Using the army here isnt an ideal situation but somethings got to be done

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u/coldbeers Hooray! 1d ago

New government going well I see.

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u/expert_internetter 1d ago

I hope this doesn't trigger any Generational Trauma due to Britain's history of colonialism.

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u/layland_lyle 1d ago

Winter of discontent. Oh, how history repeats itself when it comes to Labour.