McGround more like !!
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Ok so sheâs stood down/retired/resigned/been pushedâŚto be honest i donât think there was much choice given the political stance she appears to have taken.
What we need now (if thereâs going to be another) is someone who will understand the term âambassadorâ and use their staus/influence in a manner positive to the Organisation. With pauses, cuts, apathy etc., the powers that be need to choose very carefully as to how a new post holder will be viewed by the rank and file, considering everything else thatâs going on (or not) at the moment. A new Ambassador is NOT what we need; we need commitment to aviation, a decision on VA, and a general acknowledgement that RAFAC can - and should be - doing much better.
I for one donât think this is necessary at the moment; we all have other issues to deal with.
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One could argue that give what has happened to the org, and what is on the cards, an ambassador with social/political reach is exactly what we needâŚ
Personally I like Vorderman - I think that getting her as an Ambassador was an inspired choice and and a proper feather in the cap. She worked well with the previous CAC, she was was very âout thereâ in cadet terms, and she put lots of the cadet stuff on SM (the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Rich Knight on, has 23k followers on Twitter, she has 960k followers on TwitterâŚ)
However, COVID comes along and thereâs nothing to do or tweet about in ATC terms, and like many of us, she finds other things to do.
Itâs pretty obvious that the new CAC doesnât know how to interact with her or get the best out of her, and perhaps she feels the relationship has cooled - aor indeed that her political work - which is primarily about incompetence and corruption - is simply more important.
And it would be difficult to argue with that.
Personally I find the discomfort some feel about her, non-uniform, political activities absolutely bizarre. If you think that calling out corruption is against the values of the service, then I think you ought to tender your resignationâŚ
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Perhaps she couldnât reconcile working with RAFAC while calling out incompetent leadership and harmful policy direction elsewhereâŚ
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Some TORs to identify what the rolrle of the ambassador is:
To inspire cadets?
To give top brass some celebrity to mingle with?
To promote the organisation to their âfollowersâ?
To influence industry to get involved with the organisation?
Maybe its all of the above but i feel that everyone has a view of what the (celebrity) ambassador should be yet no where has there been any definition what the role actually is
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Realistically we donât know what the conversation was on initial approach and during subsequent planning.
I can see that there might be reasons to not make it seem so âcontractualâ.
Iâve always thought it was something of a joke as well and (purely anecdotally) it seems that the vast majority of those calling her out as âbreaking impartialityâ were of a certain political persuasion that she opposed and I canât help but wonder if they would have been so vocal if she swayed the other way.
I also donât think they would be too impressed if someone called them out for something on their own personal SM accounts - turning quickly into the embodiment of âfreedom of speech but not for those I donât agree withâ.
The organisation is apolitical, itâs members donât need to be (while off duty). We are all ambassadors for the organisation, so âher position as ambassadorâ makes no difference to that boundary. The BBC has impartiality rules, but werenât too interested in the Gary Linekar witch-hunt. The CS is unbiased, but not many are subject to overly burdensome restriction - typically those closest to the executive from my understanding - and only during Purdah are the greatest restrictions in place or restrictions are widened further through the service.
I see no reason why a body-confident (and allegedly sexually empowered), motivated, and impassioned individual who is willing to speak out against what they see are injustices and in support of what they believe should not be considered a role model. All this âhush hushâ, stay a prude, donât-touch-that-topic stuff is harmful.
I do think she crossed the line with some statements, but thatâs just an opportunity to assess and make an independent judgement on - something we should also be encouraging.
There are also role models on the other side. I donât agree with them, but they can say and believe what they like.
When people exist only within one side of the debate - or even are shut off from both sides of the mainstream discourse, is when they fall into other even more harmful fringes and/or become so disillusioned or non-understanding that they fall completely into apathy and stop engaging with important aspects of society and democracy.
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Most likely she didnât compleat all the mandatory trainings, lost track of what forms to fill out, forgot to sew her Formation Patch on. Let alone her VA for attending an event pushed it over the limit. Then threw her teddyâs out as she still hasnât got her medals.
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Agreed who knows what was said but i feel going forward HQAC should highlight its expectation from the role imo
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Iâm a bit naive about SM, but is it not possible to have 2 accounts on each social media platform?
Maybe call one, âCarol Vorderman - (my political rants)â and the other, âCarol Vorderman - (RAFAC Ambassador)â?
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Would be possible, and with a lot of other roles in the RAFAC having role accounts rather than personal accounts it makes sense.
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Except one account would have 900,000 followers and the other would have CFAVâs
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