Military should fight wars not sexism, says ex-head of Navy

THE former head of the Royal Navy has said the military should focus on winning wars rather than “political correctness” after a ban on words like “manpower”.

Admiral Lord Alan West, former first sea lord, made his comments after it was reported that First Sea Lord Tony Radakin told sailors to stop using terms such as “unmanned” and “manpower” so female recruits do not feel excluded.

Lord West, 72, said that while people have to be “very careful with words” because “in this very politically correct world it has a relevance”, he hoped that “most of [the Navy’s] attention is being paid at the moment to ensuring we have

‘We’re focusing on all those soft things, which are lovely, but they don’t actually help when a war comes along’

sufficient ships, weapons and men to prevent war and if there is a war, to be able to fight and win”.

“Those things seem to merit a huge amount of attention and it seems that quite often we’re focusing more and more on things like the RAF changing its uniform and all those soft things, which are lovely, but they don’t actually help you when a war comes along.”

It comes after the Chief of the Defence Staff warned that the Armed Forces must stamp out its “laddish” nature, as he warned he found the military’s culture “really worrying”.

General Sir Nick Carter also wrote a letter to all personnel where he said that while “we talk a genuinely good game”, more needed to be done to deal with racism in Britain’s Armed Forces.

A review last year concluded that the forces were led by a “pack of middleaged white men” resulting in unacceptable bullying, sexism and racism.

Meanwhile, the Navy has dismissed the idea that the word “seaman” is also to be dropped from its lexicon.