Serving soldiers yesterday poured scorn on an upbeat Ministry of Defence "attitude survey" which claimed that 78% of officers and 59% of other ranks were satisfied with their working life.
It has since emerged that only 5.6% of the Army's 95,270 personnel were canvassed for their opinions and that fewer than one in three of those approached bothered to respond. Of the soldiers issued with survey forms, 1258 were officers and just 619 enlisted ranks.
The MoD claimed from the result that morale was "high" and that the majority of troops thought the frequency of operational tours to Iraq and Afghanistan was either "about right" or "too few". Welcoming publication of the survey's results, Derek Twigg, a junior defence minister, added that the armed services remained "a top quality employer" and that soldiers were "trained and equipped for the job".
One soldier who contacted The Herald said: "These surveys are worse than useless.
It is all spin and unreality. It is made clear to anyone involved that answers must be positive and pro-active, which defeats the object of the entire exercise."
Another said: "It would be interesting to find out how many of the officers who completed forms are in comfy staff posts and how many serving in the field in hot sandy places.
"Even if anyone believed the spin, it still means that 22% of our officers are less than content with their military lot and that 41% of other ranks are really hacked off with back- to-back tours, clapped-out equipment and shoddy accommodation."
The survey, part of a process introduced last September to monitor grass-roots opinion across the armed forces, has been transformed into a statistical propaganda tool for government ministers, sources say.
"It's another triumph for spin and distortion," one officer said. Try telling the guys patrolling in vulnerable Snatch Land Rovers or light armoured vehicles in Basra and Helmand that there are too few operational tours."
The MoD said: "These surveys offer a useful snapshot of attitudes. They help the armed forces target issues that concern our people and inform changes in policy and new initiatives."
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