I think every generation will say that the next generation has it easier than they did. That is human nature.
I will absolutely never tolerate bullying in any form and despite what Steve Preece has to say, systematic bullying is not endemic in the Royal Marines. There is no need for it during Recruit Training or later when a man goes to a Unit. Certain aspects may look like bullying to an outsider though, and training has definately been "modified" accordingly. It is also true that today`s kids are not as fit as my generation. Cultural changes are responsible for that. I never spent days sat in front of an X-Box, but would play all day in bombed-out houses, played rugby for the skool was a keen cross country runner and general all round athlete. Never ate fast food shite, just bread and dripping
Doesn`t matter a toss. And here`s the rub, the teams doing PRC selection at CTC have always picked the best of whatever was available. I`ve seen lads passed for duty that made me flinch "You can`t be serious" I said. They`ll be sorted by the Units was the response. The old numbers game. And I saw the results of this when they hit the Rifle Coys. Gravs with no idea and no mates, on three months notice to leave. Dead-heads who had no place in my Corps.
I remember a time, early eighties, when the H&S mob started to poke their beaks into CTC. Questions were asked in the House and Royal was on the back foot for a while.
Being a Member of a Recruit Troop is summat we all remember for ever. It`s a one off. Most of us can recount every single day.
Now, imagine you are part of a Training Team
After a while, your interest might tend to slip or you might just chuck summat in to wind the rest of the Team up. Use your imagination.
One of the standard punishments for having dirty mess tins during an inspection in the field is to have said mess bin thrown into a large gorse bush where the offender has to crawl in to retrieve it afterwards. SOPs. We`ve all seen it done. Well, a certain Corporal took that sort of thing a bit farther and anyone with a dirty tooth-brush was whipped on the tongue with a nettle and whenever the whole Troop deserved a group punishment, they would make the Declaration, "I have no live rounds, empty cylinders etc etc and can I have a dead leg please Corporal" Those lads will larf their testicles off whenever two or three of them get together and remember that
And that would have been an end to it, except little Johnny wrote about it to his mummy in a "look how weird this place is but oi luvs it" sort of way. Mummy was not best pleased. She wrote to local MP asking if such methods of "torture" were common in the RM. The rest is history. Within two weeks, Nods were wearing orange shoulder tabs "Don`t shout at me, I`m new" No Nods were allowed out on the common without a safety tent, ffs and the path of enlightenment has had to adapt ever since. Can`t call `em Nods now ffs
I`ve recently had the past WO II in charge of Training Wing at CTC as a house guest and yes, things are different now. Why would they be the same? The pool from which Recruits are drawn is a different pool.
Be certain, though, that the end result is still the best. Of course the initial entry is not as fit as we were, so what? They don`t have to be fit do they? Fitness can be trained. Standards of Excellance can be trained. That never-give-up spark of Bootneck Spirit cannot be trained if it it isn`t there in the first place.
If you think the Gravs today are not the best, are not as good as you/we were, then best you try saying so, face to face, to the lads who served in Sierra Leonne, or Boz and Koz, or Gulf One and Two, because hey guess what?
You`ll be wearing a new arsehole where your head used to be.
All of the above applys, to a much lesser extent, to the Toms of Para Reg. wahoo mahomet 
