Like a man in uniform?

I am partial to a bit of Khaki myself but a good selection of them are like a shoe shopping experience.

Not only do you get a great bag and tissue paper to wander down the road with but when you get them home you rip off the packaging and have a great pair of shoes to play with.

I wrote the other day about some curious MoD behaviour but putting that to one side and remembering that in April when we're eating chocolate and getting shit sick of 'The Most Boring General Election Campaign Ever' TM there will be about 9500 members of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in Afghanistan.

Soldiers know that at some time they’ll be asked to risk everything. And they’re prepared to do it.

They know their life might be cut short or changed forever. They know that could mean never seeing their mates, their family, their children or their local again.

They’ll tell you it’s what they’re trained to do and that they’re doing their job. They’re asked to do many things. Thanks to the political will that deploys them they’re asked to win hearts and minds, often in an atmosphere of hatred and resentment.

To be nationbuilders in societies where almost nothing functions normally. To be peacekeepers and find that there is no peace to keep.

To these tasks, they bring their training, their determination, their own inimitable language and a wacky sense of humour.

And while they represent an Army with long traditions and the highest standards, they’re are not stuck in the past. These young people take their iPods to war, connect to home through satellite television and read the tabloids on their computers.

They work hard, they play hard, and they care a lot about what we think of them. And when things go horribly wrong as they sometimes do, they’d never ask for your help.

But we do. When they’ve put everything on the line it’s our job to ask for something from those of us that they serve to defend.

When they’ve risked their lives, and everything that they hold dear, we’re here to provide them and their families with lifetime support.

That’s why we’re The Soldiers’ Charity.

Cuts to services which are there for soldiers and their families, particularly in a time of war, take 'Front Line Cuts' to a whole new meaning.

This means that inevitably it'll be charities which fill the gaps that central and local government can't provide. That's not speculation, that's a fact. It's happening already with young soldiers being refused funding by local authorities for wheelchair ramps to allow them to spend Christmas at home. With amputees being told that they can't have a walk in shower but should stand up and wash because the local authority doesn't deem it essential. And yet executive officers for cycling are.

So this April while there are guys out fighting unquestioningly for this country, do something for them.

It can be as simple as joining in the Big Curry, and most people like a curry, or it can be a little bit more crazy.

Seeing as we bloggers try to break the mould in how events are covered (using facts for example) I'm going for this challenge:

Best contributor gets a kiss from me.

If you don't want to jump out of a plane or white water raft, why not just donate some money when you next order a take away? If you're a UK tax payer you can gift aid it. It's better than Gordon getting it. Or those other tedious bastards.