Fox on the run

Fifteen British sailors and marines held captive by Iran for nearly a fortnight arrived home a few days ago.

Revolutionary guards seized these Marines on March 23. 2007 in waters just outside the Shatt al-Arab waterway separating Iraq and Iran as they searched an Indian-registered vessel.

Iran said the crew's two rigid inflatable boats had strayed into Iranian waters. Britain insisted they had remained well inside Iraqi naval territory at all times.

Upon release, news photos at the time showed the sailors dressed in Iranian-provided suits. And a pretty picture they looked too.

The British Airways flight from Tehran touched down at Heathrow at 12:02pm. Soon afterwards, the 14 men and one woman emerged from the Aircraft, now dressed in uniform.

At the very moment the group's plane arrived in London, Tony’s generally conciliatory tone towards Iran of recent days took a noticeably tougher turn, and he warned in a statement outside No 10 that "elements of the Iranian regime" were still arming insurgents inside Iraq.

With the immediate crisis over, Tony lost no time in sending the message that his willingness to talk about the captives did not mean Britain was softening its attitude towards Iran, which he hs accused previously of arming and assisting insurgents inside Iraq. "The international community has got to remain absolutely steadfast in enforcing its will, whether it is in respect of nuclear weapons or whether it is in respect of the support of any part of the Iranian regime for terrorism, particularly when directed against democratic governments," he said.

The tone was in marked contrast to comments Tony made when the captives were still in Iran, in which he hailed their imminent release and stressed Britain held no "ill will" towards the Iranian people.

Tony had expressed annoyance at the way the captives were repeatedly paraded on Iranian television to express their contrition at, they said, having entered Iranian waters.

Following Mr Ahmadinejad's announcement yesterday, the 15 Britons were shown greeting him warmly on the steps of the presidential palace in…..er…… those Tehran- made suits.

So………it’s a murky world, not made any better by the MOD’s recent statement these poor sailors would be able to sell their stories to the press. Goodness!

Something dark lingered in my head about the way the released Marines looked on the day of their release, however.

And then it came to me.

In another world and in another time, my lovely Pip adheres, somewhat obsessively, to the philosophy of “Hash House Harriers”

This is an international group of people who get involved in a compelling mixture of running and drinking clubs.

The philosopy of a hash run is for one or more hashers to lay out a running trail (which may include false trails, short cuts and trail breaks) to keep the pack together regardless of fitness levels to follow the trail to a shedload of beer.

I’m led, by PIP, to understand the “HHH” philosopy has been frequently described as 'a drinking club with a running problem'

The club’s general principles are these

• To promote physical fitness among members


• To get rid of weekend hangovers


• To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it with beer


• To persuade the older members they are not as old as they feel
  

Good objectives all, but importantly, from this correspondant’s perspective, “Hashers” seem to have forgotton a final, fith and important objective in their rules of engagement.

From the photo’s I’ve seen, they also need think pretty seriously about including

• Get your clothes from Tehran
  

JVIP