My favourite TV series of all time is Band of Brothers, which tells the story of an American paratrooper company’s experiences from training, to D-Day, and through the war into the liberation of France, Benelux and Germany. The eighth episode in the ten-part series is the Last Patrol.
In the Last Patrol, the soldiers are in Hagenau, with German soldiers just across the river. This is one of the most memorable scenes of great leadership by Major Richard Winters:
The context is that the previous night, the company had made an excursion across the water to capture some German prisoners – but lost soldiers in the process. Thus, in the scene above, Major Winters is telling his soldiers to break the rules, and to not go across again.
It is the story that great leadership sometimes requires bending the rules. Sometimes, you can just fill out the paperwork, and pretend that you’ve done what has been asked of you.
I was reminded of this scene when watching the just-released video below.
Currently, Manx resident Tanya Anderson is in quarantine in the Isle of Man, and required to stay in quarantine for two weeks. It is really bizarre that our laws encourage her to get out of quarantine earlier by travelling across to the United Kingdom and back a second time.
If she stays in quarantine, she will be allowed out around the 12th or 13th of May.
However, if she travels across to the United Kingdom again, she will be allowed out of quarantine around the 7th of May.
This is absurd. Anderson would benefit from some common sense leadership.
