Sea greens incorruptible.
  
A Navy captain has banned sprouts, proclaiming them 'the devil's vegetable'.
 
  from the Editorial, 17 June, 2009
   
 
 
 

Captain Wayne Keble, commander of the assault ship Bulwark, is made of stern stuff. He thinks nothing of being devoured by leeches and ants on exercise in the jungles of Brunei. But when it comes to eating, rather than being eaten, he draws the line at sprouts, or "the devil's vegetable" as he calls them. They are absolutely banned on Bulwark.

 
The captain denies his policy is utilitarian. After all, pickled cabbage was once for the Royal Navy a bulwark, as it were, against scurvy. Yet, just as George Bush, the former supreme commander of America, declared in 1990, "I'm not going to eat any more broccoli," so the commander of the floating world of Bulwark spurns sprouts. Such independence of spirit makes the Navy a service to which any resolute child persecuted by vegetables may still aspire.
 
 
And from the online Comments section:
  
● Silly beggar! How long before one of his wussy matelots calims that his yuman rights are being impinged. Don't like sprouts and cry when the enemy confiscate their Ipods! Anyhow, in the real world this would be called abuse of position - or just plain stupidity from a man who ought to have more presing concerns. William Orr
on June 16, 2009
at 11:56 PM
  
● Had the good captain been in command of one of Her Majesty's submarines
then the issue would not have been newsworthy in the slightest. 		 Castalian
on June 16, 2009
at 09:42 PM
  
● In our Italian hotel last week, cold sprouts were served as antepasta.
Be afraid.
Weirdly we were in Room 666 (just kidding).		 Lady Muck
on June 16, 2009
at 08:44 PM
  
● Oh dear, if you know anything about Naval humour (as I do having served 22+ years) this is a red rag to a bull and I can only imagine the fun that the Ships Company are going to have with this. Brussel Sprout amnesty bins at the top of
the Gangway, Illicit Sprout eating Parties, pro and anti-sprout factions in the
Mess. Unfortunately this will likely lead to the deployment of a Matelots
greatest weapon - ridicule. By the way I to hate Sprouts.		 Scarbelly
on June 16, 2009
at 08:33 PM
   
 
 
 
 
I think I can appreciate Scarbelly's comment the most - and it most certainly demonstrates the Navy's humour quite well.