A couple of years old now, and perhaps better suited to Merc 2000, Millenium's End and their ilk:
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017 ... l-conflict
I thought it worth posting though due to the vaguely conspiratorial tone of the article and it struck me as interesting that a major private security hub should be located in a backwater English/Welsh border town rather than the corporate skyscrapers of the City or Canary Wharf.
I'm not sure it's any great suprise that blokes in the same line of business like to stick together, especially if they've prior history. Having worked in Hereford for 13 years I can confirm there is a sort of low key military undercurrent running through the town, from spouses of people you work with serving in the SAS, and/or being ex-forces and subsequently employed to guard cargo freighters sailing in the vicinity of Somalia. Also rumours that off duty regiment personnel visit a certain map shop near the catherdral to stock up on the necessary cartographics prior to doing a spot of free enterprise abroad - suggests a blurring of between public and private seems very DC.
The stuff about SAS lads breaking up pub fights pretty quick is garbage - Hereford has the same amount of drunken weekend scrapping as any other provincial British town.
Private Armies in Cider Country
Private Armies in Cider Country
"There's a lot of dignity in that, isn't there? Going out like a raspberry ripple."
