[MrGaryy]

Originally Posted by Zippy

Well said.

The OP is being disengenuous to say the least. If you wanna criticise his house behaviour then STICK TO THAT. Don't mix it in with stuff about him being a war hero.

Personally I just think he's a dull HM. I don't think he's done anything terrible or disgusting. He's been quite restrained in truth. Too restrained probably.

OH MY ****ING GOD. Are you purposely not reading what I say or what? Because I've explained so. many. times. now that this thread was not judging Steve as a housemate it was just to dispel these illusions of heroism that people use when they are judging him. And if you can;t understand that after what, four posts clearly explaining it to you then I don't know what I can say.

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by GiRTh

LMAO@this thread. Funny and tragic in equal measures. One thing, when were British troops deployed in IRAN?

Coalition Forces crossed the start lines (moving forward into Iraq) for Operation New Dawn/Iraqi Freedom on March 20 2003, (at 02:35 GMT - 05:35Zulu - local time) however Special Forces and Air assets had been operating in Iraq and over it (reinforcing no fly zones etc eventually leading to a full air offensive) for years before hand.

[billy123]

Originally Posted by luvJJ

Steve walked past a bomb when he was 19 years old. He is now 41. He has overcome adversity, but has also lived off the state and rested on his laurels for 22 years, ie the majority of his life.

In my eyes, a true hero (who was unable to work due to the longstanding effect of injuries sustained as a teenager) would have thrown himself into voluntary work, done something to inspire others, something creative or worthwhile, given his time and experience to a worthy cause, ie achieved something other than spending an army pension and hundreds of thousands of pounds of state benefits on tattoos and working out.

Harsh? Yes.
True? Yes.

so travelling the country talking to seriously injured servicemen helping with their rehabilitation and showing them that they do have a future ahead of them a life that they can rebuild isnt a worthy cause?
your post is at the very least very ill informed not to mention irrelevant to big brother.

[WOMBAI]

Originally Posted by Dezzy

This basically, I respect the man for rebuilding and making the most of his life but he is an awful HM.

Originally Posted by luvJJ

Steve walked past a bomb when he was 19 years old. He is now 41. He has overcome adversity, but has also lived off the state and rested on his laurels for 22 years, ie the majority of his life.

In my eyes, a true hero (who was unable to work due to the longstanding effect of injuries sustained as a teenager) would have thrown himself into voluntary work, done something to inspire others, something creative or worthwhile, given his time and experience to a worthy cause, ie achieved something other than spending an army pension and hundreds of thousands of pounds of state benefits on tattoos and working out.

Harsh? Yes.
True? Yes.

An awful lot of assumptions being made there - how do you know whether or not he has done any voluntary work over the past 22 years and how do you know when his tatoos were done! Also maybe his wife works and he looks after the children, nothing wrong with that!

[brian3]

Steve more than any of the other HM would want to be judged on his personality, and would not want people not to vote for him because of his disabilty.

[billy123]

Im failing to see any relevance to big brother or how this thread is in any way constructive it would be better locked.

[Shasown]

Originally Posted by luvJJ

Steve walked past a bomb when he was 19 years old. He is now 41. He has overcome adversity, but has also lived off the state and rested on his laurels for 22 years, ie the majority of his life.

In my eyes, a true hero (who was unable to work due to the longstanding effect of injuries sustained as a teenager) would have thrown himself into voluntary work, done something to inspire others, something creative or worthwhile, given his time and experience to a worthy cause, ie achieved something other than spending an army pension and hundreds of thousands of pounds of state benefits on tattoos and working out.

Harsh? Yes.
True? Yes.

Glad to see you looked into his life after his medical discharge from the service.

In fact he would have received a full medical pension, pretty much equivalent to his wages at the time. As was his due.

However since that time he has raised many thousands if of pounds for various service charities including Help for Heroes. As well as organising, running and raising support for his local disabled basketball team he also sailed across the Atlantic raising funds for service charities.

[MrGaryy]

Originally Posted by bobnot

Im failing to see any relevance to big brother or how this thread is in any way constructive it would be better locked.

We're debating whether or not he should be considered a war hero, something that many Big Brother viewers, forum members and even the presenters and housemates themselves have called him. I don't see why it should be locked?

[WOMBAI]

Originally Posted by Shasown

Glad to see you looked into his life after his medical discharge from the service.

In fact he would have received a full medical pension, pretty much equivalent to his wages at the time. As was his due.

However since that time he has raised many thousands if of pounds for various service charities including Help for Heroes. As well as organising, running and raising support for his local disabled basketball team he also sailed across the Atlantic raising funds for service charities.

Glad to see someone knows what they are talking about!

[Possiblehousemate]

most pointless housemate ever award.

[BJ]

[QUOTE=Zippy;3510849]He's never called himself one so its not fair to use it against him. He's a victim and a survivor. Thats enough.

Rebuilding your life physically and emotionally after such a tragedy takes great strength. You cant take that away from him.

But he is still a dull HM.

Yes - absolutely right

[vivsgirl]

Yep, agreed - Steve was a guy who chose to join the British Army (which I do not believe automatically makes him a 'hero' in itself), and was desperately unlucky. This DOES NOT make him a hero, OR necessarily worthy of any more respect than, e.g. the victim of a car crash. Worthy of sympathy, yes, but respect ? Mm...not sure. Furthermore, I personally do not particularly admire the way he has dealt with what happened to him - ANYONE who chooses to have EIGHT children in this day in age and then call themselves 'Big Daddy' is 1) incredibly selfish and 2) an idiot.
Oh yeah, and he's boring as hell as a housemate - I just hope he doesn't win.

[WOMBAI]

Originally Posted by vivsgirl

Yep, agreed - Steve was a guy who chose to join the British Army (which I do not believe automatically makes him a 'hero' in itself), and was desperately unlucky. This DOES NOT make him a hero, OR necessarily worthy of any more respect than, e.g. the victim of a car crash. Worthy of sympathy, yes, but respect ? Mm...not sure. Furthermore, I personally do not particularly admire the way he has dealt with what happened to him - ANYONE who chooses to have EIGHT children in this day in age and then call themselves 'Big Daddy' is 1) incredibly selfish and 2) an idiot.
Oh yeah, and he's boring as hell as a housemate - I just hope he doesn't win.

Anyone who signs up for a dangerous job deserves respect! And as long as he supports his children - it is nobody else's business how many he has!

[toby843]

So there seems to be alot of reasons to not call Steve a hero. What would we say is a hero then?

[as90]

He is a hero to us British, obviously he won't be to the irish.

[toby843]

Originally Posted by as90

He is a hero to us British, obviously he won't be to the irish.

Royal Artillery?

[erichardse10]

I haven't seen Steve claim he was a hero?. He strikes me as a guy thats getting on with being in the bb house?. He's a dull housemate, for sure, but I ceetainly don't think hes claiming to be any hero or anything?

[vivsgirl]

Originally Posted by WOMBAI

Anyone who signs up for a dangerous job deserves respect! And as long as he supports his children - it is nobody else's business how many he has!

It is EVERYBODYS business when someone decides to have 8 kids - can you imagine what would happen if ALL families decided to have as many kids as this? Have you noticed what is happening to our planet recently? To make a comment like this, you must be really ignorant about the environmental impact of having loads of children - I don't mean to be insulting, it's just basic common sense - my 6 year old understands why huge families are not a good idea in this day and age. (And do you know for a fact that Steve has not claimed government support to help raise all these children? - Though that is not the issue......).

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by MrGaryy

There was another thread on this but it got terribly sidetracked and was closed before I got to it so I opened this one to discuss the matter.

First of all, walking past a bomb and getting blown up does not make you a hero. That is an insult to the real heroes of the world. I would consider someone who did something exceptionally brave or someone who is solely responsible for saving another person's life in a crisis a hero. Walking past a barrel does not make you a hero just desperately unlucky.

Secondly, to those who say the fact he joined the forces in the first place makes him a hero as he was risking his life for freedom - he was fighting in Northern Ireland, the troubles were not about freedom they were about power and prejudice. Something which is in a way almost proven by how bigoted Steve has shown himself up to be in so many respects.

Brave for joining the army, yes. A hero, absolutely not.

absolutely agree Gary.

[vivsgirl]

Originally Posted by erichardse10

I haven't seen Steve claim he was a hero?. He strikes me as a guy thats getting on with being in the bb house?. He's a dull housemate, for sure, but I ceetainly don't think hes claiming to be any hero or anything?

I accept that I've never actually heard Steve describe HIMSELF to be a hero, but equally, I have never heard him correct any of the other housemates when they make a big deal about the fact that he IS a hero, e.g. he's never said anything like "I was just really unlucky", or "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time", which is the truth of the matter.

[Livia]

Originally Posted by vivsgirl

It is EVERYBODYS business when someone decides to have 8 kids - can you imagine what would happen if ALL families decided to have as many kids as this? Have you noticed what is happening to our planet recently? To make a comment like this, you must be really ignorant about the environmental impact of having loads of children - I don't mean to be insulting, it's just basic common sense - my 6 year old understands why huge families are not a good idea in this day and age. (And do you know for a fact that Steve has not claimed government support to help raise all these children? - Though that is not the issue......).

This is going to come as a shock to you... but no, it isn't any of your business how many kids he's got. This is not China.

[Livia]

Originally Posted by bobnot

so travelling the country talking to seriously injured servicemen helping with their rehabilitation and showing them that they do have a future ahead of them a life that they can rebuild isnt a worthy cause?
your post is at the very least very ill informed not to mention irrelevant to big brother.

I agree. These threads questioning what does or does not make a hero are getting a bit tiresome.

[MrGaryy]

Originally Posted by WOMBAI

Anyone who signs up for a dangerous job deserves respect! And as long as he supports his children - it is nobody else's business how many he has!

So by that logic, a stunt man deserves respect also? or a dare devil? or a rally driver? Have balls or blind faith does not command respect. In fact more often than not it's out of sheer stupidity rather than bravery.

[vivsgirl]

Originally Posted by toby843

So there seems to be alot of reasons to not call Steve a hero. What would we say is a hero then?

For me, a hero would be someone who risks their life in order to save another (e.g. someone diving in to dangerous water to save the life of another or entering a burning building to save someone's life) or maybe someone who devotes their life to, e.g. finding a cure for cancer or AIDS, or devotes their life to helping those less fortunate than themselves (e.g. Aid workers in war zones), or even an organ donor who saves a life through organ donation would qualify in my book.
Merely signing up for the British Army and being unlucky enough to be involved in a street bombing in Northern Ireland is not enough - if he had saved someone else in the process then I would doubtless reconsider.

[as90]

He fought for Britain and the democratic world against faceless terrorists, that's a pretty heroic act.