More a frequency thing than whether someone uses the occasional swear word. And by the way, if a British equivalent of Lord Bollocks was making a similar speech, do you think anyone in Britain would ask him to tone down the language!

They swear a lot in the army, (not just our's but every army). Also construction crews, railway gangs, low-class bars, criminals.....
'F*** you, f**k me, f*** the British Army, f*** the expense buy the cat a goldfish'.
Milligan

Was he using "scumbag" again?

Military people do swear a lot, and those in the combat outfits swear like bastards.

I know that, and on construction sites even more so. He was giving a speech on a construction site, but he made a misjudgement when he decided to pitch it at the effing and blinding level, looking for admiration for being one of the lads. He struck me as a rather silly man, though no doubt an adept arse-licker.

I think you have the man wrong. Arse-kicker would be more accurate.

The military rank and file adored him, as did the "serious" officers. The government, bureaucrats and arse-licking officers did not.

Yes, he did come across as a man who has got rather used to being adored.

Let's us agree to disagree on this one.

Its a disgusting word and there's no justification to use a term of such profanity ever, let alone in public. Even tv pundit and renowned potty mouth, Gary Lineker will only refer to it as that, South West London team.

Yes, the F word here doesn't seem to have the impact as it does in certain situations in the UK, infact ive heard more women use it. (but then that does depend where you are at the time) - when I lived in Cambridge ON and worked as a bartender for a short time, all the female servers were f bombing all the time! not to the customers but behind the scenes, which was quite a shock, whereas in the UK it was unsual to hear a woman use it...

I also agree that many think "wanker" is amusing....and is certainly not used with the venom its used with in the UK. Many of the guys at my local use it as greeting now when I walk in the place! Nice eh!

As for the C word I have hardly heard this being used thankfully, I think its a vile and disgusting word that actually lowers my opinion of anyone that uses it.

I hear a lot of women in the UK using the word these days.

Pffff. It's no worse than any other. It just sounds harsher than all the others. That's all.

Depends where you live and what the swearing conventions are.

The F-bomb is not considered rude in QC. Most biological references are not either (C-word excepted).

QC swearing is all about churchy stuff.

I was at a rather small and intimate conference in London, somewhere around five years ago, with the topic on working class issues, and the presenters were trying to out do each other with regards to their working class credentials, when the last person started pepper her presentation with the liberal use f*** and c***. It was naffing hilarious.

Did she mean country matters?