The pathetic saga of the British hostages has reached rock bottom: Fury as the hostages sell stories.

The 15 British military captives who were released by the Iranians have been authorised by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to sell their stories.

MoD officials claimed that the move to lift the ban on military personnel selling their stories while in service was justified because of the “exceptional circumstances” of the case. The hostages are expected to earn as much as £250,000 between them.

The story of Faye Turney, 26, the only female among them, is expected to be the most lucrative. She could profit by as much as £150,000 from a joint deal with a newspaper and ITV.

The mullahs are laughing tonight.

UPDATE at 4/7/07 6:55:25 pm:

EU Referendum is sadly on point:

This is very, very clever. But it also represents the very nadir of a loathsome government which is more interested in spin and its own survival than it is the welfare of the nation and the safety of its own troops.

According to the BBC, the “frightened fifteen” are to be allowed to sell their stories to the media and keep the money.

The Ministry of Defence has said their experiences amounted to “exceptional circumstances” that allowed its usual ban on such payments to be lifted. We are told that the MoD has said: “Serving personnel are not allowed to enter financial arrangements with media organisations. However, in exceptional circumstances such as the awarding of a Victoria Cross or events such as those in recent days, permission can be granted by commanding officers and the MoD.”

What a disgusting parallel this is – to equate the action of these people with the winners of Victoria Crosses. But how deviously clever it is of a totally unprincipled MoD. Instead of seeking “closure” as I first thought, the spin meisters have evidently sussed the continued public interest in this issue.

By thus opening the gates to the “human interest” dimensions, it will feed the soap opera aspects of the Iranian hostage incident, drowning out the substantive issues in a torrent of irrelevant detail. And you can be assured that the stories will be very carefully vetted to exclude operational detail, in the interested of “national security”, to ensure that nothing embarrassing leaks out.

The media, of course, will fall in with this ploy.