Ukip MEP’s executive assistant ‘got job thanks to army experience’

Private Colin ‘Mitch’ Michelson, 31, is looking forward to hillwalking near Zadar after a morning of house clearances and section patrolling at Red Earth.

But he’d equally be at home talking politics and discussing his views on the European Union.

Mitch, from Kirkcaldy, served eight years with the regular army, including 5 Scots, and has now spent six months with the reserves.

His day job is working for Ukip MEP David Coburn as executive assistant and office manager – and says it’s the skills he acquired through the army that got him the job. “I owe a lot to the army,” he says. Not everyone is such a fan of the heat, however. Private Connor Nicholls, 27, of Perth, was serving in Afghanistan with 3 Scots The Black Watch when he was given the nickname Casper.

“It was Herrick 10 in 2009,” he recalls. “The old-issue sun cream from the army turns you really white. It’s so thick, and because I’m ginger I had to lather it on. The sun doesn’t agree with me! One guy said ‘you’re so white you look like Casper and that was it. It just stuck.”

Originally from Preston, Private Nicholls served nearly six years with The Black Watch. He has been in the army reserve for 18 months, doing camps in Kenya, Cyprus and all over the UK.

“I moved up when I was 16. Joining The Black Watch, you always get the banter as an Englishman, but they accepted me.

“The regulars were full on,” he adds. “You live, breathe, eat and sleep the army. But the reserve allows me to have the best of both worlds. I had my youngest child and that pushed me to come out and become a reservist. I wanted to be a dad and still be part of the British Army. So here I am!

“It’s great, the opportunities that the Army Reserve give us.”

You’re so white you look like Casper. PRIVATE CONNOR NICHOLLS