The sneers and jibes come from people who do not understand the service, who think that probation is a soft option.
His policy is that of the soft option.
Even in recent days, they have been to blame when they have taken what they themselves call the soft option.
Does he still believe that it is a "soft option"?
The armed struggle is not a soft option with inevitable results.
It certainly would not be a soft option.
Although extrapolation is undoubtedly a useful statistical tool, it can all too easily become the soft option for the idle economist.
In no sense is it a soft option.