NDM Press Releases

 Read the latest PressBox press release:   HERE 

The shame surrounding the MOD increased during the past few weeks when they made the decision not to recognise the service of the millions of Servicemen and women who have become our ‘Forgotten Heroes’ by the award of a National Defence medal.

This comes at a time of great outpouring of support for our Armed Services by the public and a professed support for restoring the military covenant by the Government and the leaders of all political parties.

Evidence of appropriate recognition for the award of a medal and not just a badge to those who have served in the Armed Forces since the end of the Second World War is overwhelming. The reasons for non-recognition are shallow at best.

The lack of recognition of our ‘Forgotten Heroes’ includes service in Korea (post armistice); the Berlin Airlift; the Cold War, where hundreds of our service men and women died on duty and many more were discharged as a result of their injuries; the IRA atrocities outside of Northern Ireland which saw our soldiers killed and maimed on the streets of Germany and in England, and of course National Service veterans who are now in their 70s and 80s; the list is endless. 

Colonel Terry Scriven, the co-Chairman of the National Defence Medal campaign said, “The MOD’s decision is dreadfully wrong. I hope that as this campaign grows with public support the Government, whose responsibility it is to decide on a medal of recognition of service, will speedily review this situation just as they did with the Ghurkha campaign.

I and my campaign colleagues have invited the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrat Party and UKIP together with other MPs who have shown support for this medal; and Directors of interested organisations such as the Royal British Legion, to what is a fresh launch of this campaign.”

Released 10th October 2009

Looking at the performance of the Government and Civil Service in the light of the ongoing revelations and accusations, it is difficult not to wonder just who is pulling what strings and why?

Given the experiences of those who have been in contact with the Ministry of Defence on the question of medal claims over the decades since WW2, it is easy to see why such confusion might be justified.

Letters to the relevant Minister always seem to end up in the hands of a small coterie of senior Civil Servants, indeed, even letters to Her Majesty, have after having been read, commented upon and the sender informed that it will be passed to an appropriate Official, also ended up in the same location. Once there, any response is stilted, aloof and generally unhelpful. Over any period of communication, the same stock responses are received ad infinitum, coloured occasionally by a dash of sarcasm. The fact is that the attitude expressed amounts to indifference and a total lack of sympathy or empathy for the points raised by the appellant, the intent to take in or comprehend the points being raised, is simply not there at all.

On occasions when the relevant Minister is personally approached and asked a pertinent question concerning the matter on which he was approached by letter, the indignant response is that no such letter ever passed across his desk. Can this mean that the Civil Servants have taken it upon themselves to intercept and summarily dismiss matters which constituents had expected to be attended to by a duly appointed Minister of the Crown? No other answer would seem to fit the bill so exactly it would appear. If, as seems likely they are doing this, it would be fair to argue that they are usurping the normal rights of the people to enquire of their elected representatives why certain decisions have been taken or requests ignored. They would then have effectively set themselves up to carry out a form of undemocratic censorship which really has no basis in law or properly established precedent. I would go further and suggest that if this is so, it could be construed as deliberate and undue interference with the proper process of government.

Proof that all is not as it should be in the MoD is abundant, it is being revealed in fact on an almost daily basis, with accusations surfacing of billions being squandered on questionable contracts and inefficient or eminently unsuitable equipment acquisitions. Outright and quite deliberate lying, on instruction, has now been admitted to by an officer of the MoD and it is highly unlikely that the MoD is an isolated case, so it now begs another question. With Ministers in all portfolios being advised by senior Civil Servants, how much of that advice is given for the right reasons? Those reasons should be for the good of the  country as regards the aegis of the portfolio concerned but having seen the way that Civil Servants ignored the inventive expense claims by MP’s, it is only fair to wonder if the responses given are perhaps aimed at safeguarding the sinecures that many Civil Servants seem to have created for themselves?

The public, whether they be Veterans seeking answer from the Ministers for Veterans, or Defence or anyone at all, have a right to expect a degree of consideration. The public at large have a right to see the workings of government being applied for the general good of the country as a whole, rather than just applied for certain favoured sections of the community, as with MoD officials being paid out millions in bonuses, which was the case earlier this year. One could be forgiven for wondering if a scent of corruption was evident here, as the money was quite hastily doled out, just before the real truths about the delinquency of the MoD’s performance began to emerge in a steady stream.

If in fact the various Ministers, by default, laziness, incompetence, indifference or whatever, have delivered the country into the hands of a Civil Service that feels itself to be above criticism and virtually untouchable where accountability is concerned, then the UK is potentially liable to be in real trouble. The wisdom shown by these people, entrenched and unapproachable as they appear to be, is not if judged by the MoD’s lacklustre example, anything that should inspire confidence in the average citizen of Great Britain.

Let me put it like this, the nightmare scenario during the Cold War years was that of awakening one morning to find the UK under assault from thousands of well trained and brutally efficient Spetsnaz Special forces from Russia. In point of fact, the Russians could and possibly have crippled the UK much more efficiently, by seeing to it that the British Civil Service is permeated by people that could, at a word, add real confusion to the already flawed and self centred mindset that may have come close to crippling the UK unaided.

It is a fact that the MoD has more employees than the British Army has full time Soldiers but I know which of the two I would put my faith in if the chips were down! It is time for a thorough overhaul of the way that the arms of government work and interact with each other. It is time for accountability to be a part of the process at all levels and it is time that proper and due access to all levels of government was permitted once again. It is moreover, time for the Armed Forces to be brought in from the cold and treated on a par with those of other lands around us, through the emergence of a true Covenant and a National Defence Medal that underpins it.

I keep hearing mention of the so called ‘Covenant’ that is supposed to exist between the UK’s Armed Forces and the administration that runs the country.  I regret to tell you that this appears to be an urban myth, a legend, a fable, or perhaps a mere figment of the collective imagination.

It is purported to be there to see that the Servicemen and women are not adversely disadvantaged by their chosen career which also means giving up certain personal freedoms.

Of late I have observed the lack of long term care facilities for the wounded, maimed and psychologically impaired that recent adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan have created. I have seen the lies and obfuscations employed to try and cover up the dreadful shortages of equipment and logistics support for the troops at the sharp end.  I have been dismayed at the news that compensation packages for some injured returnees are being subjected to pressures that might see the compensation reduced by as much as 70%. Appalled hardly does my feelings justice when I note that investigators employed by the MoD are trying to ‘catch-out’ people with wounds, as though they were part of the usual run of despised welfare cheats.

I cringe when I hear pompous politicians bleating that the troops have all that they need to do the job and then read in the same media outlet that there just aren’t enough trained air and ground crews available to man the helicopters that we might otherwise have had available. I wonder how procuring vehicles that have almost no protection against crude but deadly IED’s can be held up as examples of what is being done to afford the troops better protection? I puzzle and fret at how reducing the size of the Armed Forces can possibly help solve the problem of insufficient troops on the ground to the jobs required and expected of them.

This is not the sort of situation that the existence of a true Covenant would see extant, is it?

The simple truth appears to be, the Armed Forces are seen as nothing more than a necessary evil and utilised as something that is deemed as being quite expendable. There is no real Covenant and never has been, it is lip service and blind rhetoric that is artfully utilised to give an illusion that the Armed Forces have a special place in Society whenever alarm and despondency raises its head. If the government and the MoD really appreciated the sacrifices made by Forces personnel, why do they work so hard to hold them down?  One simple example is that of national recognition for UK Armed Forces, or rather the lack of any!  The UK lags so far behind our commonwealth allies.

Perhaps the appearance of a National Defence Medal (http://www.nationaldefencemedal.webs.com/) would be a viable method of forcing the government to acknowledge that there should be a Covenant.  A symbol that would focus attention on veterans and their on going needs.  The Veterans Badge, an 80p bauble, is an indicator of a Government not prepared to do a job properly which maybe why only around 7% of those entitled have bothered to apply for it.  It is an affront, like so much of what the government does, or does not do, for and to Veterans. Cost should not be an issue here, not least because many Veterans have indicated they would contribute for any retrospective award, provided the government disbursed any VAT component to selected Service Charities. A tangible sign of sincerity is badly needed and long overdue and the emergence of a NDM would fit the bill exactly!  There will come a time when the last few National servicemen are media icons as were the last few WW1 Veterans, they may have nothing on their breast.  There have been enough excuses and I’m no longer impressed by blathering about protocols and tradition, instead veterans want to help their successors overcome the problems they have had inflicted upon them in a practical and effective manner.

Dignity and respect should be the cornerstone of the way in which Veterans are viewed by the powers that be and the days when they are treated as expendable while in and expended once out, need to be ended once and for all. Let’s see all Veterans given a NDM, a proper symbol of their proud traditions of Service for Queen and Country, Let this be a first step in making the concept of a Covenant an actual reality, instead of a rather feeble and sick joke.

The MOD is encouraging councils, businesses and homes across the country to show their support for Britain's Armed Forces by flying a special flag designed for the occasion.  The problem is that while this lip service and gung ho 'praise' is being spouted, the Government and the MoD are still ignoring long standing demands from veterans of all Services for due recognition by way of  a National Defence Medal. Something that every other Nation that the UK is allied with, provide for their Service people. An NDM would have ensured that the Amrizkar, Quinsey, Huntrod and McCann families had a tangible demonstration of the Government’s appreciation, contrition and regret at their loss and thus permit them some degree of closure. Instead they ignore, decry and dismiss all of the attempts made to prove to them that their omission is manifestly against their own and the veterans best interests. To save money perhaps? Veterans would happily pay for theirs if the VAT component went to something like BLESMA or any other Service charity.
 
If the intention was and is to honour and succour veterans, why have all of the Military Hospitals been closed? Surely if the Armed Forces were such an important part of the Government’s agenda, they would never have been closed at all. Would it not have made much more sense to keep them open and use them as adjuncts to the NHS rather than lose all that expertise? At least the long term wounded and maimed would not have had to depend so heavily on charities for their lifelong needs. 
 
If the Armed Forces were so appreciated, why is it that pay and conditions have been allowed to fall off to the point that insufficient Brits are enlisting and teams of recruiters are having to go to poorer Commonwealth countries such as Fiji to find enough people to man the very thin lines that are all we have left of once creditable and formidable armies, aircraft facilities and fleets. The loss of County Regiments is not down to any rationale other than the shrinkage of recruits seeking entry into the army. Effectively the army has been downsized to fit the numbers coming in.
 
If the military is so high on the list of priorities, why is it that Britain had to withdraw from Basra rather than allow the bleeding off of manpower and weaponry that was so badly needed in Afghanistan? Probably this was tied in with the reason that Sappers Amrizkar and Quinsey's bodies were shipped from Ireland as freight. The British Army has been allowed to atrophy to such a degree that it could not, unsupported by the Americans, cope with any sort of campaign against any sort of enemy. So we kept out of Basra town and skulked on its periphery and we avoided offending the Republicans of Ireland. Quite simply, any more serious requirements for ANY level of  armed conflict could not be met by what Britain has left in the kitty. Argentina is now making threatening noises about the Falklands once more, why wouldn't they? They know a spent force when they see one!
 
What has been done to the Armed Forces of Britain is shameful and while it is fine to be proud of Britain’s men and women from past and present times, it is not enough to merely nod in agreement with sentiments expressed by those who have betrayed all that these men and women have done and are still endeavouring to do. These dedicated and loyal people are somehow doing all that they can, not with the help of the government and the MoD but rather, in spite of them! It is high time that the people of the UK recognised that for many years, the Armed Forces have been seen and treated as a necessary evil, rather than the asset that they truly are.
 
Yes, please support us and appreciate us past and present but remember as you do so, that the featherbedders at Westminster and Whitehall are not in any way sincere. The current example of the Ghurka's is a stark reminder of just how much real value and respect is given to Service people by the government and administration of the UK, once they are of no further use.

20th April 2009 

Since becoming involved in the growing demand for a National Defence Medal, I have been appalled by the way in which the letters and e-mails that have been sent to various people and departments within the present UK administration have been dealt with. It seems as though anything that encroaches upon the question of medals or awards is directed towards the redoubtable Mr RT Coney and his underlings involved with the HD Awards Committee. There they receive short shrift and such answers as are given, hardly differ by as much as a comma or two and I suspect that has been the case for years.

In those responses, we invariably get what is a repetitive word for word outline, virtually a lecture really, of what the HD committee and MoD will not do, although in at least one instance we did get a rather malicious dash of sarcasm thrown in for good measure, doubtless due to our persistence. With regard to the HD Committee, it will not listen, it will not accept advice, it will not look beyond its own immediate confines for ideas and it will not admit to either mistake or misconception. It appears to believe that it is answerable to no one, is bold enough to have faced off Commonwealth governments in the recent past and is apparently willing to defy any serious challenge to its perceived remit from any quarter. In short, it comes across as a totally independent but wholly insulated body with no constraints upon its decaying aptitude and decreasing effectiveness, from any source. It is certainly not part of any democratic process that I have ever heard of! To be at the mercy of any group that appears to have assumed carte blanche in their area of influence and to have done so without any apparent attempts to instil any form of check or balance to ensure that it does not exceed its mandate, is wholly dictatorial in my book! Were its commandments handed down from Mt Sinai, it seems they could not be more deeply and indelibly etched in stone.

It seems remarkably odd that Armed Forces wielding the weaponry and using the tactics of the 21st Century, should still be encumbered by an Awards system that, alone of all those around it and contemporary to it, still putters along with the outmoded concepts of centuries past. It is also quite odd that Politicians, who are by their very nature, masters of the art of compromise, remain content to be chivvied into silence and thus tacit acquiescence by the senior mandarins of the MoD. It begs the question of who is the master and who the servant? Or perhaps this is payback for Oliver Cromwell's sins?

The HD Committee and by extension the MoD, have made mistakes and misconceptions in deed as well as in fact. It is mistaken if it believes that the ineffective and cheapskate Her Majesty's Armed Forces Veterans Badge ( 85P) will dampen the calls for an NDM. It is mistaken if it believes that ‘Action Man’ dolls will encourage recruitment. It is mistaken if it believes that sending the bodies of slain Soldiers as ‘freight’ by way of political expediency will ‘popularise’ what it is doing.

It is labouring under a misconception if it believes that ignoring the growing clamour for an NDM will solve the problem from their point of view. In fact, due entirely to the denial of an NDM as well as any of the other medal claims made over the years, we now have a flourishing industry of Commemorative medals that are an embarrassment to the MoD and the HD Committee. Even though all of the other claimants for various medals have agreed to accept a NDM as a reasonable answer to their demands for recognition too, there is no positive response from any quarter. As a direct result of this, thousands of Veterans are now showing up on parades with medals that are not official and this is not a good thing at all, as it makes a laughing stock of the current Imperial Awards system. Again, the blame can be laid against the ambiguities of those that set standards for what may or may not be ‘approved’. I will cite an instance to highlight what I mean. The HMAFVB and the unofficial (Commemorative) version of the Queens Golden Jubilee Medal both have portrayals of things pertinent to Royal protocol on them, Crown on the one hand and Royal image of HM the Queen on the other, both OK’d by the Royal Chamberlain's office and thus identical in licit status. So to sanction the wearing of the HMAFVB while decrying the wearing of the ‘Bling’ version of the QGJM, has to be something of a nonsense. Moreover, a nonsense created by the very people supposedly seeing it to it that the UK’s panoply of awards and honours is not compromised. One could forgive much if they were actually good at what they did but this example is one that shows that to be far from the truth.

All of us involved with the NDM Campaign are fully aware that, despite the very hollow assurances from Mr RT Coney, cost is always a factor when looking at any award for mass distribution. Into which category the NDM, if awarded retrospectively, would most assuredly fall. Given the current financial constraints imposed for many reasons, we are aware that some consideration has to be vectored in for this. To that end, we would seriously consider having the cost of any retrospective NDM applied to any individual Veteran that sought one. We would ask that in any situation of genuine poverty, exceptions might be made and that the VAT component, instead of going into government coffers, might instead be placed at the disposal of Service Charities such as BLESMA. If handled right, the NDM, instead of being a tiresome bone of contention, could become a win-win situation for all concerned. It would most certainly bring much positive publicity to the current somewhat beleaguered administration, as it seeks what approbation it can from the electorate of the UK. In fact, given that approval of the role and presence of the Armed Forces has had to be a vital part of the administration's public profile, I find it hard to believe that this glaringly obvious opportunity has not been seized upon already.

I would also point out that an NDM, instituted and awarded posthumously to the Next of Kin of the Amrizkar, Quinsey, Huntrod and McCall families, all of whom are still very badly traumatised as a result of the most untimely deaths of their kin, would benefit these families enormously, as it would enable some solace and closure for them all, as a result of such an act of contrition and recognition.

Be assured Mr Kevan Jones (Minister for Veterans) that the Campaign Committee for the NDM is most willing to meet with you and/or anyone that you might care to nominate or include. Please be aware that what we are seeking is simply that which all of our Allies and Commonwealth cousins apply within their own Armed Forces; nothing more, nothing less. We see absolutely no justice or sensible rationale in our people being denied that to which everyone else is entitled. As it is, the present situation is most unsatisfactory, highly discriminatory and should therefore be urgently addressed.

Overseas NDM Campaign Coordinator

21st March 2009

The expose by Noel Edmonds on the treatment meted out to Joe Townsend is just the latest happening in a long, sad and sorry saga of neglect and betrayal of the fighting men and women of Great Britain. In this and some other instances, it has been a local Council that has acted in a manner that demeans any sort of covenant between the Citizens and the Armed Forces of the UK.
 
All in all, the lack of facilities for wounded and maimed veterans of the conflicts currently being engaged in, are a disgrace and a damning indictment of any meaningful duty of care from the authorities at all levels. It is all very fine to allow a parade through towns and stand to for the troops as they return but even that is tainted by the timid approach shown to those that flout the laws against racial intolerance and incitement to hatred.
 
The worst offenders are the Government and the MoD of course, as they continue to send troops out to conflicts without the wherewithal to do the jobs as safely and efficiently as possible. Platitudes and obfuscation are the way that all warnings, complaints and even resignations by senior Officers in protest are dealt with. The denial of responsibility for those Service people tainted with cancers and the passing on of birth defects from the H Bomb tests at Maralinga and Christmas Island, are another awful example of the lack of empathy from those in charge. This is a sick and malodorous administration that has lost all credibility.
 
It is a disgrace when you see Sailors and Soldiers killed as they go about their daily duties without any provision being made for the awarding of a medal that their bereaved next of kin might be given to alleviate the loss and show some appreciation for the sacrifice made. 'Risk and Rigour' have to apply before any medals can be issued, the powers that be bleat as they deflect the growing and strident demands from Veterans of all arms that a National Defence Medal be instituted that would see no more of our youngest and finest go to their graves unacknowledged. Risk and rigour are a daily occurrence while in Uniform!
 
Instead the governments priorities remain, as ever, the saving of every copper that can be scraped together by short-changing the fighting men and women of the British Isles. This is very clearly demonstrated by the parsimonious and odious treatment of Ghurkha veterans, whose pittance of a pension, if they served before 1997 is an utter disgrace. As indeed is the denial of their right to settle in the UK after years of loyal service to the crown. Contrast that with the treatment handed out to the illegal’s that rush pell-mell to the UK to satiate themselves on taxpayers hard earned money.
 
Sappers Azimkar and Quinsey need to be granted a posthumous National Defence Medal, based on the Australian model already approved by HM the Queen. As do Sailors Huntrod and McCann and all who die in like circumstance, there is now an E Petition on the 10 Downing St website  
 
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/HMFORCESTHANKS/
 
and that should be supported by ALL right thinking Britons.
 
To those who add to the woes of our wounded, I express my utter contempt, to those whose arrogance allows them to deny the troops their due, I express my undying enmity. To those who are aware and thankful that we have enough good and decent lads and lasses to risk their all on behalf of Queen and Country, I express my thanks. To those like Noel Edmonds and others that stand and make themselves heard when they see injustice and demeaning acts perpetrated upon the bravest of the brave, I offer my respect and gratitude. Because it is your recognition and appreciation, that keeps the flow of young volunteers from drying up completely. God help us all if that day ever dawns.
 
Yours aye,