Face to face with a suicide bomber!
Took a day trip to heaven or hell perhaps?
Well at least he’s back talking to the Saudi’s but I guess there were no mentions of Princes, Bae, bungs, and large orders for Eurofighters! Probably just swapping notes on Richard Alderman.
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Soldiers worth less than criminals
You have to wonder how much this Labour government of ours actually supports it’s armed forces, sending them out to fight the Bush wars poorly equipped, undermanned, and without sufficient support, and should they die in the service of their country their families are not accorded the same level of financial support as they dish out to the families of rapists, paedophiles, or murderers who die in custody.
Jack Straw stands in the way of justice, Des Browne does his best to gag coroners’ inquests, and the parents of servicemen and women who lay down their lives on our behalf have to pay through the nose for legal representation. Just why is this? Why should the case of a fallen soldier not be considered “exceptional”?
Guido first raised the matter yesterday and Dr. John Crippen added his support too, it’s bloody scandalous that the Royal British Legion have to start up a campaign on behalf of bereaved families and are demanding that all Service families should be provided with legal advice, representation and advocacy during inquests at public expense. You can support and help them out here. I whole heartedly endorse this campaign too.
If legal aid is good enough for our criminals (who would rather die in prison than try to escape it’s obvious comforts) then it ought to be good enough for our servicemen and their families who have to endure unimaginable discomforts!
Message to South Shields MP David Miliband - seeing as we have a government that now apparently listens, go and have a talk to Jack Straw!
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Soldier refused home in Newcastle
It seems to me that our young men and women who serve abroad in the armed services, risking their lives in the pursuit of politicians directives, often suffer a bit of a bad deal at the hands of the rest of society. In this country, we don’t see many parades, for instance, when they return from a conflict area, we don’t see many local regiments enjoying such things as Freedom of the Borough type ceremonies, and indeed we don’t offer a great deal of respect to serving officers who happen to dress in uniform in our towns and cities.
Now I read that Newcastle Your Homes are turning away Corporal Mark Atkinson who is looking to set up a home for his partner and children aftrer serving in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Iraq. With nine years left to serve in the army, Cpl Atkinson said he wants to know his partner and children are safe while he is away on duty.
I find it really quite shocking that in towns, cities, and shires along the length and breadth of Britain we do not have in place some form of preferential treatment for our veteran servicemen and women, some councils do have procedures in place but they are few and far between. perhaps South Tyneside ought to step in to offer him a home, (and to thumb the nose at our larger neighbour), I’ll have to go back and check, but I’m sure that in a previous post about South Tyneside Homes I saw reference to servicemen in the “Your Choice” scheme.
It worries me that we tend to show so much disdain for our own young men and women who serve the country in a professional manner in areas where they have no choice but to go. It galls even more when one considers that Mark Atkinson is a Tynesider by birth.
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VC advised
Despite our ill advised interventions in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, fought out in the most difficult of conditions, Lance Corporal Matt Croucher displays all of the courage, commitment, and consideration for his team mates that you would expect from the professional British soldier.
His thoughts were purely for those around him, he eschewed his own survival instincts to be neighbourly, team spirited, selfless, and dedicated to his particular mission. It is rare indeed for the Victoria Cross to be awarded to surviving servicemen and Matt’s courage and selfless actions deserve the highest of military honours.
I hope that the Ministry of Defence recognises fully the consequences of his actions.
It’s about time too, that Brown and Browne started negotiating a way home for our service personnel in these two theatres, there are others in NATO who could readily fill the void left by a British presence. We have done our bit for Bush, surely!
They served us, so we ought to serve them
I cannot for the life of me understand this Labour government’s objection to allowing Gurkha soldiers, who have served this country so proudly, to take British Citizenship if they left the service before 1997, and I’m sure the majority of South Shields people would agree with me. Yet at the same time we allow sundry terrorists, asylum seekers, economic migrants, and paedophiles to take residence here and consume our resources, sometimes this Labour government gets it’s priorities confused (to say the least)
This stupid arbitrary rule needs to be rescinded and veterans who retired pre 1997 ought to be allowed to settle here with a decent pension, we wouldn’t dream of turning Chelsea Pensioners away would we?
Over at Lib-Dem Voice you can find a decent post illustrating how the Dutch and the French treat their oversees servicemen, there are some lessons to be learned here.
It seems absurd to open our doors to criminals yet slam them closed in the face of the Gurkhas!
Brown needs to do more
The news that personnel in our armed forces are being advised not to wear the Queen’s uniform in certain areas for fear of “offending” certain ethnic minority groups is abhorrent and a move in the wrong direction. So too is the news that university students have voted to ban the armed services from recruiting at University College, London.
There should never be any “no go” areas in this country for any of our citizens, each has their own individual freedoms and liberties under the law, and each has their own personal responsibility to act within the law. Gordon Brown’s “encouragement” to service personnel to wear the uniform with pride is a step in the right direction but it doesn’t go far enough, he ought to have made it very clear indeed that the full force of the law will be brought against those who abuse or assault members of the armed forces.
These people voluntarily decide to serve their country and one day someone in a minority ethnic community may well be in need of their protection, one day a student may think he/she might have wished to join one of the services.
Makes you wonder if these so called “citizenship” classes should be brought into the university curriculum as well.
Just where is the pride in our people these days?
Stark choices for Brown and Browne
Today’s report in The Daily Telegraph outlining the net shortages in our armed forces manpower levels must leave the government pondering over it’s stark choices.
Either find extra money to fund new recruiting and new equipment, or extricate thousands of troops from war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq where their purpose has been served (and by that I mean Bliar’s commitment to the “special relationship” with G.W. Bush).
Miliband Edition
The new dual core Ministry of Defence laptop carries everything you could ever need for ease of use and direct information access services. It’s battery comes from the tried and tested range of clapped out radios issued for desert use, the processor is the dual core high architecture 64-bit Milichip ready for demanding applications favoured by the British Council in Moscow. 2 Gb of Browne memory will ensure that two jobs can be carried out at the same time, and the 17″ wide screen TFT display is state of the art non recyclable and non reflective. This laptop comes with 600,000 bits of non encypted personal information already installed, data retrieval is never a problem when on the move!
Available now from any disreputable “fence” or government department, it’s so cheap you could even call it free!
“You couldn’t make it up!”
Click picture for full story.
Related links
Another 600,000 people worry about lost data
Just remember when the Bruins come knocking at your door asking you to sign up for the National ID Card scheme, that there is more than one “incompetent” in this government, as 600,000 people have just found out.
On any measure regarding IT schemes this government is clueless, on any measure regarding the safekeeping of your personal private data they cannot be trusted to encrypt it or keep it in a secure database as part of a PVN (private virtual network). No, they ere more used to transporting your data around on CD’s or laptops left in the back of cars!
Gordon Bruin may well be having a few misgivings about whether the proposed National ID Card scheme should be voluntary or compulsory, they tell us it will be a great help in the “war on terror” (which apparently no longer exists), yet the Ministry of Defence cannot even protect laptops!
MI6 in secret talks with terrorists
The Daily Telegraph reveals two interesting points today, firstly our Royal Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand province came under fierce attack from Taliban insurgents as they were having their carol service, and secondly, officers from MI6 have been having secret peace talks with important motivating figures inside the Taliban.
The news comes just weeks after Prime Minister Gordon Brown repeated his pledge not to negotiate with the terrorists who supported Bin Laden’s attack on the twin towers on September 11, 2001. I’m sure George Bush will be less than impressed with our efforts to secure the peace in Helmand province!
Incidentally, I wonder how much South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband knew of MI6’s involvement, and how Brown and the Foreign Office intend to explain the mission to the House of Commons, or indeed whether they sanctioned the release of this news whilst parliament is in recess, hoping it would soon be forgotten?
What a cynical Christmas present to give to the Royal Marines!
