Download this page in PDF formatRegular visitors to my blog might recall one I made three years ago regarding the Military Covenant in the UK, and how it was being broken on a regular basis by the powers that be and ignored by the majority of the general public.
Yesterday, BBC News Online ran an article detailing how the current Conservative/Liberal Democrat government was planning on making the Covenant part of British law.
As part of the discussion, I posted a link to my blog post, “Freedom isn’t Free“. That original post explained how an MoD typist had received £414,000 in compensation for a hand RSI injury in an office, whilst a Marine, Mark Ormrod, received only £214,000 as compensation for losing both legs and an arm in action – an amount which I noted in my post was less than not only the amount some typist spraining her thumb got in compensation, but was less than the maximum amount of compensation permitted by the British for service injuries itself.
In the same post, I also linked to the Royal British Legion‘s campaign to gather support to force the then-Labour government to start honoring the Covenant, and to rectify such egregious insanity.
According to the BBC moderators, my comment linking to this prime example of the British Government’s true feelings about the Military Covenant was … “not relevant”1.
Thankfully, I live in a country where government-subsidized news organizations can’t censor my thoughts regarding their paymasters, so I’ll post some thoughts about the article here.
Going by the article, the proposed enactment of the Military Covenant into law in the UK is simply full of generalities. It does not lay out any specifics as to what the Covenent will actually entail, or how to address the inequalities.
In that respect, the whole concept turns into a meaningless statement of “this would be nice” without any enforcement. It’s about as much use as a non-binding House Resolution. In essence, all the UK Government has come up with to date is a report.
A report.
Like we don’t already know the state of how the UK holds to the Military Covenant??
This doesn’t surprise me because the British Government doesn’t really want to be held to any specific standards with regards to their treatment of their servicemen and women.
The true irony is this statement by Labour’s shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy who said said the prime minister
“appears to have finally done the right thing”.
Which he is also quoted by the BBC as following up with
“I hope this marks the beginnings of a real reassessment of how the government is treating our armed forces”
That’s kind of funny since it was the Labour government’s policies that led to such a paltry and insulting amount of compensation for Mne. Ormrod.
Don’t get me wrong – when it comes to the public, there are people there who understand and respect the sacrifices of their servicemen and women. I can’t think of any better example than the citizens of Wooten Basset, a small town outside RAF Lyneham where fallen heroes are repatriated to the UK through. There is even an equivalent to the Patriot Guard Riders that head to the town every time the cortege is due to pass through town.
My hat goes off to those people, and for people like Hailing Star, a band of teenagers who I’ve posted about before, or groups like Operation Braveheart. But therein lies the question – when is the government going to get off its ass and start supporting the troops when they come home properly and honor the spirit of the Military Covenant, or even at this stage just the letter of it?
To the new Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government of the UK, I say this: Start honoring the servicemen and women who are protecting the country and paying prices beyond anything you can imagine. They’re doing their part, now it’s up to you to do your part. Not just appoint interminable committees to write reports on it.
In two weeks time, Washington DC is going to be overrun by motorcycles as Rolling Thunder XXIV comes to town. It’s such a shame the UK would never allow such an event to take place, else the streets of London would turn into a reminder to the politicians how they fail in their duty miserably.
Come May 29th, I’ll ride for those abandoned by the British Government just as much as I ride for American MIA/POW. It’s not much, but some of us keep the faith.
[UPDATED May 16th 2011 @ 1015]
I appealed the decision by the BBC to remove my comment from the comments thread on their site, and was informed by email a few hours ago that:
Dear BBC Visitor
Thank you for your email.
In this instance we believe that you post has been removed in error.
You should find that it has now been reinstated.
Kind regards,
Central Communities Team.
Shortlink for this post: http://wp.me/p2cbiZ-jH
- Original comment:
Back in 2008 I posted my thoughts on the way the UK treats its veterans (http://www.moonwolfs-lair.com/2008/03/24/freedom-isnt-free/) based on the well-publicized way Mne. Mark Ormrod had been treated.
Politicians can talk in generalities all they want, but that just makes this another piece of feel-good propaganda that has no effect in reality. [↩]