Some Good Men

It may have taken Harry Patch 80-odd years before getting his feelings about the trenches of WWI off his chest but his simple message of its horror could not have been more clearly expressed. "If any man tells you he went in to the front-line and wasn't scared, then he's a liar." Harry, who died yesterday, was also scathing of the poor treatment of his comrades being shot at for "19d a day".

This ignoble tradition of treating our troops with disdain and, at times, contempt is far from gone. It is an unavoidable fact that in combat, life and limb have a price tag, certainly when it comes to compensation. The MOD has been hit with the worst publicity in its mean-spirited attempts to cut the payouts for amputees and brain-damaged casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Senior MOD officials and Ministers are driving forward an appeal to the High Court this week to get any reasonable settlements substantially reduced. By their actions they continue to punch the bruise on our national pride. One assumes their motives are purely monetary and it appears the moral dimension plays little part in their calculations.

One of the test cases centres on Cpl Antony Duncan who was shot in the thigh on patrol in Iraq in 2005. The MOD offered £9K eventhough the wound required 11 operations and left Duncan in "crippling pain". The appeal tribunal recognised the inadequacy of the first offer and raised it to £46K. The MOD had argued they were only liable for the initial injury and not the subsequent complications which the judges suitably dismissed as "absurd". This barely adequate amount which is still deemed "excessive" by Bob Ainsworth and other graceless Ministers.

When injured combat troops are first acknowledged as eligible for a payout, they are simultaneously warned assessments of their injuries may be "undertaken covertly under surveillance." Nearly 250 service personnel have suffered this indignity, under powers meant for counter-terrorism.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/5854169/MoD-uses-counter-terrorism-powers-to-spy-on-wounded-soldiers.html

In its defence, the MoD spokesman said the Ministry,"like the insurance industry, is at risk of fraudulent claims. " At least we are clear now they see the arrangement with its troops as a predominantly commercial one. The shameless absence of the duty of care we expect our troops to receive, is something Harry Patch would also have recognised.