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HAVE YOUR SAY

ARE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN SOLDIERS EXPLOITED?

FEARLESS: But do our troops deserve better?

Monday July 30,2007

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(15)

THE Ministry of Defence was attacked yesterday for paying out almost £500,000 to a typist diagnosed with a form of repetitive strain injury.

The revelation has led to military chiefs being accused of treating soldiers in combat zones as second-class to civilian staff and service personnel with desk jobs.

The award is almost 30 times that given to a soldier with comparative wounds resulting from combat and nine times more than service personnel would get for losing a leg.

Yesterday it emerged it is not the only big claim handed out to backroom workers – as new figures revealed a civilian worker was paid more than £200,000 for a back strain caused by lifting a printer.

*But what do YOU think?

Are Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers exploited?

Have YOUR say.

THE MEDIA DONT HELP ONE BIT!

18.08.07, 2:24pm

Thanks to the irresponsible reporting from the media, a petition has been running for the past 6 months on the official 10 Downing Street site asking that they NOT be allowed to report any military deaths until such a time as their next of kin have been correctly and formally notified.

Tragically last year alone there were over half a dozen situations whereby the media did not wait for facts to be verified before reporting - and families found out first on the news that their loved one was killed on duty when those terrifying workds "next of kin have yet to be informed" were uttered both on the TV and radio as well as in the papers and on the internet.

This is just too sickening for words.

Since the petition started there has been a significant change in the way that military - and even civilian - deaths have been reported, with the media now stating "next of kin have been notified". They have slipped up though several times, with Sky News and the BBC to name a few being on the receiving end of complaints about such reporting.

Together we can ensure that reporting is done in a sensitive and respectful manner. Its not necessary to be the first to report a death, it is however necessary to make sure that you are reporting all the facts and the most important one to the thousands of families this directly affects is that the Next of Kin have been informed. Because then you know that YOU have not had that knock on the door and you know that it is not your family who will be grieving.

The petition is at

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NOKinformed/

so feel free to sign if you want, or to pass the link on. The petition closes on 19th August 2007 so PLEASE sign it to make a difference that could one day affect you personally.

• Posted by: Vikster • Report Comment

GROSS NEGLIGENCE

11.08.07, 11:39pm

Is it any wonder, that our men and women in our armed forces must be be thinking what kind of a mickey mouse bunch of idiots they are working for!? Is it any wonder then, that many of them are wanting out of the mickey mouse outfit they find themselves trapped in!? When this country squanders millions on usless civilians, in usless jobs, taking from our frontline troops when they need it most, it's enough to make me, an ex armed forces veteran want to lie down and die!! There has never been a time in my life, that I have been so ashamed to call myself British, as I do right now. This country is now on the brink of absolute and utter disgrace! And unfortunately, it now seems that the people of this once great country are going to stand by and let it happen! May God have mercy on all our misreble souls!

• Posted by: peterthepainter • Report Comment

AFFIRMATIVE

09.08.07, 11:20pm

too many men from iraq are hanging around here while our boys do their job for them. the translators are helping us to help them, we do not owe them.

• Posted by: WHAT4 • Report Comment

ARE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN SOLDIERS EXPLOITED?

05.08.07, 6:40pm

All our armed forces are being exploited,now more have been promised to Defur.
Politicians start wars,the pity is they do not have to fight in them,no, its not good enough to say that fighting is what a soldier does but he/she should not be expected to put their lives on the line with dodgy equipment etc. in any war especially those wars which are not in defence of the realm,the two conflicts mentioned have escalated out of hand and service personnel are dying needlessly becaus no politician who started them can stop them,they just go on sending young people to those hell holes, not spending enough money to make sure they are all looked after but at the same time they are still enjoying their junkets,cash shortages or not.
Can any politician say how long these conflicts will last, they will hedge but not put their heads on the block,families will mourn ,a part of a generation lost in the end, for what?

• Posted by: Maggie • Report Comment

WHAT DO I THINK

02.08.07, 12:39pm

You would not be able to print it.

• Posted by: Jay_R • Report Comment

TYPIST AND £500.000 VERSES SOLDIERS

02.08.07, 9:20am

THE MIND BOGGLES, a few years ago I fell over
a steel bar in a super market and hurt my knee and back, and was advised to go and see a solicitor, now he brought an official claim`s list and showed it to me, and each injury on this list starting from little finger £100.00 maximum full stop, to back injury £2000.00 full stop that's for Joe public of coarse so how the hell in gods name did this typist with repetitive strain get
£500,000 thousand when with care this can be cured or at least made a lot easier, which is more than you can say for soldiers who lose a leg/arm/sight or at worse be killed, WHAT A BIZZAR WORLD WE LIVE IN

• Posted by: ANNR • Report Comment