elovabloke said:
Is the RBL, other service charities along with BAFF honestly happy with this? Just before an election it gives the impression that there has been a certain amount of rolling over on this one giving the Government some cheap points.
A two tier system has now been sanctioned. Any member of the forces who sustained injuries in services should all be treated equally. I appreciated that before the high profile Iraqi and Afghanistan conflicts the public in general and a fair few on here seemed to think that life was all about piss ups and sunshine. Many hundreds of service personnel suffered horrific injuries and PTSD long before the current punch ups.
It seems to me that the Parliament, MOD, service charities and others are going for the big headlines and have readily fallen into line.
I couldnt agree more about earlier conflicts, and have indeed commented about the unfairness to those injured in them, and even on Op Telic, prior to the magic date in April 2005. That does, however, perhaps make the point that the AFCS is a significant improvement on what was there before, as far as the most seriously injured are concerned.
Although a number of questions remain, the further improvements announced today are in my opinion genuine, and are not a pre-election ploy but the outcome of a thorough review led by Lord Boyce assisted by RBL, SSAFA and others.
It is always a matter of judgement as to when you move from being highly critical, as BAFF certainly has in respect of aspects of the AFCS, to giving credit for genuine progress, irrespective of which party is in power at the time. MPs of all parties present at the announcement today were generally welcoming in principle.