A very powerful piece of writing by Bryan Forbes

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
David,
You have to keep writing to your political leaders and voicing your concerns about this unwinnable fiasco. If it means massive border security again, (the UK has just stepped this up this ) virtually little or no immigration for the forseeable future, and a loss of dignity to certain so called religious groups (such as wearing all concealing head to toe gowns) then let's look at all of it as a possible alternative to coming back from Afghanistan feet first and being driven through a small Cotswold town in a hearse. For every soldier that loses his life , no matter which country he is from, means another another grief laden family and friends who will never ever get over it.The political leaders just blunder on as though it's not happening.
Dave
 
David,
Thank's for the link. I think we will be out next year at the end of our commitment, or operate in a lesser capacity. Most of our guys right now are from Quebec Royal 22nd regiment or Van Doos. The majority of the Quebecers although proud are not happy being there. All we are fighting for now is human rights in a backwards country.
Dave
 
You can look at the casualty figures of Operation Enduring Freedom on

iCasualties | Operation Enduring Freedom | Afghanistan

David, what these figures don't show is the number of serious injuries incurred, many of which result in life long disablement and disfigurement for the young soldiers involved. Modern military medical procedures are very good and the seriously wounded who might have died in the past can now be kept alive to lead a life very different to that which a fit young man might have expected. I don't know the figures but suspect that these seriously injured casualties far outnumber the fatalities.

I think I am a reasonably intelligent person who keeps abreast of world affairs but I have no idea what we are doing in Afghanistan, where even the majority of the local population doesn't seem to want us there - or have I missed something?

Chris
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
Chris - A very timely point that you make. I think the modern triage and first aid procedures in the field means thankfully we have more people surviving. I would hazard a guess that its gone from about 4 injured that survive compared with one fatality to about seven or even eight to one now. Forty percent of soldiers injured actually stay in Afghanistan now, and return to their duties, which is a massive improvement in the medical facilities and the people who run them - many of whom are volunteer reserves from our local hospitals - people who are actually in the Territorial Army (T.A.)
You are also right in our second point - neither you or me and probably most of our GT40 colleagues have any idea as to why we are still there. You missed nothing.
Please write to your MP.
Dave
 
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David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
<TABLE class=Smalltable id=ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder1_countryGridView style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellSpacing=0 rules=all border=1><TBODY><TR class=contactDept><TH scope=col>Country</TH><TH scope=col>Total</TH></TR><TR><TD>Australia</TD><TD class=contactNumber>11</TD></TR><TR><TD>Belgium</TD><TD class=contactNumber>1</TD></TR><TR><TD>Canada</TD><TD class=contactNumber>131</TD></TR><TR><TD>Czech</TD><TD class=contactNumber>3</TD></TR><TR><TD>Denmark</TD><TD class=contactNumber>25</TD></TR><TR><TD>Estonia</TD><TD class=contactNumber>6</TD></TR><TR><TD>Finland</TD><TD class=contactNumber>1</TD></TR><TR><TD>France</TD><TD class=contactNumber>31</TD></TR><TR><TD>Germany</TD><TD class=contactNumber>33</TD></TR><TR><TD>Hungary</TD><TD class=contactNumber>2</TD></TR><TR><TD>Italy</TD><TD class=contactNumber>21</TD></TR><TR><TD>Latvia</TD><TD class=contactNumber>3</TD></TR><TR><TD>Lithuania</TD><TD class=contactNumber>1</TD></TR><TR><TD>Netherlands</TD><TD class=contactNumber>21</TD></TR><TR><TD>Norway</TD><TD class=contactNumber>4</TD></TR><TR><TD>Poland</TD><TD class=contactNumber>13</TD></TR><TR><TD>Portugal</TD><TD class=contactNumber>2</TD></TR><TR><TD>Romania</TD><TD class=contactNumber>11</TD></TR><TR><TD>South Korea</TD><TD class=contactNumber>1</TD></TR><TR><TD>Spain</TD><TD class=contactNumber>25</TD></TR><TR><TD>Sweden</TD><TD class=contactNumber>2</TD></TR><TR><TD>Turkey</TD><TD class=contactNumber>2</TD></TR><TR><TD>UK</TD><TD class=contactNumber>217</TD></TR><TR><TD>US</TD><TD class=contactNumber>842</TD></TR><TR class=contactDept><TD>Total</TD><TD align=right>1409</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
 
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David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
Yet another British Soldier - his third tour in Helmand and previously in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. He had just been decorated with the Military Cross.

Ironically, the newspapers afforded his death with less column inches than our first black woman Attorney General Lady Scotland who has just been fined £5000 for contravening an immigrant employment law that she helped to introduce.
Will Gordon Brown sack her? I doubt it.
Will he get back in power next year? I doubly doubt that as well.
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
She is equating this offence with forgetting to pay her congestion charge for driving in London. She would wouldn't she ! Where did this woman, this so called Attorney General get her law degree ?
Chelmsford Polytechnic. That says it all...........
Was it Chelmsford Poly that used to do a Bachelor of Art Degree in Finger Nail Painting as well ? Maybe that was Aberystwith.
Previous Attorney Generals must be squirming as they watch this buffoon.
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
The noose tightens around this womans neck. The irony is she will be sacrificed (justly so) on a sacrificial altar of her own making. Her Parliamentary Private Secretary has resigned in the last hour protesting that Brown is doing nothing to sack her. If she was a magistrate, (a D.A.?) she would have been kicked off the bench almost as soon as this scandal broke. The next 24 hours in the life of Lady Scotland , the first black Attorney General, will be the stuff of the front pages right up to the weekend. Wonderful.
Roll on the weekend. She will get more than her hand slapped.
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
From the Telegraph on line:
By Bob Graham
Published: 9:03PM BST 23 Sep 2009
Comments 13 | Comment on this article

lockett_1486812c.jpg
Sgt Michael Lockett was killed by a roadside bomb Photo: PA


On Armistice Day for the past two years a text message arrived with the simple phrase: " 'We WILL Remember Them', best wishes, Locky." The four simple words, from Laurence Binyon's First World War poem, went out to all those on the mobile phone list of Acting Sergeant Michael Lockett. The message said it all as far as Locky was concerned. He would not, could not, forget his mates, and he wanted everyone he knew to remember them, too.
I first met Acting Sergeant Michael Lockett and the surviving men from his platoon in the heat and dust of Helmand, in the aftermath of the battle on September 8, 2007 that claimed the lives of two of their colleagues and left five more injured.They were young men who had endured the worst the Taliban could throw at them, having spent weeks under fire at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Delhi, the southern-most British base in Helmand. Over many hours we sat drinking tea and replaying the events that had taken place the night before, occasionally interrupted as the younger soldiers approached and sought fatherly advice from Lockett, himself just 27 at the time. Nearly all asked Locky what they should do, how they should feel. He treated each with a kind word and gentle advice; for some an arm around the shoulder, for others a bit of soldiering banter.
Over the next year or so, I met Lockett and spoke to him further: he was proud, humbled and perhaps even a little embarrassed by the Military Cross he was awarded as a result of that battle. But the image of Locky that sticks in my mind is not the haunting picture of him receiving his medal from the Queen – a dignified moment he would have treasured – but of him sitting in the shade of a tent, beating himself up for the death of Sgt Craig Brelsford, who died trying to recover the body of Pte Johan Botha from the battlefield.
Locky was Army born and bred. He lived and breathed it, trusted it, and finally died for it on Monday.
That he was leading his platoon of the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment on a foot patrol, on his third tour in Afghanistan, when he was killed by a roadside bomb was no surprise. Locky would not ask anyone to do what he would not do himself, and invariably that meant he led from the front.
Acting Sgt Michael Lockett is the first holder of the MC to die in battle since the Second World War. At the time, he was preparing the young soldiers from the Yorkshire Regiment who had just arrived in Helmand to replace Locky's boys.
During our first meeting, which lasted several hours, Locky sat talking with immense pride of his Army upbringing. His father Malcolm still serves with 225 General Support Medical, and his mother April was formerly with the Royal Military Police. "I love the Army," he said, his smiling face still caked with the dust and sand from the battlefield. There was not an ounce of cynicism or regret in his statement, just an acceptance that the night before, being in the Army had cost the lives of two of his closest friends and left five more probably disabled for the rest of their lives.
That didn't stop him feeling anger for what had taken place. During the ambush by the Taliban, firing wave after wave of machine-gun fire and RPGs, he heard over his radio that five of his men had gone down, all within a few yards of where the Taliban were hiding. In the darkness, he and several of the survivors from the Mercians' 'A' Company crawled to the ditch to help organise a group to rescue the injured, who still lay in the open field.
Locky could hear in his ear-piece the pleas of one of his injured soldiers, Private Luke Cole. "He kept saying over and over 'Mick, come and get me….Mick, come and get me.e_SSRq" It was a plea that went to the core of everything Locky had told his men. "Before we came out to Afghanistan on this tour," he said, "I promised my men that as platoon sergeant I'd bring them back, if not alive, then their bodies would come home. That was my line in the sand, no matter what happened, everyone was coming back. And in that situation, if it meant going back into the face of enemy fire, I didn't give a rat's ass about what it took, I wanted my men back. We would not leave anyone behind."
He asked for volunteers to accompany him into the 'killing zone' to rescue their fallen comrades, an action that resulted in all four of those who went being awarded medals for bravery.
Privately, in the months that followed, there were many who believed that at least two VCs should have been awarded for the bravery shown that night, including one to Locky. That the ultimate medal of bravery was not given was a decision not based on deed, rather on the accepted political expediency that what happens in battle is not always reflected in the byzantine corridors of Whitehall.
Locky and his small squad of volunteers managed to rescue five of their colleagues, but could not find Private Botha, a South African who was one of the most popular members of the platoon.
The platoon commander, Lt Simon Cupples, asked for reinforcements to try to reach Botha, and a second platoon, led by Sgt Brelsford, was nearby. Locky added: "When we asked for volunteers Brellsie stepped forward. It was like a scene out of Saving Private Ryan. I simply grabbed him and whispered in his ear: 'Brellsie, I need you to go and get the big man for me.' He understood.
"His last words to me were: 'Mick, no dramas, don't worry about it, don't worry'. And I wasn't worried, Brellsie was leading one of our own platoons and he was going to get our boy out there. He'd come to help us when we needed him."
In the ensuing battle, Sgt Brelsford was killed and the company commanding officer, Maj Jamie Nowell, decided to withdraw the soldiers to base and use heavily armoured vehicles to go in search of Botha's body. But Locky had other ideas. "I was having none of it. I asked for more volunteers to go and get Botha back. Every hand went up again, no hesitation."
In stepped Lt Cupples to repeat the order to return to base. "I refused. I was not leaving my man on the ground, it was breaking my heart. I didn't know if Botha was dead or alive – although in my eyes he was not dead, he was missing in action. I sat there crying, knowing this was to be the hardest decision in my life, to extract from the battlefield and leave my man there." Eventually, he agreed to return to the base. But he added: "I could not look at the other lads when we went in ... I thought I'd lost their trust."
The following day, during our interview, Locky kept going over in his mind what more he could have done to brief his fellow sergeant. "Did I do enough, did I give him enough info? Could I have done more, acted differently and he wouldn't have been hit? Is it my fault? That's what's going on in my head now."
It was a question Locky still had not answered when we met in Chesterfield many months later. In the period that followed the Mercians' return to the UK, Locky spent much of his time with the young family he adored: his girlfriend Belinda and three children, Connor, Chloe and Courtney.
He also ensured that every member of his platoon took time to visit their injured colleagues in hospitals in various parts of the country. "We will remember them," he said time and again, emphasising that "they were part of us in battle and they're part of us now. Their battle is different and it's our duty to help them through it."
The plight of Pte Sam Cooper, who was severely injured and in Headley Court, the Defence Medical Rehabiliation Centre in Surrey, was of particular concern and Locky ensured that a constant stream of his fellow soldiers attended his bedside.
When I next saw Locky it was in a pub in Chesterfield in March 2008, on the day the Mercians were awarded the freedom of the city. Locky was on leave at the time but drove up to Derbyshire from his home in Devizes to push the wheelchair of Sam Cooper, who had just been released from hospital.
As we stood in a city centre pub at lunchtime, waiting for a small parade of the Mercian soldiers to begin, a group of young men were knocking back pints and generally ridiculing the soldiers who stood in ranks outside in their uniform.
Locky went over and spoke to them, explaining that the soldiers were "ordinary young men, just like you, they have the same dreams, desires and interests as you ... They're doing an extraordinary job for their country, not because they want to but because their government, your government, has asked them to." The group listened to Locky and when he finished, each of the drinkers put down their glasses and shook him by the hand, apologising for their earlier rudeness.
Later, as Locky pushed Cooper in his wheelchair to a reception at the Civic Centre, he was stopped by a couple of mothers who wanted to tell him how proud they felt of his sacrifice. One of the mothers described how she despaired of her son's bad behaviour and failure to get a job. Locky gave her his telephone number and said: "If I didn't have the Army, I'd probably be like him. It's my best friend, it provides me with friendships that will last for ever. It's not easy but its qualities will last with me for ever. If he wants, tell him to call me and I'll have a chat."
Months later, it was announced that Locky had been awarded the MC, as had his dead comrade Sgt Brelsford. He was sanguine about the medal: "Of course it's an honour and I shall wear it with pride," he said. "But attached to it are the memories of Brellsie and Botha, two mates and no matter what the medal says, it can't bring them back.
"In some ways handing out medals is not part of what I'm about or what my mates in the platoon are about. Everything we do, we do together and for each other."
 
David +1
Learned this morning that my friend and Vietnamese counterpart is still alive. Been wondering about him for 43 years! He was imprisioned by the communists in 1975 and released in 1998. One of our old team (VN) Lt. Col's in California created an association of VN members worldwide to track down and assist the other surviving members of our bunch! I joined this this morning...

Lest we forget...
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
Jack,
isn't that amazing and so wonderful to hear about.
I'm a member of 203 squadron website - probably one of the most active squadrons in the so called 'cold war' era and which is a great website to keep in touch with the people involved in the Nimrod and Shackleton at the time that I was in the services. It has a sad side as well as no one gets any younger but , hey, thats life. The old adage - 'see if there are any cigarettes in his locker' still rings true to this day and so long after leaving the serice is still respected.
( this was a euphamism to make sure there was no trace of anything that the family would not want to see or know about)
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
The Daily Telegraph has been wonderfully instrumental in exposing the MPs expense saga
and this article follows on from those exposées.

MPs' expenses leaked over failure to equip troops on front line in Afghanistan and Iraq
Expenses claims made by MPs were leaked because of anger over the Government’s failure to equip the Armed Forces properly while politicians lavished taxpayers’ money on themselves, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

By Robert Winnett and Gordon Rayner
Published: 7:00AM BST 25 Sep 2009

A claim by Sir Peter Viggers for a duck house costing £1,645 came to symbolise the expenses scandal. But soldiers working in the stationery office were outraged at the treatment of their comrades in Afghanistan
Workers who processed the MPs’ claims included serving soldiers, who were moonlighting between tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan to earn extra cash for body armour and other vital equipment.

The soldiers were furious when they saw what MPs, including the Prime Minister, were claiming for and their anger convinced one of their civilian colleagues that taxpayers had a right to know how their money was being spent.


Related Articles
How disbelief turned to anger among workers processing claims
Fury over soldiers' plight blew lid on MPs' expenses
Inside MPs' expenses scandal
No Expenses Spared: the inside story The mole who leaked the data has told his story for the first time, in the hope that it will shame the Government into finally supplying the right equipment for the thousands of soldiers risking their lives in Afghanistan.

His account appears in No Expenses Spared, a book which is published today and discloses the full story of what Gordon Brown described as “the biggest Parliamentary scandal for two centuries”.

Five months after The Daily Telegraph broke the story of MPs’ expenses, the mole angrily denounced politicians who “still don’t get it” and were still preoccupied with their own financial situation rather than the plight of troops.

“It’s not easy to watch footage on the television news of a coffin draped in a Union Jack and then come in to work the next day and see on your computer screen what MPs are taking for themselves,” he said.

“Hearing from the serving soldiers, about how they were having to work there to earn enough money to buy themselves decent equipment, while the MPs could find public money to buy themselves all sorts of extravagances, only added to the feeling that the public should know what was going on.

“That helped tip the balance in the decision over whether I should or should not leak the expenses data.”

The Daily Telegraph’s investigation of MPs’ expense claims exposed widespread abuse of the Parliamentary allowance system, including the “flipping” of second homes, systematic tax avoidance, “phantom” mortgages and claims for fripperies such as moat cleaning, manure and a duck house. Some MPs even attempted to claim for wreaths which they laid at remembrance ceremonies.

No Expenses Spared, written by two members of the Telegraph’s investigation team, describes how employees at The Stationery Office, where the expense files were sent for censorship before their intended publication by Parliament, reacted when they first saw the claims for second homes, furniture and luxury goods.

The workers, who included Parliamentary staff on secondment, became so agitated that they had to be told to calm down by managers.

One of the expenses that particularly enraged staff was Gordon Brown’s claim for a Sky TV sports package, which cost £36 per month.

But it was the position of the soldiers, who had used their annual leave to find temporary work as security guards, that caused the most outrage. “As the days progressed the soldiers joined in the conversations and became as angry as those doing the editing,” the mole said.

“When they’re out in Afghanistan they’re out there for Queen and country, earning £16,000 or £17,000 a year, knowing they’re going to take losses, while the MPs are sitting in Parliament on £65,000, with massive expenses, and meanwhile you’ve got bodies coming home.”

The Prime Minister, who faces a critical test of his leadership at next week’s Labour Party conference, has faced repeated criticism over the equipment that has been issued to troops and for his lacklustre handling of the expenses scandal.

No Expenses Spared discloses that the mole was employed to censor MPs’ expenses paperwork in 2008 before it was published this year.

Around 20 people at a time worked on blacking out parts of the files. The soldiers were among the security guards who were there to prevent any of the information being leaked.

One of the soldiers had taken on the temporary work, in contravention of Army regulations, to earn enough money to buy a lightweight Kevlar ballistic vest similar to those issued to US troops. Many British soldiers have complained that the standard issue body armour was so heavy and bulky that it was more of a hindrance than a help in a firefight.

Another soldier was there to earn money to buy desert boots, gloves and sunglasses, while other servicemen were earning to buy Christmas presents for their families.

The mole said: “The people who were working on redacting the MPs’ expenses were people who were proud to be British, and they were saddened by what they saw.

“Everyone in that room was of the same mind. This was our money and these were our employees, effectively, but no one could hold them to account.

“Pretty much everyone working in that room was being paid a pittance to do their job. Meanwhile the MPs were being well paid and claiming a fortune on their expenses, yet what have they done for us in the last 10 years?

“That was why I leaked the information: because the British public deserves better.”

The furore over the leak of the expenses data has put the mole under intense pressure and he faced the threat of a police investigation. He wishes to remain anonymous.

The mole leaked the MPs’ expenses data, which amounted to more than 1.5 million individual receipts, to John Wick, a former SAS officer who acted as a middle man in negotiations with The Daily Telegraph.

The mole told the book’s authors that he was “bloody glad” he released the information. “There’s no two ways about it. I saw what was happening. I saw that information, and you just couldn’t keep that from people,” he said.

“Now that The Daily Telegraph has put this in the public domain, it has to bring about reform.”

But the mole said he had been disappointed with the response of MPs so far.

“Do they get it? I don’t know. We had a knee-jerk reaction from all the parties initially... [But now] when you listen to MPs I think they are more concerned about themselves and keeping their jobs than getting on with reform and changing our Parliament.

“Do you think Alan Duncan gets it? I don’t know. I listen to various statements made by MPs and I’m not so sure they do get it at all yet.

“I know certain members do and I know that not all MPs were guilty. Not all MPs had their snouts in the trough. Nevertheless they all knew what was happening. Those that didn’t have their snouts in the trough did nothing to stop it.”

Despite public anger over their expenses, MPs have continued to claim thousands of pounds for food, mortgages and other costs.

Within the next month, Sir Christopher Kelly, the official standards watchdog, is expected to recommend radical changes to the Parliamentary expenses system. However, MPs are pushing for large pay rises to compensate for any loss of the lucrative expenses. They can currently claim more than £24,000 a year towards the cost of a second home.

Meanwhile, the Government has refused to bow to soldiers’ demands for better equipment similar to that given to American troops.

The disclosure of such a direct link between the summer’s scandal and the ongoing row over military equipment will put ministers under increasing pressure to ensure that soldiers are properly equipped before sending them into battle. Dozens of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan have been blamed on inferior or faulty equipment issued to the Armed Forces.

Last weekend, the widow of Sjt Paul McAleese, who was killed on August 20 by a Taliban bomb, suggested that the Government’s failure properly to equip soldiers was akin to manslaughter.

Sjt McAleese had spent £1,000 of his own money to buy a lightweight ballistic vest, desert boots and ballistic goggles, the same equipment as that wanted by the soldiers who worked at The Stationery Office.

Jo McAleese said: “We must either give our soldiers the kit they need to survive or get them out of there.”

Last night, the Ministry of Defence insisted that the Armed Forces were properly equipped.

A spokesman said: “Our top priority is to provide the best equipment and training for our people in Afghanistan.

“Both are excellent, and are improving all the time. Commanders now have a variety of helicopters, protected patrol vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles and other key equipment at their disposal, and we are committed to ensuring that their needs are met, both in the short and long term.

“Since 2006, we have delivered equipment valued at more than £10 billion to the Armed Forces, including over £4 billion on urgent operational requirements since 2006.”
 
Start a movement to put members on a social security pension plan (welfare) and no salary. Only than will they "get it".

I have often thought that our representatives should be volunteers with no big salaries, just living expenses. That would really change things for the better...
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
The Telegraph article above is a resumption of hostilities towards our MPs (Members of Parliament) because they have all been away for their summer recess and return
back to the Palace of Westminster in two weeks time ahead of the reopening on 12th October. That is a summer break from 21st July until 12th October.
Here is a list of all their other holidays:

House of Commons

Recess dates 2008-09 (NB: All recess dates are provisional)
State Opening: 3 December 2008​
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=1><TBODY><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
Recess
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
House rises
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
House returns
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
Christmas​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
18 December 2008​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
12 January 2009​
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
Half Term​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
12 February 2009​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
23 February 2009​
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
Easter​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
2 April 2009​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
20 April 2009​
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
Whitsun​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
21 May 2009​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
1 June 2009​
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
Summer​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
21 July 2009​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
12 October 2009​
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

In addition to the recess dates listed above, the House will not sit on the following Bank Holiday: 4 May
House of Lords

Recess dates 2008-09 (NB: All recess dates are provisional)
State Opening: 3 December 2008​
<TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=1><TBODY><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
Recess
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
House rises
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
House returns
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
Christmas​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
18 December 2008​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
12 January 2009​
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
Half Term​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
12 February 2009​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
23 February 2009​
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
Easter​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
2 April 2009​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext width="25%" height=10>
20 April 2009​
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
Whitsun​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
21 May 2009​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
1 June 2009​
</TD></TR><TR><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
Summer​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
21 July 2009​
</TD><TD class=editonprotabletext vAlign=top width="25%" height=10>
12 October 2009​
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

In addition to the recess dates listed above, the House will not sit on the following Bank Holiday: 4 May.
Lords recess dates for previous sessions
State Opening of Parliament page




Staggering really - that they want to cheat on their income as well as having so much time off. (The average British worker - my youngest daughter for example - gets two weeks off and some but not all bank holidays).
 

Keith

Moderator
David, you may (or probably may not) be amused to learn today that "Two Jags Prescott" has publicly announced that:

"there is something wrong with the leadership of the Labour Party"

And, he should know from past experience, so - now, at last it's official..

(No Smilies were harmed in the posting of this message) :!blank:
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
(No Smilies were harmed in the posting of this message) :!blank:<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

Don't you just love the humour of the members on this forum.
 

David Morton

Lifetime Supporter
MPs' expenses: Soldier tells of his disgust at greed

A serving soldier who worked in the room where MPs’ expenses were censored has described his “disappointment and disgust” when he discovered the extravagant claims made by politicians.



By Robert Winnett and Gordon Rayner
Published: 8:00AM BST 26 Sep 2009

Previous
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expense_1489783c.jpg
Ella Roberts joins her father L/Cpl Steven Roberts as 1st Bn The Royal Welsh parade in Chester before leaving for Afghanistan Photo: PA

no-expenses-final__1488681c.jpg



Speaking for the first time, the Iraq veteran said he felt let down by the “cavalier attitude” of MPs in buying “frivolous” items at taxpayers’ expense, when he and other servicemen had to work in annual leave to buy life-saving kit such as body armour.
His experience is described in No Expenses Spared, a book published on Friday which tells the inside story of The Daily Telegraph’s investigation into MPs’ expenses.

Related Articles

On Friday, the Telegraph disclosed that the mole who leaked the expenses files did so out of anger at the Government’s failure to provide adequate equipment for troops in Afghanistan.
The mole was processing MPs’ files in a room at the Stationery Office which was protected by serving soldiers working as private security guards.
It prompted a furious Ministry of Defence to pour scorn on the suggestion that soldiers were moonlighting to buy equipment. Officials said service personnel would not be allowed to wear non-standard kit.
However, one of the soldiers who worked in the “redaction room” has agreed to speak out.
In a statement provided to the authors of the book, the soldier said: “I needed to earn extra money to buy a few items of essential equipment… simple items such as sunglasses, new boots and patrol gloves.
“Why, you might ask, would I be buying these items when they are already issued to us?
“The reason is quite simple: the quality of the items purchased in the civilian market is far superior to what we are currently issued with by the MoD. Another colleague who worked on the [MPs’ expenses] project wanted the extra money to buy a new ballistic vest. Again, a superior quality product which he was going to buy from a South African company.
“We are issued with ballistic vests but, again, it was simply a case of investing in a superior product for safety and security.
“As I am sure you can appreciate, confidence in one’s own equipment is essential in front-line battle.”
The soldier said he had been drawn into discussions with other workers in the room about the extravagance of MPs’ expense claims, discussions which led to anger among those censoring claims ahead of their official release.
“I cannot say that I felt anger at what was being revealed on a daily basis but certainly disappointment and disgust with some of the more frivolous claims,” he said. Despite being “pretty much a cross-section of society”, every-one in the room was appalled by what they saw in the files, he added. “We all understand our politicians have a job to do and that this job is not easy at times. However, that can be said for most of the working population.
“In corporate life and military life, it seems that our expenses systems are far more rigorous and stringent than those of our serving MPs.
“It seemed to be the feeling of the people in the room that this cavalier attitude towards taxpayers’ money was unacceptable.
“I find myself agreeing with this sentiment, especially in light of my own difficulties in obtaining equipment of a suitable standard to ensure my own safety in battle.”
The soldier stressed that, despite rumours to the contrary, neither he nor his military colleagues had been involved in the leaking of the information.
“My experience was that, despite conflicting feelings about the ethical and moral integrity of the material we were witnessing, my colleagues and I performed our duty in protecting that material with the utmost care and diligence, even though it did not carry any formal protective marking.”
On Friday, John Wick, the ex-SAS officer who brokered the deal for the MPs’ expenses files between the Telegraph and the mole, described the MoD denial that soldiers were working on the project to buy kit as “vacuous”.
In an online article for Telegraph.co.uk, he said: “Soldiers have always sought to access the best equipment. It is important for both comfort and security to have the best.
“The comment from an MoD spokesman that soldiers are not allowed to wear personal equipment they have purchased, is vacuous and shows how disconnected the civil servants are to those they are supposed to support in the military.”
No Expenses Spared, by The Daily Telegraph’s deputy political editor, Robert Winnett, and chief reporter Gordon Rayner
 
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