1 |
“How can the award of a National Defence Medal, by Her Majesty to our veterans, who partic****ted in the hazardous Berlin Airlift; or to the millions of National Servicemen who were compulsorily taken away from their homes, their families and their way of life, or recognition of thousands of service personnel involved in the Cold War which saw hundreds of them killed on duty and thousands injured; devalue our medal system?” |
2 |
“The NDM is symbolic in this government showing it means what it says in addressing the broken military covenant. Veterans understand in this climate of austerity, the medal will need to be self-financing and at no cost to the ‘public purse’. However, we fail to understand why we are being denied such recognition when Her Majesty the Queen has awarded a defence medal to Australian and New Zealand regular and reserve forces together with their veterans”. |
3 |
review the award of all medals |
4 |
“The Secretary of State for Defence and I have taken careful note of this very thorough and comprehensive report and carefully considered all the points and arguments”. |
5 |
“After much consideration I have concluded that it is not appropriate to inst**ute a new National Defence Medal” |
6 |
all correspondence, together with minutes of meetings that Mr Jones or his Department had on the subject of the NDM, especially with the Joint Chiefs of Staff or their representative.’ |
7 |
all doc***ents, memos and minutes relating to action taken by Mr Jones or his representatives in respect of the National Defence Medal, during the approx 100 day window of when the Minister received the veterans submission in June and his decision sent to veterans on 20th September’. |
8 |
“Although numerous discussions had taken place between Ministerial Offices and staff of the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Personnel) in respect of the inst**ution of the National Defence Medal the discussions had not been summarised in minutes and a search of paper and electronic records identified that MOD did not hold the information requested |
9 |
“a poorly written doc***ent, which raises weak arguments for the introduction of a NDM and that it contains numerous inaccuracies throughout and is contradictory.” |
10 |
EDM 327 |
11 |
‘That this house notes the significant personal sacrifice our Armed Forces personnel make in their service to the Nation once they take the oath or affirmation of allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen; acknowledges our ex-service personnel are proud to receive and wear Her Majesty’s Veterans Badge, but notes that it is not awarded posthumously and is considered insufficient recognition for the contribution veterans have made to the safety of the Nation since the ending of the Second World War; and therefore calls on Her Majesty’s Government to rescind their recent decision not to more appropriately recognise our veterans by the award of a National Defence Medal and instead to establish a working group to work with the Committee on the Grant of Honours Decorations and Medals, with a view to implementing a National Defence Medal as soon as possible.’ |
12 |
The points made in the report have been carefully considered and a collective response was sent to the Society (National Defence Medal campaign team) stating that after much consideration, it has been concluded that it is not appropriate to inst**ute a new National Defence Medal. I hope this explains the situation and will enable you to respond to any enquiries that you receive from you const**uents. |