Campaign News

under the FOI I asked the MOD why the Queen had not been approached for the NDM. As can be seen from the following request and thier lack of reply in the time set by law I have had to now go for an internal review. It is just the start of the road but I shall continue to plod on.If anyone else wants to badger them with the same question be my guest.

Request was -

Dear Sir or Madam, I requested information from your department

which should have been responded to by the 14th September 2009

under the freedom of information act. As I have not recieved a

reply I am now requesting an Internal review as required by law. My

original request is as follows - Dear Sir or Madam, Can you please

explain why you do not approach/allow H.M. The Queen to institute a

National Defence Medal for British ex-service persons (Veterans)as

has already been done for Australia , Canada and New Zealand

Veterans and why no one will meet the National Defence Medal

campaigners to discuss this Yours faithfully,

Forgot to mention the link was the 'What do they know' site

There is no freedom of information until all information is freely available.  It is far too easy to say that information is withheld in the interests of national security.  If the powers that be want to used this as an excuse to withold information they should be required to prove it.

Information released by government under the FOI Act is only that which they consider will not impinge upon them personally.  Nobody will  be first to consider rocking the boat. They have their retirement gongs and pensions to consider, after all. Writing to Cabinet Secretaries, and the H&DC in particular  on various medal subjects over the past few years, always seem to descend into the in-tray of R.T.Coney, who appears to select standard reply A,B,or C depending on the circumstances. The entire Whitehall Commando Platoon  needs a good shake up.

I wrote to the MOD under the FOI act in July this year to ask which ships with reference to Command Paper 8601/DCI JS:RN J 496/82 received the South Atlantic Medal(With or Without rosette), nothing has been forthcoming. I also wrote to HM The Queen with reference to not just my campaign for the award of a Falklands medal/Mine Clearance ( Falklands) but also to show my full support for the NDM, I received a letter back saying that HM did not get involved in such matters and forwarded my letter to the Defence Secretary, fat lot of good that did, they quoted the 5 year rule in the hope I would give up.  Now I have sent an email to David Cameron MP with copies of all my letters, he has not replied yet, but Im hoping when and if he gets into Downing St he will overhaul the sham/disgrace of the Honours and Awards system and review both my campaign and the NDM. Be interesting to know if Ainsworth put in for an Afghanistan medal(Idiot), probable got one as well.