Member News
By Elfyn Llwyd MP - 17th February 2010
Plaid Cymru's parliamentary leader Elfyn Llwyd MP writes for ePolitix.com about his party's new policy paper 'Support for Veterans'.
"It is a crying scandal, I think, that at the present moment there are so many soldiers and sailors who have placed their lives at the disposal of the country, and are quite ready to sacrifice them."
"Hundreds and thousands do actually leave the Army and Navy broken through ill health…These men leave the Army without any provision from either public or private charity, and they are broken men for the rest of their lives".
Who said this? When were these words uttered? Yesterday? Last week? No, these are nothing to do with today’s modern conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
They were the words of David Lloyd George’s speech introducing National Insurance in Parliament nearly a hundred years ago in 1911.
Yet those words still ring true today.
On Monday in Llandudno I launched Plaid Cymru’s new policy paper 'Support for Veterans' alongside our local candidate, Phil Edwards, and Chris O’Neill, a veteran himself.
In this policy document, we are calling for a UK-wide holistic support service and a system of identification of veterans coming into contact with the criminal justice system.
We are also advocating measures such as a more thorough 'debriefing' procedure pre-discharge from the forces, including psychological assessments plus drug and alcohol tests.
We would also promote the creation of a post-discharge support programme designed to combat the various strains of social estrangement experienced by many veterans, including tenancy support services and advice on debt management.
Veterans welfare is an issue which has concerned me for many years, but came to the fore around two years when, as a barrister on the North Wales circuit, I began to notice a growth in the number of young people who were former members of the armed services and found themselves in the criminal justice system.
I spoke to Harry Fletcher of probation union NAPO who carried out a quick survey amongst his union staff, leading to an estimate of around 10 per cent of the prison population having previously seen active service, a figure of up to 8,500 ex-servicemen behind bars, roughly double the number of British troops currently in Afghanistan.
It is a scandal that this government has sent our brave young men and women away to fight wars abroad – and some of them illegal wars - with a stated aim of making the world a better and safer place, without keeping up the Military Covenant, ensuring that they were properly equipped and properly looked after.
Through launching 'Support for Veterans', my aim is to force the government to take the issue seriously. I believe that they are finally beginning to do so, with a series of pilot and scoping projects looking into the situation, but I do not think they are going far enough.
Secondly these important issues are an important part of the debate of how we treat our armed forces and those that we send out to represent us around the world.
Thankfully, having put this issue on the radar, it is now the policy of all major parties to pay attention to the needs of veterans. I only hope that they are as sincere as us in putting this at the top of the political agenda.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd