http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/06/nmalay06.xml

Just came across this story in the Telegraph from last week, if its old news I apologise, but it's the comments of the FCO in the last paragraph that I thought was of particular interest.


Owen

owen lawrence wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/06/nmalay06.xml

Just came across this story in the Telegraph from last week, if its old news I apologise, but it's the comments of the FCO in the last paragraph that I thought was of particular interest.


Owen

Interesting Owen, thanks for highlighting that piece

Quote from The Telegraph

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "The Government policy is that you cannot accept foreign awards if the action took place more than five years ago. The policy is under review and a decision is expected in the next few weeks."

Pity there is no one person EVER attributed to the quote from the FCO


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HD Committee: Amateurs in a Professional World
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John, Just having a shower and suddenly realised that I hadn't checked the date of the article and wouldn't you know it's 2005. I tried to get back on to delete it but you beat me to it, even though I'm still dripping so to speak. You are obviously an early riser.
I apologise to all our readers.

Owen

owen lawrence wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/06/nmalay06.xml

Just came across this story in the Telegraph from last week, if its old news I apologise, but it's the comments of the FCO in the last paragraph that I thought was of particular interest.

owen lawrence wrote:

John, Just having a shower and suddenly realised that I hadn't checked the date of the article and wouldn't you know it's 2005. I tried to get back on to delete it but you beat me to it, even though I'm still dripping so to speak. You are obviously an early riser. I apologise to all our readers.

Hi Owen,

No need to apologise - you have raised a singularly important point about a doubly important medal muddle.

The FCO did indeed review that Foreign Decorations policy issue - the singularly arbitrary 5-year 'rule'. In so doing they twigged that in trying to deny the PJM under that rule alone they would fail because it didn't hold up to close scrutiny because of all the medals that they have approved for wear that break that 5-year rule. The Malta Medal and Russian Medal are examples having been approved for wear 50 years after the events.

And so in secret they inserted for the first time in Foreign Decorations rules a second rectriction ... the double medal rule!

Then they applied the twin myths retrospectively (the newly constructed rules were promulgated a year after the medal was first offered) - and then smugly claimed that we were medal chasing a Foreign Decoration because we had a British gong to show off (although the two medals are quite different and most PJMers do not have a British medal). They have never admitted this contemptuous deception. But one day they are going to face their ... errr ... duplicity!

Regards, Barry


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia

Owen,

Actually, it is still interesting reading. The date 05/11/2005 and the spokesman for the FCO, his words, reveal the correlation between the inital offer to the Government (Feb 05) and Ministerial statement in Jan 06 in so far that the intervening months were taken up with re-writing the 'Rules' and so precluding the PJM from being worn (the double medaling rule first saw the light of day in this period).

General Purdon added "There is no sense of urgency from the Government, so there is no chance our veterans will be able to wear these medals on Remembrance Sunday and many of them may not be around next year". Two Remembrance Sundays have now passed.

I can only hope that one day they will pay the price for their irresponsibility! The Telegraph - a good reminder of what we are all about!