Following Don Touhig's Adjournment Debate in the Commons on the 11th December, the Chair of that meeting, Dr Kim Howells, did what he said he would do and on the 29th January wrote to Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary/Head of the Home Civil Service, communicating the need for flexibility in the case of the PJM!

This is your chance to have some input into Sir Gus's deliberations. Write to him. Tell him what you think.

Of one thing you can be absolutely certain - he will be told by Denis Brennan at the Smith Street branch of the Cabinet Office that the HD Committee has already been flexible! But it has not!

If Sir Gus simply accepts what he is told by those with a vested interest in protecting the status quo, i.e. the civil servants led by Denis Brennan, he will be encouraged to throw out the will of your elected representatives and will report back to Dr Howells that the suits have been flexible and cannot be more flexible.

I can picture the flurry of anti-PJM memo-writing and emailing that is now going on in the Cabinet Office in Smith Street, and in the Foreign Office and the MoD. They will be covering their tracks and will be determined that their agenda will never be questionned. Hells bells ... they are civil serrvants and must never be questioonned.

You can help change that. Write to Sir Gus. Tell him about the EDMs. Tell him about the majority of MPs who seek flexibility from the HD Committee. Tell him that if he is told that flexibility has already been shown in the case of the PJM, then he has been misled. The Foreign Decorations Rules were rewritten by his civil servants after the event and new provisions included and then applied retrospectively just to make the PJM unwearable - but only by British citizens. That was not a special show of flexibility - that was a special show of contempt for British ex-servicemen and women, for the people of this country, and for the Parliament that the civil servants have misled.

But whatever you say ... say it soon. Best to write by snail mail:

Sir Gus O'Donnell KCB
Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS

'People make better policy advisers if they have been on the front line' - Sir Gus O'Donnell, December 2005, two weeks after the civil servants, who have not been in the Front Line, poked you in the eye ... you who have been in the Front Line!

One last thought, Sir Gus is a Manchester United fan ... and he's known as "GOD" in the civil service.


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

Perhaps we can even quote from Ivan Lewis MP here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7321311.stm

"But we have been in government 11 years and instead of being on the side of the people, too often we simply defend the status quo, even when it is unacceptable.






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HD Committee: Amateurs in a Professional World
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Good news, lets hope that something comes of it

John

My letter is in the post, Sir Gus should get it by Tuesday, let's hope he has a large post bag.

Letter will be sent by myself.

Mine will be in the post first thing tomorrow.

I hope Sir Gus gets them by the sack load.

Fred

Now where's me pen !!!


_________________
Pingat Kami - Hak Kami
651 Signal Troop,
Semengo Camp,
Kuching.

I wrote to GoD some two years ago at the same time as The Attorney General, GoD didn't reply, the office of The AG did, must get that long piece of string out again........


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HD Committee: Amateurs in a Professional World
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I really have reservations that our request to be treated fairly and justly and to be accorded the right to wear the PJM as most graciously given by Her Majesty the Queen in the London Gazette of 1968, has landed on the desk of the Head of the Civil Service. Career civil servants have been known to support the 'status quo' irrespective of the unjust nature of their actions and when I heard that Sir Gus O'Donnell is called G.O.D. then I fear for justice and fair play.
I can only hope that I am terribly wrong and that this gentleman will decide on the side of justice and allow more flexibity in the case of the wearing of the PJM. If he does he will certainly become the champion of over 35,000 British veterans.

Once again I have whittled up the business end of my well chewed quill to a needle like point and set down a few thoughts (some of which are actually my own!).....this letter will be in the mailbox within the hour....of course it will not reach GOD for a week or so....but I can't accelerate that process...Please try to ensure that GOD receives a lot of encouraging mail in the meantime eh lads?
====================================================================


Sir Gus O'Donnel KCB
Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS

Monday, 31 March 2008

Dear Sir,

Having been advised of your response to Dr Kim Howell’s call, on the need for H.M. Government to exercise a measure of flexibility in the matter of the Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM) I felt duty bound, as a representative of the membership of a worldwide association of concerned veterans, to write in an attempt to place the views of those veterans before you…I am very confident that a powerful opposing argument will be mounted by members of the Civil Service, led by Denis Brennan, who, doubtless, will attempt to convince you that all possible latitude has been afforded by the HD Committee in considering the case put forward by veterans…This argument remains unsupported by the facts.

By virtue of the strenuous campaign mounted by veterans several EDM’s have been raised in Parliament to which a majority of MP’s have added their signature.

The treatment meted out to veterans and widows (all senior citizens, incidentally) by Civil Servants at many levels has been nothing short of shocking…the most civil of questions have been stonewalled with misinformation, responded to with formulaic answers, or, in many cases, studiously ignored. I believe that we were treated thusly in the erroneous belief that we ‘old soldiers’ would quietly subside into sullen, resigned silence.

So what happened in the case of the PJM? They took a year to revamp the rules. Then they included new provisions. Then they applied the new rules retrospectively to the PJM - two rules in particular, one of which was not in the 1969 Regulations that were in the Commons Library when the PJM was offered. The new, bolstered rules were then waived so that the medal could be received, and then immediately re-invoked so that the medal could not be worn. Those two rules ... the 5-year rule, which the HD Committee themselves have described, in writing, as being 'arbitrary' (i.e. waived or invoked to suit their needs) and the double medal rule that was primarily used in connection with British Campaign Medals and was brought into Foreign Decoration Rules a year after the PJM was offered. The emerging recommendation was confused, contradictory, retrospective and mean-spirited.

Then they said "wear it if you like”, and ‘it will not be policed’, actually encouraging us to wear the PJM. But the MoD states in the Jan 2006 DIN (the same month the PJM Statement was released) that any such wear ‘would be a grave discourtesy to HM’ ... and this admonition was subsequently repeated in emails. As loyal veterans we have severe reservations about potentially offending our Queen.

The overall impression gained is that the most important thing in the world to the Civil Servants involved is their vested interest in the dogma of the status quo and to that end they have contrived to rewrite the Foreign Decorations Rules after the event and included new provisions, applied retrospectively, specifically crafted to make the PJM unwearable - but only by British citizens. That certainly did not demonstrate any manifestation of flexibility – indeed, it represents a vicious demonstration of contempt for British ex-servicemen and women, for the people of Britain, and for the Parliament that the civil servants have misled and continue to mislead.

In December 2005 you, most veraciously, said… 'People make better policy advisers if they have been on the front line'...these words were uttered a scant two weeks after the civil servants issued their infamous and anomalous ‘can be received, but not worn’ edict.

On behalf of veterans who served on their own, most difficult and dangerous, ‘front line’ in a particularly inhospitable jungle environment, I respectfully and most fervently urge you not to unquestioningly accept the opinions of those privileged intransigents with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, but to instruct them that a flexible approach to the PJM question is by far, the more intelligent course to steer. The application of a modicum of common sense would go a very long way towards providing resolution of this controversy.

I remain Sir,
Yours respectfully,

John Gordon Fenton
Chairman: Fight4thePJM Association
328 Hillcroft Street,
Oshawa, Ontario
L1G 2L9
CANADA


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...................'Jock'
Paroi...Rasah...Batu Signals Troop.

I have just sent my letter off....with a post script....If you care to look out of your window this Thursday Afternoon, the 3rd of April, you will see many Ex Service Personnel Marching down Whitehall, with their P.J.M.s glistening in the April Sunshine" (I have requested the Sunshine, from the other "God") We are marching for Equal Pension Rights for All, If I see Sir Gus Peering out of his window, I will offer up a wave from all of us PJM'ers....This issue is not going to go away.....
Regards
Terry...

revellt wrote:

I have just sent my letter off....with a post script....If you care to look out of your window this Thursday Afternoon, the 3rd of April, you will see many Ex Service Personnel Marching down Whitehall, with their P.J.M.s glistening in the April Sunshine" (I have requested the Sunshine, from the other "God") We are marching for Equal Pension Rights for All, If I see Sir Gus Peering out of his window, I will offer up a wave from all of us PJM'ers....This issue is not going to go away.....
Regards
Terry...

One too many rrrr's in peering, Terry?

Sorry, I digress.

Thank you and everyone who has taken the time and trouble to write to G.O.D.

Barry


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

Letter on its way,and I hope that Sir Gus (God) will listernto what the PJM Veterans are saying and not blindly go along with what Brennan and his lot will be putting forward.
Sandy
Ex R.A.F. Regiment.
P.S Recevied my PJM Friday 28 March at Leeds Royal Armouries see attachment along with some 300 other Veterans lots of Fight4 badges on display.

Here is my letter

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Excellent letter John....tells it like it is!!


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...................'Jock'
Paroi...Rasah...Batu Signals Troop.