The Coalition addressed its promise in its Manifesto to organise a Medal Review to include a look at the PJM. However, the Review was established under the auspices of the MoD and therefore could not cover FCO matters (the FCO being responsible for the admin of the PJM). That Review reported to the Prime Minister and DPM in January (or was it February?). The DPM was not entirely satisfied that the Review had met the intended scope and so returned the report saying that the Review should be reconstituted under an independent Chairperson and that this time the Review should consult with veteran campaign groups.

In the Review Report the MoD said it saw no grounds for referring the PJM Recommendation back to the HD Committee.

Thanks to the action taken by the DPM, we have the opportunity to add to the knowledge of the Review! We are preparing a Rebuttal of the MoD Review conclusion by way of a Submission as to why the MoD should amend their Review findings in this respect.

This is not the end of the campaign. Only the FCO can seriously influence a change in the Ministerial Statement that they issued in January 2006. But we are closing in on closure.

Please write to your MP and anyone else who can help us. We are entering the final straight and we need to find that extra lobbying stamina at this critical time.

We'll post here some of our communications and also, of course the Submission. So please check in often and tell us how you are campaigning.

Thank you for your ongoing and unstinting support.

Barry

PS If you haven't read the Topic "DRAFT MEDAL REVIEW", I suggest you start there - it contains the Draft Report.



Last edited by BarryF on Wed Jun 29, 2011 1:43 pm; edited 1 time in total
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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia

Here is an example of a letter that I have sent requesting that the F4 presents its case 'in person' to the reconstituted MoD Medals Review.

There may be something in it that you can use in your own correspondence with MPs etc.

Barry

http://www.fight4thepjm.org/documents/MoD_Medal_Review_Meeting_Request_170611.pdf


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

Watcha M8s,

My pennyworth

Regards.

David

E. David Dilley. BA
Northampton
Northamptonshire
NN3

Phone:

Email:

Friday 17 June 2011

Dear Michael Ellis,

MOD Medals Review; specifically the PJM
Pingat Jasa Malaysia

Briefly, during the recent medals review carried out by the MOD, which
incidentally, I thought was meant to be an Independent Review with an
independent Chairmen, it was carried out, I believe, by the MOD and
members of other departments who firstly, consider which recommendations
of awards, medals and decorations be passed to the HDC for approval
which are then passed to Her Majesty for final approval.

The HDC comprises the Cabinet Secretary , Chairman, Her Majesty's
Private Secretary who conveys the Committees' final recommendation, The
Cabinet's Ceremonial Officer who is also the Secretary of the HD
Committee and, inter alios, three representatives from MOD.

The personnel who initiate the process are also members of the HDC, who
make their submission to HM. Misuse of the Royal Prerogative for which there is some likely evidence which a refusal under the FoI prevents us from seeing. Indeed, MoD were represented by 3 Treasury Lawyers and a QC at the review, whilst we were not

Would you please, kindly, ask a question in the House of Commons; "Is
the House aware that some members of the MOD and other departments who
forward their recommendations also constitute the membership of the HD
Committee who make the final submission to HM".

Yours sincerely,

David Dilley

7cec653060d600c49578/79171f2ed279bab62f3b
(Signed with an electronic signature in accordance with subsection 7(3)
of the Electronic Communications Act 2000.)




My letter has been acknowledged by email on 22 June 2011



Last edited by GLOman on Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:02 pm; edited 1 time in total

Great stuff, David.

Thanks for your ongoing and unstinting support at this, the most critical, of times.

Barry


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

Barry,

I received a reply email from Michael Ellis today. I'm not sure what he means, but it looks as if he regards the HDC as an external source!? I suppose to the extent that they claim not to be responsible to the Government or any body else except to HM for their acts/decisions he could be right; HDC are an external source.

Anyway, he received my letter!

Regards

David


Dear Mr Dilley,

Thank you very much for your email.

As you point out the awarding of military medals is really a matter of prerogative from the Crown and it is arguable that government should not transfer its responsibilities in this matter to external sources.

However, I will certainly be happy to make informal enquiries into the matter you have raised with me.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to me. If I can be of assistance in any further matter please do not hesitate to contact me again.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Ellis

--

Michael Ellis MP
Member of Parliament for Northampton North
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

0207 219 7220
michael.ellis.mp@parliament.uk


-----Original Message-----
From: E. David Dilley . BA [

We have sent our Submission to the Medals Review Board and you can read it here:

http://www.fight4thepjm.org/documents/MoD_Medal_Review_Submission.pdf

http://www.fight4thepjm.org/documents/Double_Medal_Myth_Updated.pdf

http://www.fight4thepjm.org/documents/Five_Year_Myth_Updated.pdf

Please contact your MP and any other party who can help us. When you open these documents you can then save them to your PC and then attach them to emails or print them to send snail-mail.

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Andy, Gerry, Hamish, JohnC, JohnF, JohnI, Paul, errrr ... and Barry
on behalf of the F4 and all PJMers


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

Barry,

Email whizzing to my MP as we speak ! With much use of the submission.

Impressive and succinct submission if I may be so bold.

Thanks for all you and the committee do on our behalf.

Regards,

John


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

I have just placed a link to the F4 page on my RAF Forum [this section the general public can read this] http://rafforum.activeboard.com/t5678105/the-pingat-jasa-medal/?page=102&sort=oldestFirst

This topic has had over 13000 hits but interesting too, the month of June 2011 for the whole site, has had over 149000 page hits so let us hope that maybe 10% of readers might just take up the cudgels in earnest and give us some extra support too


_________________
--------------------------------------------------------------
HD Committee: Amateurs in a Professional World
---------------------------------------------------------------

Great stuff, John. I always insisted on wearing pink jungle boots with 4 inch diamante heels...and my jungle carbine always had a fresh flower poking out of the barrel. Gawd knows what I'd have looked like if I'd had endless pots of Brylcream to play with??!! Ah, well, we can none of us be perfect, so let's just get on with this seemingly final BIG PUSH.


_________________
Mike Barton

Nice but firm letter to my MP, outlining civil serpents duplicity.

Forgive my muddled state of mind at the moment, but, what exactly happened to warrant HMGs coolness towards Malaya?

Arthur R-S

Arthur R-S wrote:

...Forgive my muddled state of mind at the moment, but, what exactly happened to warrant HMGs coolness towards Malaya?...

Well, to end Confrontation the wily Malays negotiated a peace without so much as a by-your-leave towards HMG. But surely that was the only way to defuse any lingering vestiges of Sukarno's trumpeting about "neo colonialism"?

Then they picked up the surly Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad as their P.M., a man who had already made an academic career out of anti-colonialism and (my uninformed conjecture only) perhaps found the diversion of continuing this theme in public life a convenient way to distract attention from any lack of success with the domestic matters he was actually paid to address. His well-documented diatribes actually show a profound racism (but that's okay because he's not a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant so it doesn't count). Anyway, I should imagine the Commonwealth & Foreign Office had a less than pleasurable time dealing with the "Good Doctor".

But that was all in the past by the time the Federation instituted the PJM and offered it to the veterans of the forces of Commonwealth countries who had served there. Once Mahathir retired to get his progressive urethral constriction attended to, or whatever it is that grumpy old men do, one would expect the courses of the nations to resume their stately progress, smoothed by the customary hypocrisy and the service of mutual interests.

One can only imagine this failing due to HMG and/or the professional civil service having long memories, a shortness in the area of forgiveness and a total lack of soul. And probably very little in the way of personal experience with military or protective services.


_________________
Former 'nasho', RAE Borneo (Confrontation)

Had a letter from my 'new' MP at long last!!





_________________
--------------------------------------------------------------
HD Committee: Amateurs in a Professional World
---------------------------------------------------------------

John Cooper wrote:

Had a letter from my 'new' MP at long last!!

Great lobbying, John!

The letter seems to underline what people are saying about our 'Veterans' Minister. He has made up his mind before being confused by the facts.

Another point - support for the status quo is support for an injustice levied on ex-servicemen and women and, by definition, is support for the trashing of the Military Covenant.

I hope he will prove me wrong and eventually agree to giving us a fair hearing.

Barry


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

I had an interesting email from "write to them" this evening. I believe that this is not so much a case of "improving times" between sending letters and receiving replies or no reply or just acknowledgements(s) (for which they require a separate link to be used), but rather a matter of whether the letters actually arrive at all. Any takers? I had a reply; see above. Even if this comment is "letting the cat out of the bag", it may convince those involved in hi-jacking
correspondence of any type to cease at once. Anyway, it can only be to our advantage!

Regards

David

email from writetothemteam:

Two weeks ago we sent your letter to Michael Ellis MP, your MP. (For
reference, there's a copy of your letter at the bottom of this email)

- If you HAVE had a reply (not just an acknowledgement), please click
on the link below:

http://www.writetothem.com/Y/734bprkal2/hsony5tetao7smughnw

- If you HAVE NOT had any reply at all, OR you have only had an
acknowledgement, please click on the link below:

http://www.writetothem.com/N/734bprkal2/hsony5tetao7smughnw

If you feel that neither link is suitable, then please do not answer
the questionnaire.

Your feedback will allow us to publish performance tables of the
responsiveness of all the politicians in the UK. The majority of MPs
deserve credit and respect for their conscientiousness as they respond
promptly and diligently to the needs and views of their constituents.
Likewise, we're keen to expose the minority of MPs who don't.

The letter you sent to your MP will be deleted from our database within
the next two weeks. Our full privacy policy can be read here:
http://www.writetothem.com/about-qa#personal

Please do not reply to this mail. If you have a question or comment
about the site, please send an email to team@writetothem.com

-- the WriteToThem.com team



E. David Dilley . BA

Northampton
Northamptonshire
NN
Phone:

Email: Friday 17 June 2011

Dear Michael Ellis,

MOD Medals Review; specifically the PJM
Pingat Jasa Malaysia

Briefly, during the recent medals review carried out by the MOD, which
incidentally, I thought was meant to be an Independent Reveiw with an
independent Chairmen, it was carried out, I believe, by the MOD and
members of other departments who firstly,consider which recommendations
of awards, medals and decorations be passed to the HDC for approval
which are then passed to Her Majesty for final approval.

The HDC comprises the Cabinet Secretary , Chairman, Her Majesty's
Private Secretary who conveys the Committees' final recommendation, The
Cabinet's Ceremonial Officer who is also the Secretary of the HD
Committee,and,inter alios,three representatives from MOD.

The personnel who initiate the process are also members of the HDC,who
make their submission to HM. Misuse of the of the Royal Prerogative for
which there is some likely evidence which a refusal under the FoI
prevents us from seeing. Indeed, MoD were represented by 3 Treasury
Lawyers and a QC at the review, whilst we were not

Would you please,kindly, ask a question in the House of Commons; "Is
the House aware that some members of the MOD and other departments who
forward their recommendations also constitute the membership of the HD
Committee who make the final submission to HM".

Yours sincerely,

David Dilley

7cec653060d600c49578/79171f2ed279bab62f3b
(Signed with an electronic signature in accordance with subsection 7(3)
of the Electronic Communications Act 2000.)

David
I have had the same problem in recent months, thankfully that has now been resolved through some perseverence and thank you and others for your continued support


_________________
--------------------------------------------------------------
HD Committee: Amateurs in a Professional World
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