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Contact with MPs
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Post The Government Says 
I've just posted the following:
What we are seeing here is a diabolical mistake compounded by inert and patronising politicians and there out of touch not so civil servants. As mentioned before, a medal has a ribbon and pin with which to attach it the proud recipient's breast. Refuse to permit its wear and it becomes merely a badge like those once awarded to Boy Scouts for certain achievements - except that the Boy Scout is allowed to wear his badges. The PJM is a genuine service medal, instituted and awarded to recognise service in a warlike environment by an appreciative Government. It should be remembered that the Malaysian State is a member of the Commonwealth. It takes an honest and honourable man to admit to an error and to rectify the condition. I cannot speak of the honesty of our MP's or those who are supposed to be working ON OUR BEHALF. I can, however, venture the opinion that there seems to be little honour amongst the Honours Committee. When our services were required, we were not found wanting, and we performed our duties in the professional manner expected of the British serviceman/woman. All that we ask now, in our twilight years, is that we be allowed to wear the medal so generously bestowed upon us. Having given our support to the Nation's needs so many years ago, we only want your support now. Is that too much to ask?


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Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo Veteran)
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Post Lord Dennis Healey 
I have just had a reply from Dennis Healey. It's brief but a bit encouraging. He has written to Baroness Symons to ask her to reconsider the decision.
Gerry


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Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo Veteran)
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Post Re: Lord Dennis Healey 
GerryL wrote:
I have just had a reply from Dennis Healey. It's brief but a bit encouraging. He has written to Baroness Symons to ask her to reconsider the decision.
Gerry

Brilliant - he is on side.

Unhappily, what DH doesn't know is that Baroness Symons lost her Ministerial job soon after making that speech. We'll have to find him an alternative in the Lords.

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Post Re: Contact With MPs 
George F wrote:
Same letter I sent to the HD committee, I am also sending to MPs in groups of eight. (Using MPs e/mail; addresses on the Lobby section.

This lets the MPs Know you are lobbying all UK MPs and not just your own MP.


Great stuff, George. I'll be writing to all MPs today. It's amazing how little time it takes using The Lobby addresses.


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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Post Diane Abbott 
Following George's example last night, I have sent this email.
Dear Ms Abbott
I was interested to hear your interview on News24 yesterday in which you make the very valid comment that the Mayor of London has been given a 4week sentence by an unelected, unaccountable quango. The comment you make is very true. I'm sure that the decision is in contravention of the Civil Rights of all those who are represented by Mr Livingstone, who have been deprived of the services of a democratically elected officer. Are you also aware that another quango, the Honours and Decorations Committee, has arbitrarily imposed a life sentence on 35 000 loyal British veterans? I refer to those who served in the Malaya Emergency/Borneo Confrontation in the 50's and 60's. A grateful Malaysian nation wishes to award all Commonwealth veterans a newly struck medal, the Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM) in honour of the service performed in their nation's early days. The Australian and New Zealand Governments promptly recommended Her Majesty to accept the medal on their behalf and this was duly achieved. They have started to receive their medals. The quango responsible for such matters in UK has recommended the same Queen to allow British veterans permission to accept the medal but they are not to wear it. This is a preposterous way to treat the veterans, many of whom are now in their twilight years. It is, though, yet another example of faceless bureaucrats making decisions on matters without recourse to the democratic process. A web site has been set up to co-ordinate the campaign to put right this disgraceful state of affairs, and your support would be most welcome. It can be found at www.fight4thePJM.org.
Thank you
Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo veteran)


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Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo Veteran)
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Post Ken Livingstone 
I also thought it might be worth emailing the man himself.
Dear Mr Livingstone
Whilst not always agreeing with your point of view, I have nevertheless considered you to be a man of integrity. I was therefore appalled to discover yesterday that a quango of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats seemed to believe that they have the power and authority to suspend you from office. You were duly elected by the democratic process to your office by the people of London. I am not an expert in legal matters, but I'm sure that what they have done is a violation of the civil rights of the people that you serve in your capacity of Mayor of London.
Your sentence is 4 weeks. Are you aware that another quango, the HD Committee, has arbitrarily imposed a life sentence on 35 000 loyal veterans of the Crown? These veterans served in the Malaya Emergency/Borneo Confrontation of the 50's and 60's. Last year a grateful Malaysian Government announced that it wished to award a newly struck medal, the Pingat Jasa Malaysia (PJM) to all the Commonwealth personnel who served in those campaigns. The Australian and New Zealand Governments immediately recommended that Her Majesty approve unrestricted acceptance of the medal, and their veterans are now beginning to recieve the award.
The quango in UK, which advises Her Majesty on such matters, has recommended that the medal be accepted by the British veterans, but they are forbidden to wear it. What sort of nonsense is that? A web site has been set up to co-ordinate the campaign to get the absurd decision revoked, and can be found at www.fight4thePJM.org. Your support, should you wish to give it, will be most welcome.
Best Wishes
Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo veteran)


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Gerald Law (ex RAF Borneo Veteran)
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Post Support From Abbott Land 
I'm a mate of Barry's, ex-R Sigs and Int Corps. I think Diane Abbott is from these parts. I'll try and lobby her. I can't believe what they've done to our medal.

You are all doing a fantastic job on our behalf - keep it going. You have my support and I've a few other mates who are Malaya/Borneo vets so I'll get them to sign up and get stuck in.

Kev.

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Post Submissions to MP's 
Have submitted the following to my MP and will let you know the outcome. Are you able to keep a Master List on who supports or otherwise? If we get considerable numbers of MP's to support it would be another weapon in the armoury I think. Really appreciate the work being done on this site

John Ex R Sigs Borneo 64/65 Wink




Dear Mr Graham Stuart,

May I refer you to the Ministerial Statement made by Mr Ian Pearson on the 31st of January regarding the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal. This has kindly been awarded by the Agong and Government of Malaysia, to veterans of the Malaysia Emergency and Confrontation with Indonesia.

You may be aware that this honour has been accepted unconditionally by the Queen and the Governments of Australia and New Zealand. The Governement in this country however, via the Honours and Decorations Committee, initialy refused this award and only after lengthy protest by veterans and others, accepted the award but then refused veterans permission to wear it.

This decision relegates the award to a "commemorative trinket" in our view. How can other friendly Commonwealth counties who served alongside us, and have the same Monarch, be rightly allowed to wear this medal when we cannot?

An ongoing campaign is now under way to seek to change this appalling decision which is, I believe, both an insult to the Agong and Government of Malaysia and Veterans of those campaigns.

The campaign has a superb website at http://www.fight4thepjm.org/ which I really commend you to view if you can spare a few minutes of your time.

Veterans of the Malaysian campaigns (in which 519 of their colleagues paid the supreme price), wish to assertain which Members of Parliament would offer their support in righting this great injustice.

I would be most grateful if you could indicate your support or otherwise.



Yours sincerely,

John Rushton.



Last edited by Semengo13 on Sun Feb 26, 2006 6:15 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Post Re: Submissions to MP's 
Quote:


I would be most grateful if you could indicate your support or otherwise.



I would suggest a better 'finish' as being something along these lines.


"I would be most grateful if I can count on your support.

I would assume that your support is not being given, if I do not receive an acknowlegement of this letter.

Please see the webpages at.......

www.fight4thepjm.org

where MPs who support us are clearly listed, and where MPs WHO DO NOT SUPPORT the 35, 000 Borneo Veterans receiving their PJM - unconditionally, are also listed."

=========================

Lets not pussyfoot around in this campaign. We should be going for the jugular. I'm sure that "they" wouldn't hesitate to kick us in the goolies if they could.


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Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka,
from the HD Committee and its decision.
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Post Re: Submissions to MP's 
[quote="Semengo13"]Have submitted the following to my MP and will let you know the outcome. Are you able to keep a Master List on who supports or otherwise? If we get considerable numbers of MP's to support it would be another weapon in the armoury I think. Really appreciate the work being done on this site

John Ex R Sigs Borneo 64/65:D

John....I concur....Barry set up a thread for just this purpose but it has degenerated into an interactive forum (thanks to me in part...mea culpa!)...Since I previously had the same thought as you, regarding the future potential of such data, I have been keeping a personal and purely unofficial list, of Pro & Con, extracted from my perusal of the various threads...I do not guarantee the completeness of it but, for what it is worth, herewith:

Pro:
Richard Benyon MP
Lord Chidgey of Hamble-Le-Rice
Sir Michael Lord MP (Deputy Speaker of the Commons)
Christine Graham MSP
Lord Dennis Healey
Henry Bellingham MP
David Mundell MP
Dr Liam Fox MP
Roger Berry MP
Adrian Bailey MP (maybe???)
Gary Streeter MP

Con:
Lord Tim Garden KCB

'Jock'

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Post Re: Submissions to MP's 
Semengo13 wrote:
Are you able to keep a Master List on who supports or otherwise? If we get considerable numbers of MP's to support it would be another weapon in the armoury I think.

Great message to your MP, John. Let's hope it gets results. It deserves a positive respone - and soon.

Iceni wrote:
Lets not pussyfoot around in this campaign

I take Iceni's point. One way to do that is we give it a week and then post the MP as a Don't Know - they hate that!

.Jock Fenton wrote:
John....I concur....Barry set up a thread for just this purpose but it has degenerated into an interactive forum (thanks to me in part...mea culpa!)...

Jock - you originally set up the 'spreadsheet' idea. It's a great idea and I hope to have that on the main web site today. Your summary will help me do that all the more quickly. The fact that my original Forum posting has degenerated is a brilliant reflection upon the correspondents to the PJM Forum. Everyone has a say and it's very active bearing in mind we haven't publicised it. Anyway, I'll put our static stuff, like a list of MPs and their support position, on the main web and point to it from here.


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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Post  
George F wrote:
Thanks Jock for this list,

Maybe Barry will begin a Positive MP list on the lobby thread.


I second that, George. And I'm working on it right now.


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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Post Check out your MP 
I have now added the new page. It needs work on layout on content, but I wanted to get something out into the public domain asap.

It's on The Lobby page, Check out your MP at http://www.fight4thepjm.org/lobby_mp_support.htm

All comments, suggestion, etc welcome.


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BarryF, who fought for the Right to Wear the Pingat Jasa Malaysia
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Post Contact with MP's 
Thanks for your suggestions / comments.

Take your point Iceni but my MP is an unknown quantity at present so I elected the ultra polite approach first. He may well be a potential supporter. I will however be expecting a reply within a week. Hopefully a positivee one for us.

Good work on the list Jock, Barry and George.

Is it 646 MP's we have........ or is that just at election time? Wink

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Post Re: Check out your MP 
BarryF wrote:
I have now added the new page. It needs work on layout on content, but I wanted to get something out into the public domain asap.

It's on The Lobby page, Check out your MP at http://www.fight4thepjm.org/lobby_mp_support.htm

All comments, suggestion, etc welcome.


This format looks pretty good to me already Barry...and I'm pleasantly surprised at the number of 'YES!' comments already on!.....Particularly since so many of them appear to be Labour MP's...all we need to do now is prod a few more of them for their responses.

'Jock'

[/quote]

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