Military Hospitals
I don't normally ask my readers to take political actions for me, but this one I really do think is very important. I'm not going to start spouting my opinions about Iraq and Afghanistan, suffice to say that I did sign a lot of petitions etc to ask the govt not to take us into Iraq at that time, but my feelings on individual conflicts aside, I do believe that we ought to be taking better care of our armed forces when they do get injured or killed in the course of their work. So, when a friend forwarded me a link to this 10 Downing Street Petition regarding the creation of a dedicated Military & Veterans Hospital within the UK, I signed up, and would also like to encourage some of you to sign up as well.
I really don't think it is a good idea to put a wounded soldier, who is potentially suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, in the next bed to old Mr Miggins who broke his hip falling in the street. It's not fair on either of them - the soldier likely has injuries which are unusual in the general populace, and therefore needs specialist care, whilst Mr Miggins needs a decent night's sleep, not to be woken by the guy in the next bed screaming blue murder when he wakes up from a nightmare or whatever. Then there's the situation where the soldier is in the next bed to someone who doesn't think we should have gone to war, or to an ex-pat Iraqi or Afghan who has lost family and friends to the British Forces - if the government is going to involve our armed forces in unpopular conflicts, then it has to at least attempt to protect the wounded from harrassment by those who don't approve!
As I said, I don't normally get involved in debate about military stuff, not least because I live and work in an area where a large percentage of the population is employed on the two local RAF bases, but this issue is one that I think people on all sides of the debate with regard to the current conflicts can probably agree!
PS - If anyone has any ideas why the "Public" option is greyed out on my security drop-down list, please could they enlighten me, as I would like to make this entry public! Fank oo!
ETA - I've been able to go back into the edit and change it to be "Public", but it's still annoying that I can't select it from the start, so again, any help on this would be welcomed!
I really don't think it is a good idea to put a wounded soldier, who is potentially suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, in the next bed to old Mr Miggins who broke his hip falling in the street. It's not fair on either of them - the soldier likely has injuries which are unusual in the general populace, and therefore needs specialist care, whilst Mr Miggins needs a decent night's sleep, not to be woken by the guy in the next bed screaming blue murder when he wakes up from a nightmare or whatever. Then there's the situation where the soldier is in the next bed to someone who doesn't think we should have gone to war, or to an ex-pat Iraqi or Afghan who has lost family and friends to the British Forces - if the government is going to involve our armed forces in unpopular conflicts, then it has to at least attempt to protect the wounded from harrassment by those who don't approve!
As I said, I don't normally get involved in debate about military stuff, not least because I live and work in an area where a large percentage of the population is employed on the two local RAF bases, but this issue is one that I think people on all sides of the debate with regard to the current conflicts can probably agree!
PS - If anyone has any ideas why the "Public" option is greyed out on my security drop-down list, please could they enlighten me, as I would like to make this entry public! Fank oo!
ETA - I've been able to go back into the edit and change it to be "Public", but it's still annoying that I can't select it from the start, so again, any help on this would be welcomed!