These shameful stories have been appearing in the UK press over the last six months concerning disabled veterans from the British Second World war and the complete disregard for the part the Arctic Convoy veterans played.

Not only that the Foreign and Commonwealth office (FCO), yes OUR FCO tried to block and did stop an Arctic Convoy veteran obtaining a medal for his gallantry by Russia. After a heap load of criticism by the press and then the public it seems that the FCO have done an about face.

However, is this what the people in the UK governments and its judiciary really  think about their countrymen who should be recognised as heroes? Zero?It appears to be rigid rules above commonsense.

If the FCO can make these decisions against their subjects actually living in the UK what scant hope have we living here, one might ask?

And here we don’t have the might of the British press and the public there. We are just a tiny spot on the map living in Paradise under the sun and rolling in money……

And not only the FCO. The first story is almost unbelievable. Pray to God that Justice Jonathan Rose doesn’t come out here to preside. The story even gets worse. The hero of the story is still incarcerated and the Attorney-General Dominic Grieve is involved.

I have been proud of my country roots, its justice system, how it proudly honours with medals, titles etc. its persons of distinction, ones who have contributed much in all fields of sports, arts, and the like, and especially the ones who fought with their lives and didn’t count the costs. I naively thought we had a great record of being aware and showing our gratitude.

How naive and wrong. Where and how do people who are so out of touch with the real world, who sit behind a desk all day and make judgment calls so distasteful that my stomach turns over with shame get into these position? They make them with no conscience and worse, no sense of justice or fairness.They look forward to their game of golf, their drink at the club and back home to their wives and/or girlfriends without a thought or care to the misery they have caused.

You will have a problem believing this is Britain and its subjects when you read these stories of SHAME!

Act of judicial madness sees Arctic Convoy veteran jailed for being deaf

Posted on August 17, 2011 by newsroom from FOR ARGYLL

On the eve of a 70th Anniversary service on 20th August 2011 at Loch Ewe in Wester Ross, paying tribute to the World War II Arctic Convoys  and the now veteran heroic crews who sailed on them, an English Judge has performed an astonishing feat of crass loss of judgment.

These convoys were among the most dangerous wartime operations, with heavy loss of life among both the Merchant and Royal Navies. Their success at this heavy price, however, kept the Russian people able to survive, to defend themselves and to stay in the war – a serious contribution to the continuing freedom of the UK.

Judge Jonathan Rose of Bradford in Yorkshire has just jailed Arctic Convoy Veteran, 86 year-old Norman Scarth.

For what?

Mr Scarth has been imprisoned or attempting to record a court hearing on an audio device – because he is hard of hearing and hearing loops were not provided by the Court. Another judge had previously allowed him to do this.

It is hard to believe but Judge Rose had Mr Scarth immediately arrested by police, taken away in handcuffs and imprisoned in Leeds Prison for serious offenders – which has the highest suicide rate in the UK.

We understand that Mr Scarth is denied his prescription medication for serious muscle cramping; and is being kept in tortuous conditions in solitary confinement.

He has actually been sentenced to six months imprisonment  and denied court access for one year.

No-one in government is responding to his formal complaints.

The madness as well as the inhumanity of this action would touch anyone – but Argyll has a special interest in the Arctic Convoys. The naval escort ships and their crews were trained for this duty in Tobermory on Mull – by Vice Admiral Sir Gilbert Stephenson, known as The Terror of Tobermory, the title of Richard Baker’s book about him.

For more on this story go to:

http://forargyll.com/2011/08/act-of-judicial-madness-sees-arctic-convoy-veteran-jailed-for-being-deaf/

January 2013 – Norman needs you!

January 10, 2013

PLEASE, IF ANY OF YOU ARE ABLE TO ATTEND THE ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE ON THE MORNING OF 23rd JANUARY 2013, I URGE YOU TO DO SO.  I DO BELIEVE IT WARRANTS A LARGE ATTENDENCE.
Though I am not important, I submit that which is below IS!
As some of you will know, Attorney-General Dominic Grieve & his gang of Quislings are determined that I, an 87 year old veteran of the Arctic Convoys of World War II, will be incarcerated in prison for what few years are left to me (though they REALLY want me in a Stalinist ‘Mental Hospital’!)    That those who claim to be human beings can be so sadistic is hard to comprehend.
SUPPOSEDLY for ‘Contempt of Court’, it is REALLY to stop me exposing corruption.
It is MOST surprising that the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, has decided that HE HIMSELF will hear the AG’s Application.
It may be a foolish hope, but I have an idea that Lord Judge (who has made comment on the subject in the last couple of years) is taking the case as an opportunity to make an important Ruling on the Recording/Broadcasting of court hearings.
Among the allegations against me is that I offered leaflets inviting Judge Jonathan Lee Rose to resign, which I DID do, but which is NOT a crime, & that I committed the ‘most wicked contempt’ of posting a video of a court hearing on Youtube (which I did NOT do.)
Many reasons for banning the recording of hearings are put forward, most of them specious.  The proponents of the ban claim, “No need for anyone to make a recording: The Official Transcript is available for anyone who wants it.”    That might be a valid reason, IF the Official Transcripts could be trusted.  Unfortunately they cannot!
As evidence, I will be offering to the Lord Chief Justice, one A4 page, containing just 86 words (sent it as an attachment now).  It is the front page of an important document, the Judgment of the Appeal Court after what was SUPPOSED to be my Appeal against Conviction & Sentence in Sheffield Crown Court in 2001 (which was itself a Kangaroo Court!)
That front page, ‘Neutral Citation Number [2002] EWCA Crim 2905’ ‘Approved by the Court, Crown copyright’ shows the bench as ‘LORD JUSTICE ROSE, MR BARLOW (Vice President of the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division), MR JUSTICE GIBBS, MR JUSTICE DAVIS’.

Lower down it says ‘MR M BARLOW appeared on behalf of the APPELLANT’.

How on earth could Mr Mark Barlow appear on behalf of me, when he was also sitting on the bench as Vice President of the Court of Appeal?

A silly mistake?  Of course it was, but should there BE ‘silly mistakes’ in a document, ‘Approved by the Court, Crown Copyright’, which will be in the Official Court Records for hundreds of years?

The Judgment itself was just as ridiculous, but nastier.  That is something for another day however.  For today’s purpose, the front page will suffice.

Any reasons for banning recording of court hearings are blown out of the water when official transcripts of official recordings can be so blatantly false! 

That which I offer now is only one example.

Norman Scarth.

Talking Sense: Deafblind war veterans

From sense.org.ky

Sadly, one of the lesser known causes of dual sensory impairment is injury in wartime. All the disabled veterans from the First World War have now died, but there are many people, both soldiers and civilians, who remain affected by the Second World War.

Young men and women are still being left with disabilities following action in Iraq or Afghanistan. The nature of warfare, and their injuries, may have changed to some extent, but living with deafblindness remains as challenging as ever.

The interviews which follow came about through Sense’s work with older deafblind people, providing support including practical advice, training for their carers, and forums where they can meet others with similar impairments.

Perhaps the most notable fact about Muriel, Bob, George, John and Ken is that once the war was over they rejoined civilian life and simply got on with it. Like millions of people across Europe, they were expected to knuckle down and rebuild the country they had fought for and there was little or no support for any impairment they had suffered.

Ken, for example, worked as an engineer in the Colonial Service in Africa and the Far East. George worked in the dairy industry until he retired. Bob worked as a motor distributor, working his way up to parts manager: ‘learning all those vehicle parts led to me having a job to go to when I was demobbed: being in the army changed my life.’

Muriel and George, and many other veterans like them, now also receive considerable support from St Dunstan’s, a charity for visually impaired ex-service men and women of all ages. At its main centre near Brighton, young men and women who have lost their sight in Iraq and Afghanistan pick up their lives in the company of older veterans who have been living with their impairment for decades.

Craig Lundberg is one of these young servicemen. He was hit in the chest by a grenade in Iraq and lost his sight. On being sent to St Dunstan’s he was alarmed at the thought of being surrounded by much older people, but soon realised that he had a lot in common with them and that they could be an inspiration. He remembers, ‘This guy came over with his wife and says “What do you want to do with your life?” I said “I don’t really know, I haven’t been blind for that long, I don’t really know what I can do,” and he goes, “Well, I set up my own physiotherapy clinic. I’ve had a great life: I’ve got a beautiful wife, we come here all the time, I’ve got kids and grandkids, so just keep your chin up and don’t worry about it, it’ll all come right in the end”. Craig took him at his word, and has set up his own business, as well as playing for the England blind football team.

Ray Hazan, services manager at St Dunstan’s, lost his sight, most of his hearing, and his right hand in 1973 when an IRA parcel bomb he was holding blew up. He was a young man, newly married and with his first child on the way. At first, he says, he missed his eyes most, followed by not being able to hear properly. Now though he’s not sure he wants to see again, but he’d love to have his hand back. ‘The only thing I feel bitter about is that the injury stopped me doing things with my children.’

Ray has noticed that older people who lose their sight gradually ‘can often be apprehensive and feel that they’re the only ones in their position, after a week’s rehabilitation, though, they’re changed, confident and realise that there is still potential in life.’ If you lose all your sight in one go, as Ray did, he says ‘you have to start again learning to read and write, walk, lay your clothes out. Once I accepted that I was back to being a child again in some ways, I treated it as a game.’

As the nature of conflicts change, and medicine advances so that more people survive serious injury, the impairments sustained by service personnel change, although combatants’ senses are always vulnerable (think Admiral Nelson). In the First and Second World Wars there were many amputations. In the Second World War spinal injuries were common. In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers’ protective armour usually keeps their body safe when improvised explosive devices (IEDs) go off nearby, but they often sustain severe injuries to their brain and exposed body parts. The blasts can create closed head injuries, whose effects may not show until many years later.

Recent research reported by Mark Townsend in The Observer revealed that ‘more than two-thirds of British troops returning from Afghanistan suffer from severe and permanent hearing damage,’ the problems being caused by ‘the intensity of the conflict in Helmand and its close-combat fighting, roadside devices and the noise of low-flying coalition aircraft.’ How many people noticed this shocking statistic, though?

Even less well-known is the development of so-called less lethal weapons: designed to temporarily incapacitate, some of these weapons intentionally target people’s sight and hearing. In the wrong, or inexperienced hands, there is great concern that less lethal weapons will cause lasting damage to people’s senses.

In one way, nothing has changed: even when personnel are issued with ear protection, they often choose not to use it, making the difficult but understandable decision that they prefer to be able to hear what’s going on around them, as it may be what keeps them alive. It seems as though there will be many more veterans with sensory impairments needing our support in the decades to come.

Countless civilians lose their sight and hearing in wars. They may be recorded as ‘collateral damage’ during the war, or more likely, years after a conflict has ended, they’ll step on a mine or undetonated cluster bomb which will blow their life apart.

This August the UN Convention on Cluster Munitions comes into force. The UK, which used to be a major producer, and which used these anti-personnel weapons in the Falklands, Kuwait, Iraq and former Yugoslavia, has signed and ratified the treaty. The US, Russia, China and India have not.

Hope of Arctic convoy war medal rethink

 

From York Press

A GOVERNMENT Minister has raised hopes that a York Arctic convoy veteran might receive a special medal after all.

York Central MP Hugh Bayley raised the case of Bill Sunderland in the Commons after The Press revealed on Saturday how the British Government was blocking Russian plans to present the 86-year-old with the Ushakov medal.

The Foreign Office told the newspaper that the rules on the acceptance of foreign awards clearly stated that in order for permission to be given, there had to have been specific service to the country concerned and service had to have taken place within the previous five years.

Mr Sunderland, of Foxwood Lane, who survived 40ft waves, torpedo attacks and savagely cold weather while serving on the convoys to Russia during the Second World War, said he found the British Government’s stance “disgusting and appalling”, and The Press then put Mr Bayley in touch with the veteran.

Defence Minister Dr Andrew Murrison told Mr Bayley that in a review published earlier this year former ambassador Sir John Holmes had accepted all the principal parts of the rules that went behind or underpinned medalling in this country.

But he went on to say: “Nevertheless, Sir John will report further towards the end of the year on the rules that apply to medalling and will deal specifically with the Arctic convoy and various other circumstances.”

Mr Bayley said this gave him hope that Mr Sunderland, of Foxwood Lane, and other Arctic veterans might yet be presented with the medal.

The MP said he had also written to Foreign Secretary William Hague to say he understood that the Russian Government wanted to make a special award to commemorate the service veterans gave to its country in extremely difficult circumstances, during which thousands of servicemen died.

“I urge the British Government to reconsider their decision on this and to grant permission for Mr Sunderland and other veterans like him to receive their award.”

For more on this story go to:

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/10003227.Hope_of_war_medal_rethink/

 

Arctic convoys: Ivor Beaven’s hope of Russian war medal

By Neil Prior BBC News

 

Prime Minister David Cameron has given fresh hope to a Cardiff World War II veteran that he may be allowed to accept a Russian medal.

Ivor Beaven, 89, served as a stoker with the Royal Navy, escorting cargo ships in the Arctic convoys to supply the USSR as part of Operation Dervish.

Russia wants to honour the sailors’ courage with the Ushakov Medal, but British rules are an obstacle.

But now Mr Cameron has told MPs he has “every sympathy” with their case.

Mr Cameron was asked at Prime Minister’s Questions about a similar case and said a review would look at the general issue of medals, with the Arctic convoys “probably the most pressing”.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) rules say British veterans may not accept a foreign medal if the act being recognised took place more than five years ago, and if the serviceman has received, or is expected to receive, a UK award for the same services.

Today, 67 years after the end of the convoys, the UK government has so far not recognised the survivors with a dedicated campaign medal of their own, although the FCO points out that they are eligible for the broader WWII Atlantic Star.

Mr Beaven’s case has been taken up by his Assembly Member Vaughan Gething, and on Wednesday the issue was raised in the Commons by MP Ian Swales, whose Redcar constituent John Ramsey is in the same position as Mr Beaven.

He told Mr Cameron: “The governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA have agreed. The UK government have refused.

“Will you get this decision reversed quickly so my constituent John Ramsey and the rest of this dwindling band of veterans get the recognition they so richly deserve?”

Mr Cameron replied: “I have every sympathy with you and your constituent and that is why we have asked Sir John Holmes to conduct this review, not just into medals in general but to look specifically at some of the most important cases – of which I think Arctic convoys is probably the most pressing.”

Speaking to Wales Online before Mr Cameron spoke, Mr Beaven, of Rumney, Cardiff, said: “I think it’s a load of rubbish myself. Canada, New Zealand, Australia, America – all accepting it. Not this lot.

“That [David] Cameron’s a young kid, he doesn’t know what went on. I haven’t got a clue why – I can only think they don’t like Russia.”

German U-boats

Mr Beaven was part of an operation to help keep Britain’s Soviet allies in the war by delivering badly-needed food and equipment.

At the time Russia was surrounded by the Germans to their west and Japanese forces to their south and east.

Consequently the only route available was through the Arctic Circle north of occupied Norway and along a narrow channel which was heavily mined and patrolled by German U-boats.

More than 3,000 seamen died in Operation Dervish which saw supplies delivered to the Soviet ports of Murmansk and Archangel, enabling the Red Army to stave off the German invasion and eventually push west into Germany during 1944-45.

The Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, wrote to Mr Beaven, saying: “I wish to express to you once more on behalf of the people of Russia and the Russian government our profound gratitude for your heroism and courage.”

He added: “Under the circumstances, the embassy only has to express its profound regret that while the authorities of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA have granted permission to the veterans of the Arctic convoys to be awarded the Ushakov Medal, we are not in a position to honour in the same way the courage and sacrifice of the British heroes of the Arctic convoys.”

Mr Gething, AM for Cardiff South and Penarth, said he had written to the FCO, and promised to keep up the pressure to have the decision reversed.

“It makes no sense that other countries across the world have granted permission for their veterans to receive the Ushakov Medal, and yet in Britain it is forbidden simply because of over-the-top bureaucratic procedure.”

For more on this story go to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-20158436