When we first reported the plight of former RAF service personnel known as squippers more than seven years ago, there were just a handful of cases.
Now, shockingly, the number of those who have fallen seriously ill has risen to more than 100. The alarm bells at the MoD should be going off right now and they should be doing everything they can to help with some urgency.
These veterans are people who went to their work every day in good faith, not knowing the lethal chemicals they handled could mean a death sentence. It is alarming that so many would go on to develop various cancers such non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, throat cancer and blood cancer by just doing their job.
There is clearly a link between the work that squippers carried out and potentially fatal diseases.
Some have launched successful claims and received payouts. But for too many, whose lives have been blighted by illness linked to their work, there has been no resolution.
Claims appear to be either dismissed too easily or kicked into the long grass. With some justification, campaigners believed the MoD is dragging its heels in dealing with claims from some whose time is running out.
Former Scots Guard Lee Mason has accused the authorities of carrying out a “money-saving exercise” as veteran after veteran tells a similar tale. He has called for a public inquiry into what caused so many veterans to fall seriously ill.
It is the very least these men and women who served their country deserve.
Braverman needs to look in mirror
Suella Braverman hasn’t broken the law by exploiting a loophole to pocket £25,000 of taxpayers’ money to help pay her utility bills. But the expenses system is designed to help MPs cover the costs of two homes and the Home Secretary only uses one, living with her parents when she’s in her constituency.
It is hardly appropriate then, during a cost-of-living crisis, to have a government minister cashing in when swathes of
the country can’t afford to put the gas on. Braverman has made a name for herself as a hardliner who talks tough on everyone from asylum seekers to people on benefits.
The next time she has a go at anyone making demands on the public purse, she should take a look in the mirror.
As ever with the Tories, it is one rule for them and another rule for the rest of us.
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