Veterans

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Defence – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 12 January 2009.

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Photo of Kevan Jones Kevan Jones Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Veterans) 2:30, 12 January 2009

I am shocked and surprised that someone who is a clinician does not understand what we have done. An excellent report recently produced by the King's Centre for Military Health Research outlines 10 years of research ranging from the issues associated with Gulf war syndrome to a very good study, which I suggest the hon. Gentleman should read, on Operation Telic, which looked at 7,000 people—3,000 who did not attend operations and 3,000 who did. It brings out some very good figures, and shows, for example, that some of the alarmist statements about post-traumatic stress disorder are not being found. That is not being complacent; it is making sure that we have the evidence in place to ensure that the services that those individuals deserve are available. I do not accept that the Government or the United Kingdom are doing any less than any other country. They are, perhaps, doing more.

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Garry Lelliott
Posted on 14 Jan 2009 5:16 pm (Report this annotation)

A greater example of parliamentary smoke and mirrors would be hard to find.
A little research into the King's Centre for Military Health Research reveals that the Centre is led by Professor Simon Wessely and Professor Christopher Dandeker is Co-Director. Prof. Dandeker appears to be well published, if uncontroversial.
Prof. Wessely on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish. Funded by the MoD, he claims that Gulf War syndrome is 'all in the head', a view shared by his paymasters. Hardly a champion for our veterans.
So here we have Kevan Jones referring to an 'excellent report' that the government paid for, whilst at the same time completely failing to answer what is being done for our veterans. End-of-the-pier hokus-pokus at it's best!