Military compensation

In this country hurt feelings and soar thumbs are much worse than losing your legs or that’s how it would seem when the soldier who has his legs blown off receives less money than if he had his feeling hurt or a soar thumb.

Ben Parkinson volunteered to serve his country on the Afghan front line - and paid a terrible price.

The young paratrooper suffered a total of 37 terrible injuries when he was blown up by a landmine.

He lost both his legs and sustained grievous damage to his spine, skull, pelvis, hands, spleen and ribcage, leaving him in a coma for months.

For his troubles he received £152,150 in compensation while a ministry of defence typist received £484,000 for a soar thumb. A transsexual paratrooper received £250,000 after some soldiers hurt its feelings after calling it names…

By the time you reach secondary school you should be able handle being called names. It’s about time these people grow up.

Medic! We have a typing injury!

The Ministry of Defence came under attack after it was revealed a computer clerk with the RAF who suffered a hand injury while typing in numbers was paid almost THIRTY times what a soldier injured in combat might get for the same injury.

The mystery woman, who is in her 20s, cost the MoD £484,000 in damages and legal costs after she was diagnosed with the RSI-style condition de Quervain's tenosynovitis.

Yet a serving soldier who comes home from war suffering from "permanent severely impaired grip in both hands" will only get a one-off payment of £16,500.

Amazingly the official tariff of payments to our boys show they can expect just £28,750 for blindness in one eye, £57,500 for the loss of a leg and just £8,250 for injuries associated with surviving a gunshot wound to the torso.

The MoD calculates injury payments to soldiers on a 15-point sliding scale.

A level 1 injury which can be loss of both legs and arms qualifies for a £285,000 payment while a level 15 injury such as a hernia or a fractured kneecap would qualify for just £1,050.

Just a thought but why didn’t the MoD use the same 15 point scale for their other employees? Wouldn’t it be easier to give out about £1,000 instead of £484,000? I don’t believe she should have received anything. I think it’s a betrayal to the real injured soldiers but if she is going to receive something the scale should be the same for all MoD employees.

Midlothian Council was right?

Remember when I blogged about Midlothian Council leaving the lights on in an abandoned school in case an intruder hurt themselves?

As it turns out they were right to do that as this story shows. A pupil who injured himself after breaking into a school was paid £5,700 compensation. The secondary school pupil was swinging on a gate of a primary school when it collapsed. Despite the fact he was trespassing, Leicestershire County Council was forced to compensate him because it could not prove that the gate had been maintained.

Blair to be sued

Tony Blair the traitor is to be sued by the families of 17 of the soldiers who died in iraq. The families of the 17 are trying to launch a campaign to secure an independent into the legality of the iraq war.

Prime Minister Tony Blair , former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith are being "sued" and named as first, second and third defendants.

Mr Blair could be forced to give evidence on oath. Relatives accuse the three of lying about the justification for war. Reg Keys, whose military policeman son Ton, 20, was one of six Red Caps killed near Basra in June 2003, said: "Mr Blair misled Parliament and we want to make him accountable for his misdemeanours.

Personally I hope that the families get their inquiry and that blair himself has to pay compensation and then step down. The stepping down would be a small victory as he is going to step down in 2 or 3 years anyway.

I wonder if the families of the 17 have started an online petition which we can sign? I would gladly sign it and list it on this website if there was one as something has to be done with the traitors we have in government.