My family lost our brother in 1966, in Aden, we will be applying for the medal, to hand down to children, lest we forget. My sister, who has a serving son and a retired husband wrote:
" I think that Gordon Brown has woken up to the fact that if you are going to starve all three services of everything they need to be an effective fighting force, and yet still expect them to come up with the goods, you need to raise the profile of the services, so it looks as if you think they are important - so we get quite a number of parades these days - yesterday the Navy went from Yeovilton to 10, Downing street, and then on to Clarence House. The TV gives national coverage to Wooton Bassett, the village nearest to where the bodies are flown home, as they turn out in force to pay their respects to the soldiers as the coffin goes past, this is good. The government has announced that what used to be called veterans day is now to be a day when the whole nation gives thanks to the services for their courage and dedication. Thanks don't cost anything, of course. Meanwhile, every day (son/nephew) finds that the engineering projects which he is responsible for managing are being further cut back, or cancelled, so that there is no possibility of taking pride in a job well done. The Navy has almost ceased to exist and the RAF has been reduced to the role of troop carriers, so a few well publicised parades, and the hand out of some medals is a timely way of hiding the fact that the government's value for its forces is actually a much lower item in its priorities than the spending on social security, so that all 16 year old unmarried mothers can have nice flats to live in".
I concur.
(ppr00ne need not respond).