Duty Minister
Sycamore
I believe the politicians / Ministers / V Senior service officers are not invited to the repatriations (other than very large scale events such as the Nimrod repatriation, when 14 came home on one flight). This is intended to be a sad event for the Service and families to bring their comrades / relatives home.
Whatever we may think of this at least it stops the politicians hogging the media attention.
TT