Baffman,
You are absolutely correct, thank you - I was in the final stages of a birthday weekend meltdown. I was referring, in my challenged emotional state, to the recent consultation to extend the existing legislation beyond those killed on ops, to anyone killed in the line of duty in the emergency services. As the availability of tax reliefs appears to be reducing by the day, this introduction would be extremely helpful to the limited number of families that would benefit; to my mind, a RNLI volunteer is just as worthy as a military serviceman or woman.
https://www.gov.uk/government/upload...doc_vFinal.pdf
As an aside, and looking at the editorial comment on your homepage, I hope you are going to continue to campaign to change the widows pension regulation. This is my thought on it, you'll notice that politicians have a fund (for all intents and purposes, a pension scheme) which offers regular and ongoing 'as right grants' to MPs and their widows and widowers who served before their pension scheme changed to allow a survivors annual pension.
I accept completely the generic argument about cost but it seems that MPs continue to apply one rule to themselves and another to the rest of us. Particularly galling is the fact MPs want to relieve themselves of the obligation to contribute £2 per month to it. This injustice will only be consigned to history when retrospective relief is applied. And if the case is ever going to get traction, now's the time for it to happen.
Al Rush | Open letter to Anna Soubry