Discounts from the PM?

[Boatman]

Not my work but just received this email as many of you probably will, obviously not high on the agenda but would be nice if the Minister for Scotland Ok'd this one for us? It appeals to my pikey sensibilities.

"We are calling on the Prime Minister to establish a nationally recognised symbol for businesses that offer a special welcome and discount for members of the armed forces
Many people are concerned that our country does not adequately recognise the courage and sacrifice of members of the armed services, except on special occasions such as Remembrance Day. We should be proud of the members of the armed services for their role in protecting us and their courage should be recognised on a daily basis. Business can help here. At our Shropshire pub we offer a 10% discount on food and accommodation for all serving members of HM Forces and we wish to encourage other businesses to do the same. But it is nigh impossible for military personnel to identify which outlets give discounts. We urgently need a nationally recognised symbol for businesses that offer a discount to the armed forces. We are currently petitioning the Prime Minister to establish such a symbol. We want everyone concerned at the way we are treating our troops to sign the petition at "

[Boatman]

URL is : Petition to: establish a nationally recognised symbol for businesses that offer a special welcome and discount for serving members of the armed forces. (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/forcesdiscount)

[Pure Pursuit]

Military Aircrew A forum for the professionals who fly the non-civilian hardware, and the backroom boys and girls without whom nothing would leave the ground. Army, Navy and Airforces of the World, all equally welcome here.

There are many, many threads on here that have 'naff all to do with aviation'.

Gutsy Granny or what...Help for Heroes...My Beautiful Webber (a HUGE thread).

If you want a 'pilots only forum', ask for one.:ugh:

[Gainesy]

Here's an idea, why not just put a notice up saying:
"HM Forces Discount".:confused:

[VARIABLE_KNIFE]

What happened to the old adage, "if you do not ask, you do not get!" People really are losing the ability to open their mouths these days and merely ask.....then again most people do not even say good morning! :ugh:

[MrBernoulli]

It was (is still?) relatively easy to get a mil discount on all sorts of stuff in the States - they appreciate their military to quite a degree. Here In the UK you have to put up with abuse from 'foreigners' when you're in hospital, having suffered injuries in a combat zone. Sucks!

[KeepItTidy]

1.4G

If people dont advertise the fact on here then nothing well get done , you surely speak for the rest of the people.
You are one to always criticise people , I just think you should look at yourself for once and stop trying to be a presumptious ****.

This forum board is not for you only , its for thousands of other people too to express there views :mad:

[Flight Detent]

Only SERVING members...how about the retired ones.

And those discharged medically, possibly as the result of operations in a war zone???

How about these guys/gals?

[A and C]

Rather than pushing for discounts I would rather be putting time and effort into getting a 10% pay increse for the forces.

Life is hard when one family member is away in the sandpit so I think that having to search around at home for he best deal to try to make ends meet when looking after the kids single handed is another bit of pressure that should be removed.

This is not to say that I don't support any busness that will offer a discount, I just don't want the idea of "formal forces discount" to be used by this goverment as another way to short change the forces at the next pay review.

[BEagle]

A&C, a 10% pay rise for a Group Captain is significantly more than a 10% pay rise for an SAC....

Whereas 10% off - or, let's make it simpler, 17.5% off (i.e. VAT-free) prices to serving/reservist members of the Armed Forces on production of a current ID card would be a lot fairer.

Except that some git would no doubt buy lots of stuff to resell to his civvy mates - or on eBay.

The trouble with any discount scheme is that the unscrupulous will invariably ruin it for others. When the EU first happened, Customs and Excise said that they weren't interested in people coming back from Germany with a couple of bottles of NAAFI gin or whatever - they were far keener to use their resources catching drug peddlers and other serious criminals. So we used to give selected station pax who'd given us useful help a little reward now and then by taking them on our Bruggen 2 x IRT trips. This worked fine - until another squadron started abusing the system. We had been pretty fair - you buy it, you carry it, you help load and unload it. But when some lad announced that he'd been sent by his SNCO "To buy the booze for the section Christmas party", sadly things had to come to a halt. Some Movers were also caught trying to sell slabs of ex-RAFG beer to their friends as well, I gather...:hmm:

The Customs guys were very reasonable though with their 'guidelines' - and, until RAFG closed and the useless Kelvin Rucksack refused to let us us NATO aerodromes instead, 4 bottles of spirits, half a case of wine and a couple of slabs of Grolsch often came back with me from Bruggen/Laarbruch.

[goudie]

I have a friend who, being a Firefighter, asks for and gets, varying amounts of discount from his local shops.
Apparantly it applies to the Firefighting Service in general. I have heard it also applies to the Police in some areas.
Saab dealers also give a generous discount to Service and ex-Service personnel.

[MrBunker]

Local butchers near me offers discounts of, from memory, 15% for military personnel and 20% if in uniform.

It's a start.

[VinRouge]

One of the easiest ways I thought of was for mil pers travelling abroad on BA/Virgin to get a free upgrade if the seats are available; wouldnt cost BA/Virgin much...

Of course, if you are on official duty, you pay the full price!

[neilk]

Heroes welcome is a system operating in Scarborough offering substantial discounts for service folk, most of the town is signed up to it.

[Beatriz Fontana]

Good old Scarborough. It's surprising how far your ID goes :}

My dad wears his Vet's badge everywhere and he (not backward in coming forward any time) has a habit of walking away with some form of discount.