The Sandbag Times Issue No:18

“Some Westminster insiders want me to shut up
about veterans' care. Here's why I won't”
JOHNNY MERCER
On Thursday evening I walked into my home. The children had gone to bed;
my wife, exhausted, was sitting on the sofa. She usually comes to the door.
This time she remained sat on the sofa, transfixed at the television. The final
day of the Invictus Games was on BBC One. I had been watching it all week.
I didn’t want to comment on it too much. I am well aware that a Member of
Parliament whose defined mission is to get veterans' care right in the United
Kingdom can go on about it too much. I never hear but always expect a
collective groan as I rise to my feet in a packed Prime Minister’s Questions to
once again bring the issue of veterans' care. Last month a Government
minister told me to drop the issue; it was ‘unhelpful’. But watching the Invictus
Games reminded me how insignificant any ‘Westminster village’ criticism may
be. Watching the news either frustrates you (EU referendum) or worries you.
In a world where man’s inhumanity to man seems to know no bounds, here
was real humanity. Here was the best of us. And it was on prime time
television.
Take the wheelchair rugby. The American captain – US Marine Cpl
Anthony McDaniel – was through on goal. He lost two legs
and a hand in an IED explosion in Kajaki when I was
undertaking my last combat tour there in 2010. Mark
Peters – the Danish Captain – cut him down, viciously,
legally, when he was about to score. McDaniel rolled three
times in his chair. He pushed himself up, laughed, pointed with respect at
Peters, and high-fived him for a good tackle, with a grin as wide as his
face. The swimming comes on. David Wiseman is celebrating again.
He’s won three gold medals and two silver. This huge, gregarious,
embracing bear of a man still has a Taliban bullet in his chest. When I
first met him it took me a while to work it out. Two more medal winners
sit on the sofa and talk to Gabby. Both are missing limbs; one has clearly
had a tracheotomy. I involuntarily visualise what he would have looked
like on that stretcher as they loaded him into the back of the Chinook,
with his mates calling for him to fight on. And he has, and now he is here.
These guys and girls are the best of us. We have a warrior generation in
this country now, and for every physically injured person you can see,
there will be three or four mentally scarred you can’t see. They will
not have been able to access the help; they would not have felt they
could speak out; they would not have the Nation’s pride enough to
come and get help. They struggle on daily, wrestling to hold down a
job and feed the family, exhausted through lack of peaceful rest.
And therein I hope lies the message from these Invictus Games.
Britain is proud of you. We know we owe you for the sacrifices
you made in defence of the freedoms that we enjoy. We
have a duty to you. Come forward; don’t suffer in silence.
You gave the best years of your life in Service to this great Nation, in the proud
traditions of your forebears. Vets' care is poor? No. Not if you can access it, sort the wheat from the chaff, and know where to
look. Some noble souls have dedicated their lives to it. Should we have done more as a Government in this sector to facilitate it
and ‘guarantee it’ over the years? Undoubtedly yes. Are we getting better? Is this PM committed to it? Yes. Has the stigma
gone? Absolutely not.
The road is long, and we are only part way along it. But with just a little of the humanity and courage on display in Orlando this
week, there will only be one outcome.