There has been a form of the British Forces Post Office since 1808.
Now the Westminster government intend to abolish facilities in mainland Europe from September 2010.
The use of the BFPO allows our Armed Forces, when serving outside the UK, to have a postal address connected to their own country - even when they are on operations.
Personnel and their families deployed in Europe currently enjoy the same postal rates as the UK. Withdrawal of this long established tradition will further erode personnel's ability to communicate with their families in the UK and safe receipt of parcels etc through a secure network.
It was bad enough when Tony Blair did away with the free small parcel BFPO service to those serving in Iraq when they were pleading with families at home to send suitable clothing, but to abolish this service after 200 years shows how out of touch the government is with the people.
Please sign the petition as our military are entitled to this service. They receive so little in the way of 'perks' compared with many other public servants and the importance of receiving a Birthday/Christmas/Missing You card can mean much more than a brief telephone call.
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This news about the BFPO is yet another blow to the morale of the armed forces. Last week, the Daily Telegraph published a letter from a man whose grandson is in the army in Afghanistan. The main complaint was that none of the many items of mail sent to the grandson had got through, but I found it even worse that the letter-writer said his grandson was existing on one meal a day. I have it on good authority that this paucity of food for fighting men and women is not an isolated case at the moment in Afghanistan. Under these circumstances parcels are not just little comforts (which the Government feels it can withhold to save money) - the sweets, biscuits etc sent by families are much-needed sustenance in more than one sense of the word.
Indeed Olga, the situation with food with our troops on operations is very poor. It's common knowledge that Britain usually has a poor quality of food for these situations. The Americans and other European countries have a far better standard but we just won't spend the extra money.
I agree parcels are a source of comfort and more, but it can be costly for families to send them although I've seldom heard any family complain.
Front line troops sometimes have to wait many weeks to receive mail but BFPO do a marvellous job trying to ensure mail does arrive. Shame the grandson's appears to be missing but it may turn up eventually.
As the late great Terry Thomas would have put it..."what an absolute shower"
You'll recall my old Burma fighting in law I spoke about in a previous post, well he recalls getting his letters and parcels from home, even when he was cut-off! Food was dire most fo the time (bully beef and biscuits with the odd hotsoup or pudding chucked in) and on the way out to India there was almost a mutiny on the ship due to the poor rations (for ranks, officers had their own cooks and a seperate supply). The ship put into Durban and it took six weeks to get the men back to strength
Good to see nothing changes down the years.
PS you are right about the Americans one thing they could always do was organise!
That's true Dram, many UK military make a beeline for the PX if they're anywhere near an American base.
Let's face it, if every meal you had was a reconstituted gunge in a tinfoil bag (instructions: just add hot water) a day would perhaps be too much. These men have 6 months or longer of that.
WTF. We send people out to fight in this stupid unwinnable war, and we feed them one meal a day...????
Serious?
The Queen is Commander in Chief. Why does she stand for this treatment of her soldiers? She should send for Brown and tell him he has one week to sort this travesty and start treating these men like human beings.
I can't believe that anyone could vote for scum like this government.... not that the Tories would be any better.
Yes tris, conditions in these war zones are hell at times. One meal a day can be normal. It's usually something dehydrated in a tinfoil bag too which turns to mush when water is added. Lighter to carry you see.
Fair enough Subrosa. You join up, you know you will have to do this sort of thing. No one in their right minds would expect them to send along Jamie Oliver and the kitchen of the Ritz, but... when you're working hard you need 3 meals a day. Not one.
If we can't afford to feed the lads then we shouldn't be able to do anything at all.
How dare politicians and royalty eat banquets and drink wine worth hundreds of pounds a bottle while these boys are hungry. And we pay for it.... GRRR
I'd better stop now. I'm getting angry.
Tris, even those who joined up 10 years ago would never have known that provisions would be so bad.
All catering used to be done by the Army Catering Corps but they were disbanded and catering services put out to private tender.
I must ask who makes the 'field food' but I do know in Iraq some of them had chefs who were just wonderful and made amazing meals in horrendous heat.
Afghanistan is another matter as our soldiers are in 'mobile' setups at times and have access to nothing. They have to carry their own provisions including water.
Have a look at some of the soldiers blogs. I'll find one for you if you're interested.
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