Vets' appeal will be heard on November 14
It turns out that the Supreme Court has now set a date for its hearing.
The court has directed that the hearing of the veterans’ appeal will be on November 14 2011 which is a year earlier than would have been expected.
A vets’ spokesman told this site: “Too much time and money has already been wasted by the Ministry of Defence in pursuing technical arguments, while ignoring the real issues of concern, that of the welfare of the UK’s atomic veterans.”
The hearing relates to the nine test cases out of a total of 1,011 cases involved in the wider action. I’m told, the other 1002 claimants will proceed with their cases regardless of the Supreme Court’s eventual decision.
There is a simple way to settle this dispute once and for all: Give all Nuclear Veterans the M-FISH blood test, readily given to ‘CIVILIAN NUCLEAR WORKERS’ but denied to Service Nuclear veterans since 1984. If the Ministry of Defence had nothing to fear from the results, this test would have been carried out many years ago to prove their point.
The MOD know the results of such blood tests and the X-Ray Fluorescence if performed on Service Nuclear Veterans would show Servicemen were used as ‘Human Guinea Pigs’ in their macabre Medical Experiments to discover the extent of damage radiation has on the human body!
If there is anyone at the Ministry of Defence that is not totally devoid of intelligence, they must realise the game is up and should start to release the documents requested.
The Ministry of Defence obviously have so much money to waste they prefer to try and bluff their way out of their self inflicted mess by costly delaying tactics. The Public will discover the amount the MOD have wasted, and with the current state of the financial affairs in our Country they will be disgusted at the waste of scarce resources by the Ministers and ‘Faceless Wonders’ at the Ministry of Defence.
A lot has been said about the cancers and other risks associated with being present at the bomb test but little has been said about the physiological effects of over fifty years of waiting to see what might happen to you.
When ever the subject is raised it causes various levels of depression, the worst was years ago diagnosed as Clinical depression where I was unable to leave the house and could barely walk more than a few steps for several months, this has been repeated many times since but better controlled by medication, I can no longer go into crowded places even family get together’s can cause a panic attack I am convinced that all this is the results of the test, as it always occurs when the subject is again raised in the media, similar to the post traumatic stress now recognized in many of our servicemen
I am not one of the 1001 men mentioned in the claim but like many others who have not yet made any claim I was there for three of the test on HMS Messina.
I am convinced that when a few more of us have died off that the MOD will make a grand gesture but not retrospective.
under the freedom of information act I would love to know just how much THE MOD has spent on defending these claims including the studies that they have implemented.
Hello Ray,
You are right in everything you say. The Ministry of Defence have put up a ‘Smokescreen’ to give the impression that the only form of ailments are Cancer. Nothing could be further from the truth, I admit many of our colleagues have suffered from, or have died due to cancer. How many nuclear Veterans were rendered sterile? How many misscarriages and stillbirths have there been? how many people are suffering from stomach ailments due to ingesting nuclear particles? how many people are suffering from problems with their bones? etc etc. There are many ailments caused by nuclear radiation that are not a cancer but the Ministry of Defence are so Pig Headed they do not want to admit we were used as human guinea pigs to determine the effect radiation had on the human body during their lifetime.
You mention Freedom of Information questions: I would reccomend the web site http://www.whatdotheyknow.com Go onto the web site and click on Ministry of Defence and enter your freedom of information question. The benefit of this site is that everyone world wide can see the questions and answers if given. You will find I have asked numerous questions but received very few honest answers. It appears the Staff dealing with the questions would prefer to spend £1,000 by not answering or telling lies than spen £10 by giving truthful answers.
When deciding who should be made redundant in the Ministry of Defence I would suggest closing down Abbey Wood and make them all redundant for wasting so much Tax Payers hard earned cash whilst picking up large bonuses for their failures.
Well done Ray, I saw your FOI question on the web site I mentioned earlier. Now you have to wait to see if you get an answer. It is a great pity more people do not go on the web site and ask questions relating to their time at the nuclear tests.
The staff are starting to get rather ‘Ratty’ because they are having to work a bit harder: Let’s face it , it is harder to try and think up convincing lies that it is to tell the truth.
Come on chaps, I am sure there are questions you would like to ask about being used as ‘Human Guinea Pigs’ and the Staff are there just to oblige. The benefit is the ‘World’ gets to see how pleasant and helpful the Staff at the Ministry of Defence can be when under pressure.
Yes, The Ministry of Defence Staff read these comments as well!
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
DCDS PERS-SEC-FOI MAILBOX (MULTIUSER)
Ministry of Defence
2 September 2011
Mr R Bishop
Our Reference:
FOI/05-08-2011-155228-012
[[FOI #81976 email]]
Date: 2 September 2011
Dear Mr Bishop
Thank you for your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act.
You asked the following:
“Under the freedom of information act how much has been spent in legal
fees, advisory, bodies, Biological test, and other expenses used to deny
any responsibility of harm caused to service personnel used during the
Hydrogen bomb test at Christmas Island”
It is not possible to break down the costs related solely to the tests
carried out on Christmas Island during 1957-58, but the total costs
incurred by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in defending the Personal Injury
case heard at the High Court and the War Pensions Appeals Tribunals are
currently estimated at £4.9 million (as at 15 April 2011) and
£288,100 (as at 1 August 2011) respectively.
However, I would draw your attention to the fact that on 9 December 2010
the Court of Appeal ordered Rosenblatt Solicitors, the solicitors acting
on behalf of the Claimants, to pay MOD £2.25 million on account of the
MOD’s legal costs to date.
I should also explain that the MOD would not wish to set a precedent
through a practice of not defending itself in appeals that could have
significant, long term implications for Defence, and we are concerned
about the high costs relating to these cases. We will continue to work
with High Court and the Tribunal with a view to ensuring that costs
relating to all cases are proportionate and kept to a minimum.
If you are not satisfied with this response or you wish to complain about
any aspect of the handling of your request, then you should contact me in
the first instance. If informal resolution is not possible and you are
still dissatisfied then you may apply for an independent internal review
by contacting the Head of Corporate Information, 1st Floor, Zone N, MOD
Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail [1][email address]). Please
note that any request for an internal review must be made within 40
working days of the date on which the attempt to reach informal resolution
has come to an end.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may take your
complaint to the Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section
50 of the Freedom of Information Act. Please note that the Information
Commissioner will not investigate your case until the MOD internal review
process has been completed. Further details of the role and powers of the
Information Commissioner can be found on the Commissioner’s website,
[2]http://www.ico.gov.uk.
Yours sincerely
Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Personnel & Training) Secretariat
References
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2. http://www.ico.gov.uk/
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
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not only do we have the health or loss of life of veterans at the 90 bombs at the various locations but we have all the wifes who have had to watch their husbands die, all the children with birth defects and all the children who have watched their parents die. I am disgusted at some of the geese in the government.. As the veterans would know my dad was exposed to at least six bombs and I have spent a long time wondering why the British Government keep not wanting to tell me the truth about all my fathers missions during his service in the Royal Air Force. This generation of boffins and citizens elect have absolutely no clue about the pain I feel for watching my father turn into a skelton having a morphine drip to aplease his pain. I will keep persuing this and no matter how its done., I want justice for the 20000 men, all the wifes, all the children and anybody who is born of this mess in the next 21 generations…. MARTIN SHERGOLD
QUOTE From MOD’s reply to my Freedom of information query:-
However, I would draw your attention to the fact that on 9 December 2010
the Court of Appeal ordered Rosenblatt Solicitors, the solicitors acting
on behalf of the Claimants, to pay MOD £2.25 million on account of the
MOD’s legal costs to date.
Not only does the MOD fight our claims, but appear to have the cost involved in fighting these claims passed back to us?? TALK ABOUT JUSTICE its all a bit ONE SIDED.
hello all vets, on ancestry.com the genealogy site I wish to inform you all that Royal Air Force Travel documents are appearing about travel from Christmas Island to Hickam Air Force Base, Honolulu, Hawaii then onto San Fransisco…… what happened to the 100 year bound on documents for a start, but one the other hand folk who were there should check ancestry and download your images if they appear then forward to Rosenblatt as evidence.
The fight continues and at least one test case has made it through, but we are still loosing servicemen every month… when is the MOD going to cough up ? yours Martin Shergold