I SHARE the anger which Second World War veteran Mr Roy Dykes of Whitchurch feels over the Government's refusal to grant a campaign medal for survivors of the Arctic convoys.
The argument that the convoys did not constitute a campaign and therefore do not justify a campaign medal is unconvincing. The offer of a compensatory "special emblem" is insulting.
I am glad that veterans of the Arctic convoys are not abandoning their struggle for due recognition. I shall continue to support them.
I SHARE the grave concern of Mrs Dinah Kennedy, chairman of the local branch of the Alzheimer's Society, about the initial guidelines of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) that certain new treatments should not be available on the NHS to sufferers of Alzheimer's (The Gazette, Friday, March 11).
With other MPs of all parties, I am lobbying the Government. We believe that NICE has miscalculated the costs of the new treatments.
Moreover, it is wrong that they should only be available to those who can afford to buy them privately.
LAST week's titanic confrontation over the Prevention of Terrorism Bill ended in a humiliating climb-down by the Prime Minister. He was eventually forced to include a "sunset clause" in all but name.
The three-day debate revealed a shaming litany of Government incompetence, outrageously bungled legislation and contemptuous disregard for legal safeguards, which have been part of our constitutional fabric for centuries.
The conclusion was a victory for Parliament - especially for a robust and courageous House of Lords which, although packed with the PM's nominees, refused to be bullied or browbeaten.
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