Wounded soldier rages at betrayal of heroes

When Tony Blair took his seat at the Chilcot inquiry insisting he had no regrets about taking Britain to war, Sergeant Gavin Harvey was having his downstairs loo refurbished.

He didn’t watch the former Prime Minister speak.

‘I don’t get involved in policy,’ he says. ‘If they’ve made wrong decisions, so be it. I’ve just done the job I’ve been told to do to the best of my ability.’

Gavin, who serves with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, survived a tour of duty in Iraq without injury. Not so in Afghanistan.

He was commanding a convoy in Helmand Province when his truck hit a roadside bomb, killing his driver, Craftsman Anthony Lombardi.

Gavin, 28, lost both legs, part of his pelvis and ruptured many of his internal organs.

He is the most severely wounded soldier to return from Afghanistan and survive. It’s a miracle he’s here talking to me at all.

He says he’s lucky, but it’s a rough sort of luck.

When we meet in the three-bedroom house Gavin shares with his wife Kerry, 25, and two young daughters, Ella, four, and one-year-old Millie, the workmen are here too, turning the downstairs bathroom into a disabled toilet.

Ella’s just celebrated her fourth birthday and it’s her party tomorrow, but there’s woefully little Gavin can do to help.

Needless to say, there won’t be any more children.

‘There are complications from my injuries that I don’t want to go into,’ he says. ‘But let’s say we’ve had two now and that’s it. I’m lucky. I’m a family man. I love my kids to bits. Even if I was a vegetable but could still see my children, I’d be happy.

‘People turn round and say “you’re a hero”, but the real heroes are the people who are not here today.

'These are the guys who have paid the ultimate price. It’s awful, just awful.’

Gavin is sobbing now. Before the explosion, he wasn’t just a hands-on father, but a keen sportsman, a footballer, a basketball coach and a cross-country runner.

Today, little Millie has to toddle to her father’s wheelchair and reach up towards him for a cuddle.

Gavin says he still hasn’t come to terms with his horrendous injuries and emotionally he’s a mess. There’s anger, frustration, tears and a darkness around his eyes that speaks volumes about the mental hell that is his.

‘I was so bad that I died I don’t know how many times,’ he says. ‘I’m a different man now. I’m absolutely not afraid to take anything on now. I’m not even afraid to die.

‘I was crying the other night because I said to Kerry: “I’m not afraid to die.” It’s the most awful feeling not to be afraid of death. It’s incomprehensible. I’m not completely right upstairs because of that. I’m still trying to put my head back together at the moment. I’ve got these things going my head that I can’t cope with - like hearing people laughing and the noise of these toys.’

Ella has turned on one of her brightly-coloured plastic toys which is burbling out kiddie music.

‘Stupid things,’ he snaps. ‘Why do people buy those toys?’

Gavin is, by nature, a hugely private man, but has agreed to this interview to raise awareness for the Army Benevolent Fund, which tomorrow rebrands itself as ABF, The Soldiers’ Charity.

To date, 179 British soldiers have died in Iraq and 251 in Afghanistan, but the numbers of those injured stands many times higher.

Indeed, as Gavin says, when he was receiving treatment at the Army’s rehabilitation centre, Headley Court, near Leatherhead in Surrey: ‘You couldn’t move in the dining room for all the wheelchairs.’

Sadly though, the support given to men like Gavin and their families is woefully lacking.

The ABF has received a 30 per cent increase in requests for assistance from soldiers in the past year and needs to double its income to £14million - but the care given to those injured fighting for their country remains appallingly unjoined up.

Although Gavin and his family have been supported by his Battalion and the ABF, Kerry was not approached until four-and-a-half months after her husband suffered his life-threatening injuries. Furthermore, the Government review for compensation offered to wounded soldiers remains ongoing.

Under the MoD’s existing scheme, lump sum payments for the most serious injuries are capped at £570,000. The scheme is being reviewed by Admiral Lord Boyce, a former Chief of the Defence Staff, following appeals from numerous servicemen and women.

‘It’s disgusting,’ says Gavin. ‘I’m not going to put in a claim while they’re still squabbling over it. If people want to fight over compensation for a soldier who’s been wounded for being courageous for his country, let them do it.

‘They’ll compensate some idiot who’s spilled coffee over themselves or has repetitive strain injury, but they can’t compensate a soldier who’s lost his legs in Afghanistan. What sort of place are we living in?

‘In the American system, a wounded soldier gets posted to a rehabilitation unit with his family and they don’t even touch you for a year. They just leave you with your family,’ says Gavin.

But here, Headley Court doesn’t provide a service for the family. Our support service - Relate - looks after families but the problem is these organisations need to knit together.

‘When you get injured, it’s like a ripple in a pond. It affects everyone around you - your friends, your family. There needs to be a system whereby the family receives support.’

Gavin has checked himself out of Headley Court. He couldn’t bear to be apart from Kerry and the children.

‘I’m only as strong as my family are. It’s the biggest thing that’s pulled me through. My family is my rock,’ he says.

‘If that’s taken away from me, there’s nothing worth living for. Without them, I’m just an average man.’

But Gavin is not an average man. An inspirational leader, according to his commanding officer, he is a man of huge courage and extraordinary grit.

He’d been serving with the British Army for 11 years when he took command of the convoy on August 4 in Helmand to re-supply the Mercian Regiment with water and ammunitions.

The convoy was taking part in Operation Panther’s Claw, the British-led military operation in southern Afghanistan to secure various canal and river crossings and establish a lasting International Security Assistance Force presence in one of the main Taliban strongholds, ahead of the 2009 Afghan presidential election.

‘Basically, I struck an IED (improvised explosive device) that killed Anthony and left me like this,’ he says, gesturing to the place where his legs used to be.

Craftsman Anthony Lombardi’s death still troubles him deeply. He was a friend and had a son, Harvey, who is not yet one year old. Gavin was the sergeant in command of the convoy.

Unlike the politicians who have sought to cover their backs at the Chilcot inquiry, he assumes full responsibility and, yes, has regrets over that day.

‘I was devastated when I was told he was dead,’ he says. ‘It’s awful when you get close to someone and hear about their families if they’ve got kids - then they’re just gone. I did this to me.’

He doesn’t have to voice the fact that he clearly blames himself for Anthony’s death, too.

‘The thing is IEDs are so frequent in Panther’s Claw. It’s like playing Minesweeper without the numbers.

You’ve got no idea where they are. The explosion must have been quick. The blast knocked me out. I remember waking up and I had three teeth missing. I had blood in my mouth and thought I had internal injuries. I spat it out and tried to breath again.

‘There was blood everywhere. I thought: “Oh s***, not me.” The blast had blown ammunition and food all over the place. I was lying on top of it in the dirt. I tried to get up and that’s when I realised my legs had been blown to bits. There were bones and tendons showing.

‘I couldn’t feel them. It was all numb. I couldn’t feel any pain. It felt tight. Everything felt really tight, really strange.

‘I remember looking at myself. My internal organs had come out. They were everywhere. I could see them. I had a ruptured bladder, a ruptured stomach. It was pretty much as bad as you can get — pretty much like, “I’m dead.”

‘I made peace with myself. I talked to myself in my head. The only thing I could think about was: “How’s Kerry going to cope without me being there?”

‘I’ve always been a central figure in the family, the person people draw strength from. I just thought: “How are the kids going to grow up without a dad?” My life didn’t flash before my eyes - nothing like the Hollywood stuff. All I could think about was the things that were most important to me at the time - Kerry and the kids.’

He’s in tears now. ‘I’ve only ever told you this. I haven’t even told the commanding officer because I don’t like talking about it,’ he says. ‘It’s an awful, awful sensation - an awful thing to feel. I knew I was going to die.

'Nobody will ever know how I feel,’ Gavin is raging.

‘They will never feel what I feel because they haven’t done it. I’m willing to give up this [he nods to his youngest daughter on the sofa] because I love my country, then I come back to my country and see f****** yobs in the street, I see things going wrong, I see people being awful to other people and I think: “Is that what I’ve been protecting?” Sometimes it’s disgusting.’

Kerry, a gentle, stoic woman with tired eyes, stands to comfort Gavin. He composes himself and continues: ‘I remember one of the blokes opening the door to the truck, saying: “Oh f***.” I knew then that I was in a world of hurt — a dark horrible place
where my life was in the balance. I didn’t even know my pelvis had been completely smashed up then.

‘I told them to go away - to go and save Anthony and my operator. I knew I was dead. It was horrible because I wanted to be saved, but I was convinced I wouldn’t make it.’

The man Gavin used to be didn’t survive that day. The tortured individual I see before me now did. A medic, who has since been applauded for his fast-thinking, stemmed the bleeding with blood-clotting powder and bandages.

‘He saved my life. I owe it to him,’ says Gavin.

But his life continued to hang in the balance for several weeks. Before flying him to Birmingham’s Selly Oak Hospital, medical staff at Camp Bastion put 50 units of blood in him to keep him alive and Gavin was put into an induced coma for three weeks.

Meanwhile, Kerry learned that her husband had been terribly injured.

‘There was the knock on the door and the immediate shock,’ she says. ‘I didn’t have a clue how serious it was. I knew he’d lost his legs but had no idea of the condition

he was in until I walked into critical care at Selly Oak. That not knowing was the hardest thing.’

Gavin remembers dreadful nightmares, ‘stuff going through your head, mumbo-jumbo stuff’, dreadful stuff he doesn’t want to share.

‘Flipping hell,’ he says. ‘Sometimes I didn’t know if I was dreaming or it was happening. My head was a mess.’

It wasn’t until three weeks after he regained consciousness that he began to understand it all.

‘I just laughed when they told me in detail what was wrong with me,’ he says. ‘I just switched off, saying: “Yeah, whatever.” Every day is a new day for me. It’s horrendous. It’ll take me the rest of my life to cope with this now.

‘My mobility’s been taken away. My life’s not over, but there’s hundreds of things I can’t do - I can’t run and I used to love running. Frustrated is probably the best word. It’s difficult to do things for the kids and that frustrates me - that I can’t even look after my own children.’

And Kerry? How does she cope?

‘You do because you love each other and you’ve got a family,’ she says quietly. ‘They say you don’t know how much you can cope with until you’re forced to cope.’

Gavin, who wants only to return to his Battalion, has told the unvarnished truth to help raise funds for a support system for soldiers like himself and their families. The Army, he says, has taught him ‘respect, selfless commitment and courage’.

‘Every day I’ve got is a day I shouldn’t have had,’ he says. ‘I’ve got to pay back all the people who have helped me.’

It’s a selfless commitment that should humble each and every one of us.

Article

To make a donation, visit www.soldierscharity.org

'Nobody will ever know how I feel,’ Gavin is raging.

‘They will never feel what I feel because they haven’t done it. I’m willing to give up this [he nods to his youngest daughter on the sofa] because I love my country, then I come back to my country and see f****** yobs in the street, I see things going wrong, I see people being awful to other people and I think: “Is that what I’ve been protecting?” Sometimes it’s disgusting.’

I would like anyone stumbling upon this blog to read this article, as you may just get a small glimpse of the price that our soldiers are paying, and the little thanks that they receive on their return.

Don't Do What I Do, Do What I Say

Ethnic minority staff paid 10% less than white workers at Trevor Phillips' equality watchdog.

The Government’s controversial equality watchdog was last night accused of ‘rank hypocrisy’ for flouting its own policies on fair pay.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has angered business leaders by ordering a crackdown on hard-pressed companies that fail to pay the same rates to employees doing similar work.

But official figures show that more than two years after it was set up to stamp out discrimination, the commission is paying its own ethnic minority workers almost ten per cent less than white staff – an embarrassment for its black chairman Trevor Phillips.

And disabled workers at the quango, which employs more than 500 staff, have slipped behind their able-bodied colleagues by nearly nine per cent.

Moreover, the figures show the pay gap for both minority groups has worsened over the past year, and female staff also face pay discrimination compared to male counterparts.

Tory MP Philip Davies, who elicited the pay-gap figures in questions to Women and Equalities Minister Angela Eagle, said: ‘This is rank hypocrisy. They should be ashamed of themselves.

‘We have the ludicrous situation where the taxpayer-funded body that goes around lecturing everyone else about fair pay is one of the worst offenders themselves.’

The details have emerged after a period of turbulence at the commission, which last summer saw the resignation of six commissioners, criticism of the management style of Mr Phillips and calls for his resignation.

In 2008, The Mail on Sunday revealed that the £112,000-a-year equality chief was paid by Channel 4 to give it advice on the fallout of the Big Brother racism row involving Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, provoking accusations of a conflict of interest.

The EHRC – which received more than £61million from the Government last year – encourages companies to carry out equal-pay audits to compare the earnings of staff doing the same job or similar work that requires equivalent skills, effort and decision-making.

Article

Who is watching the watchers?

Ernst von Wildenbruch Rebukes the Author of "The Rowers."

Foreign Correspondence NEW YORK TIMES.

January 18, 1903, Sunday

Man of Justice or Just of Histrionics?

Frank Kimbal Johnson

We are all supposed these days to have outgrown the ‘kings-and-queens’ type of history lesson. One doesn't have to be a self-styled historian to recognise that the forces which actually shape our world have little to do with the personal foibles, ambitions and family squabbles of ephemeral monarchs. History is a chronicle of competing power groups, sometimes defined by ideology, sometimes not, each seeking to enlarge its sphere of influence and territory by any means available. And there will always be certain individuals more than willing to serve an ideological cause not really as a matter of principle but in furtherance of their own ambition. The growing cynicism of the electorate is fuelled by revelations of the crude egotism and greed of politicians fond of cloaking themselves in high-sounding altruistic rhetoric.

Modern history affords no better example of ruthless self-aggrandisement posing as national leadership than the career of the late Winston Churchill. For over fifty years the public has been fed highly misleading and absurdly over-simplified versions of the ‘Churchill Story’; and the most recent example was The Gathering Storm television docudrama about Churchill's life and activities in the years leading up to the 1939-45 conflict with Germany. This got the usual ‘great-man-finally-recognised-as-such’ treatment, portraying Churchill as a great national leader kept in the political wilderness by lesser beings until the outbreak of hostilities.

Whatever the Second World War meant to anybody else (and this writer recalls finding his mother in tears in the kitchen after the news broke), it was splendid news for a man desperately anxious to prove himself a worthy descendant of the illustrious Duke of Marlborough. This ambition was reinforced by his need to redeem himself after his personal endorsement of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign in World War I, which gave political rivals every reason to distance themselves from his military adventuring.

Intriguing for office

In the years languishing at his grandiose country home he had whiled away the time in journalism, writing about his ancestors, painting in water-colours and intriguing with influential people to support his return to office.

No one seriously denies the need at that time for British preparedness in the face of German rearmament and expansionist policies; but Churchill was far from being alone in recognising this. From 1940, however, he was happily flexing his histrionic muscles as Prime Minister and ‘war leader’ for all the world to see, regardless of the disaster of Dunkirk and the dire state of the country. This was surely a time for sober appraisal of the European situation and how best to safeguard this country's longer-term interests without being bogged down in a mutually catastrophic war with Germany. In short, this was a time for real statesmanship.

And then, in May 1941, came the dramatic arrival of Rudolf Hess by parachute, bearing German proposals for an honourable and peaceful resolution of the conflict. These gave Britain an opportunity to end the war without diminishing her independence, power and influence in the world and allowing Germany to concentrate on the looming Soviet menace. But this presented Churchill himself with the horrifying prospect of peacetime mediocrity.

Not surprisingly, therefore, the luckless Hess was hastily bundled into permanent solitary confinement as a ‘war criminal’, leaving Churchill free to crank up the war machine for another four disastrous years. He needed to win a war, to be seen as a ‘warlord’, and that governed everything he said and did then and afterwards. All the sonorous and well rehearsed speech-making, the V-sign and the cigar-brandishing appearances were designed to keep the public in thrall to this consummate performer while the country's longer-term interests were being pawned for short-term American favours. The so-called ‘Hess incident’ justifiably looms over any assessment of Churchill's true place in Britain's history; and, such as it was, Churchill's stature as a national leader could only grow in Hitler's shadow. Still, while Hess was left to rot in Spandau prison for over 45 years, Churchill puffed big cigars and wrote his version of how, with a certain amount of help from the Americans and Russians, he had saved the world.

But the long-suffering British public had rumbled him by 1945, as the first post-war election demonstrated. The incalculable damage inflicted on this country by such self-aggrandisement is a fact not to be obscured by his ‘British Bulldog’ characterisation in the mass media. ‘American lapdog’ is how less sycophantic historians see him now.

Sulking in the wilderness

And his personal rancour towards Adolf Hitler was understandable enough: here was an ex-corporal from nowhere (albeit with two Iron Crosses) who had by sheer force of will raised Germany from ignominious defeat to European dominance while he - Marlborough's heir, no less - was just a part-time journalist still sulking in the political wilderness. Couple this personal rancour with indebtedness to Jewish financiers for support and with his overweening ambition, and what emerges is a monument to human vanity rather than a national hero. The tragedy is that so much was endured by so many so that publishers and TV programmers could perpetuate this insufferable mythology.

So we may have left the ‘kings-and-queens’ version of history behind, but it is high time we left the Churchill version behind as well. Churchill's egotism and theatrical brand of ‘patriotism’ were in no real sense decisive factors in our nation's history, except negatively. He never could distinguish a battle from a war, and he surrendered this nation's future for his vainglorious present. Astute and ruthless politician he was, yes; talented writer and speech-maker he was too; but national leader he never was, and his vision of Britain's future never extended much further than the smoke of his ever-present cigar. All things considered, therefore, the most appropriate salute to the Churchill myth is the one he was constantly seen giving, but the other way round.

Silenced By Law

A controversial Islamic group last night abandoned plans for an anti-war march through a town where processions for dead British soldiers are held as it was revealed that it would be banned within days.

Islam4UK provoked anger with a scheme to march through Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire, prompting MPs to urge local authorities and the Home Secretary to step in.

A statement from leader of the group Anjem Choudary said the group had 'successfully highlighted the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan'.

He went on: 'We at Islam4UK have decided, after consultation with others including our Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, that no more could be achieved even if a procession were to take place in Wootton Bassett and in light of this we would like to announce today that there will no longer be a procession through this market town.'

It emerged that Home Secretary Alan Johnson is to use anti-terror laws to ban two organisations run by Mr Choudary.

His group al-Muhajiroun and its offshoot Islam4UK are to be added to a list of 59 banned organisations which includes Al Qaeda and the IRA.

The move will make it a criminal offence, punishable by up to 10 years in jail, to be a member or attend meetings of either organisation or to raise funds for them.

Mr Choudary said: 'No sooner had I mentioned the desire (to march) Mr Brown condemned it and his Home Secretary Mr Johnson decided he would ban it and it seems now Islam4UK as well.'

And he later added: ‘I think Britain is living in a form of dictatorship - as long as you agree with what the ruling parties dictate, fine, but the rest of the people have to live with it. It's democracy, but only as long you agree with it.

‘I believe there are two types of people in the world - Muslims, and non-Muslims. And I believe Islam is superior.’

The organisation remained defiant and said it would continue to oppose the war in Afghanistan.

Mr Choudary said: 'We once again appeal to the British public and in particular the families and friends of soldiers who have died or are currently involved in Afghanistan to engage with us in an honest dialogue.

'There is common ground between us. Just as you grieve the deaths of your sons and daughters, we too grieve the deaths of thousands of ordinary Muslim men, women and children.'

Islam4UK denied that members had planned to carry 500 empty coffins through the town.

Rest Here

Unfortunately, sometimes democracy sucks. But in a true democracy you may have to listen to unpalatable opinions with gritted teeth, but you should never bring out laws to silence them if they do not incite violence or break any laws. You crush them with argument and debate.

I agree that this march should have been cancelled or banned for several reasons, but I do not agree with a total ban. In my opinion it is just the surrender of more liberties by the people, and who knows who will be banned next using the same formula.

We have already lost many of our liberties in the name of fighting terror and now stand at the bottom of a ladder that may take us to an entirely different level, I suggest we refrain from stepping on the first rung, as what is up there might be ten times worse than what we have now.

Fall of Rome

Wow! This Is Getting Scary

A wealthy businessman was arrested at home in front of his wife and young son over an email which council officials deemed ‘offensive’ to gipsies – but which he had not even written.

The email, concerning a planning appeal by a gipsy, included the phrase: ‘It’s the 'do as you likey' attitude that I am against.’

Council staff believed the email was offensive because ‘likey’ rhymes with the derogatory term ‘pikey’.

The 45-year-old IT boss was held in a police cell for four hours until it was established he had nothing to do with the email, which had been sent by one of his then workers, Paul Osmond.

But police had taken his DNA and later confirmed they would be holding it indefinitely.

The businessman, who has asked not to be named, was also fingerprinted in the police investigation estimated to have cost taxpayers up to £12,000.

He said two uniformed officers came to his house on a Sunday afternoon and said he would be handcuffed if he did not accompany them to the police station.

His computer and other internet equipment were also seized.

The email, from a computer at his company, was sent last August to a website at Rother District Council, in East Sussex, on which the public can comment on planning applications.

It referred to an appeal by gipsy Linda Smith, who wants to keep a mobile home in an area of outstanding beauty overlooking the Battle of Hastings site.

The email also read: ‘Get a job, get planning permission but more to the point get out of the neighbourhood.’

The businessman, a father of two, said last night: ‘I had a sense of total disbelief. My wife and I decided to tell my 11-year-old son I had to go with the police because I had witnessed a road accident.

‘Even though the officers were fairly pleasant to me, I was informed I would be handcuffed if I didn’t go voluntarily. They then confiscated my computer and my wife’s computer and took them to the police station.

‘I was extremely angry. I was relaxing in the comfort of my home on a Sunday afternoon and then I was in a police car under arrest – all for an innocent comment by a colleague.’

He was driven five miles to Hastings police station.

He said: ‘I have never had any criminal record and try my best to teach my children right from wrong. This was a ridiculously heavy-handed police reaction to what they perceived as a racist comment. I am not the least bit racist and neither is Paul Osmond. The gipsy family concerned did not complain.

‘I did nothing wrong yet ended up in a police cell for four hours with my DNA stored on a criminal database.’

The businessman said he also objected to the council over the location of the mobile home, which is near his property.

He said: ‘It seems I have to get planning permission for everything I do right down to dead-heading the daffodils.

‘It seems they can erect this home with impunity. But I made my objections entirely through the proper channels and I have absolutely nothing against anyone in the gipsy community.’

The case finally ended last week when Mr Osmond, who had been arrested and bailed, was told there would be no further police action. The planning case is continuing.

Article

If this doesn't wake you up to what is happening, to what road we are travelling on, I don't know what will.

Isn't it amazing the speed with which Rother Council acted in getting this man arrested in comparison to the three years and still on going action against this plainly illegal camp site.

By the way, those luxury mobile homes are very very expensive, and the vehicles outside don't look cheap. I wonder where the funds for those came from, and how many taxes were paid on them?