Defence in the Media: 8 October 2012

Summary
On Saturday, The Sun reported that hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects at the funeral of Private Thomas Wroe on Friday. | The Daily Mail reported that the Prime Minister has stepped in to pick up the shortfall for the cost of the Bomber Command Memorial unveiling ceremony earlier this year. | The Belfast Telegraph reported that a lawyer for 19 former prisoners seeking damages from the MOD after they were detained without trial in Northern Ireland in the 1970s says that the High Court's Mau Mau torture ruling laid the ground for a test case on behalf of his clients. | The Sunday Express carried a comment piece by Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes in which he considered the issue of violence amongst military personnel and attributed it to a number of things including premorbid and premilitary factors such as personality, military experiences, including role and combat experiences, and post-military factors (employment, housing, relationship factors). | The Mail on Sunday reported that Chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce that £35m collected by the Government in city fines will be spent on the Armed Forces Covenant. | The People featured an interview with Rachael MacColl, wife of Timmy MacColl, the crew member of HMS Westminster who went missing in Dubai in May. | The Sunday Mirror reported that British military commanders have been issued with new guidance aimed at preventing insider attacks. | Various media reported that big-name retailers have signed up to a new scheme to offer discounts to Armed Forces personnel and veterans. | The Observer carried an interview with Defence Secretary Philip Hammond in which he says that the international community must 'tighten the noose' to the point of threatening the Iranian regime's survival in order to force it to drop its nuclear programme. | Today's Daily Telegraph reports that the Taliban have boasted that NATO forces are leaving Afghanistan in 'humiliation and disgrace' in a statement to mark the 11th anniversary of the start of the international military campaign. | The Daily Star reports that volunteers carried out £60,000 of building work to an amputee soldier's home to make it wheelchair-friendly.

Comments

[Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes]

No. The whole point was that I specifically did not attribute familial or stranger violence by military and ex-military personnel to PTSD (or mTBI). What I said was that it was multifactorial and that it was influenced by many things including: premorbid, and premilitary factors including personality, military experiences, including role and combat experiences, personality factors and post military factors (employment, housing, relationship factors) etc. Prof Simon Wessely said that it was "a sensitive, well judged piece". I would like a published correction of your summany please. Thank you. Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes

[MOD Online Team]

Thank you for your comments. We have published a correction to fully reflect your article.