I am afraid it was the Conservatives who closed - or at least started closing - the military hospitals as part of the 'peace dividend' after the fall of the Soviet Union.

As an aside I wonder if Peter Mandelson watched the Panorama programme yesterday evening about the Grenadier Guards in Afghanistan. What was the term he used to describe them - 'chinless wonders'. What does that make him then?

This remark just shows NuLab's contempt for the armed services.

JohnC, Helston, UK

Simple shifting of defence spending away from pointless big ticket items like Eurofighter and new escort ships and concentrate on useful things like helicopters and the troops themselves.
If you want a detailed (and entertaining) view on this look at Lewis Page's book, Lions, Donkeys and Dinosaurs.

John Davies, London,

To Mat from Beverley - Yes is it 'just a career' but it's a career serving YOUR country! Soldiers are the last to want war - no-one wants to be shot at or killed - but if YOUR Government sends the military, they go. I would like to meet the plumber or electrician who serves any other than himself - indeed many servicemen would like the same wage - and apart from the potential broken nail is hardly in any danger fixing your sink!
Finally if you think it's just a job I suggest you reflect awhile next time there is a Fire Service or Dustbin strike or you need fishing out of flood water!

N S Collett, BFPO,

The link for Buy the Boys a beer is

http://www.redratcraftbrewery.co.uk/Buy%20Some%20Beer%20For%20the%20Boys.htm

Regardless of the politics, the rightsor wrongs of this, or your personal opinions on the "war on terrorism," these boys have selflessly risked their lives to enable people to live without fear. They should be honoured on their return and the British Public need to wake up and recognise what these boys have been through. Not only have they fought in hellish conditions but some have seen their friends die or horrifically injured and have to return home with the knowledge of this and try to live a "normal life."

79 of these heroes will never see their families again. Honour the broken covenant and give these men the recognition and care that they have duly earned.

Dawn, Proud Vikings Mum, Essex,

So where is the link to this pub / brewery Libby? Then we can all buy them a beer.

E. O'Hara, Ibiza,

Over the last four decades the numbers of Servicemen were allowed to run down.' They' said we didnt need so many soldiers ,as the next war would be High Tec or nuclear. It wouldn't be hand to hand fighting on the ground. Well, they were wrong weren't they? Did they ever forsee suicide bombers? NO. 'They' - -the people who said yes to this war in Iraq were IGNORANT.Trouble is, we need government ministers with wisdom and a sense of History and with a Knowledge of history, because as a book somewhere says" Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it" Afghanistan is the 'White Mans Grave" Always has been.
There are lots more deaths to come in a war that cannot be won.

Linda Graham, Winchelsea Beach, England

Soldiers join the army to fight - they know they can get hurt - but this is the job they want to do - if / when they get hurt they should be properly looked after by people who care about them - when there is no fighting to be done they quite often indulge in risky sports or pastimes (this is the sort of people they are) and they get hurt in the same way as others who like danger as a sport - all brave people - they and we should be aware of the scum who are useing this subject and our boys, as a wind up to persue a political spin.

Marty, London, England

The present arrangements are at least equated to the benefits a civilian gets, which works out as the logical position. If soldiers don t want to get damaged, they should leave the army. We don t want to end up with a mercenary army, as present trends in Iraq suggest. It is not merely that we will be paying for the indulgence of the unscrupulous, we will be starting a movement that might be difficult to stop.

Henry Percy, London, UK

Should soldiers refuse to serve in an unjust war, and should not Prime ministers and Cabinets be tried for war crimes for initiating an unprovoked war of aggression? Encourager les autres. When are we going to turn Blair and his cronies over to the Court in the Hague?

Rick, Swansea, Wales

"It's a job, and they chose to do it so get real!"

It's a job which the majority choose not to do because they have choice.

We must remember that we can make such choices for a reason, and we (or should I say others) have paid the price for our ability to choose.

It is wholly ignorant to suggest that the teenagers who join our forces and face hardships on OUR behalf (like it or not we are a democracy) deserve what they get because they made a decision to do so.

Our welfare state spends billions of pounds looking after some people who have contributed absolutley nothing to our society and knowingly neglects those that make the absolute sacrifice.

My friend paid extortionate rates for his PAX insurance and recieved nothing for his multiple shrapnel wounds, burns and shattered heel. They don't do feet and hands and his shrapnel wounds were below 16cm in length.

His career finished without compensation.

There are people who give and those who take!

It's wrong.

kevin , Bury St Edmunds,

For those who are interested in buying a beer, the link is here:

http://www.redratcraftbrewery.co.uk/Buy%20Some%20Beer%20For%20the%20Boys.htm

Jacqui, Bristol,

Another absurd piece from Purves.
Soldiers, especially officers, are very well paid and have many perks; they know the risks and bleat when they have to come up with the goods..
Why should civilians get second class treatment/

Mike Beesley, Findon, England

Libby Purves makes some fine points. As an ex-regular Army officer it grieves me to see and read the way in which our forces are treated by the current crop of government politicians. It was not that much better in the 70s and 80s when we served in Northern Ireland. The government would do well to remember Clausewitz: "war is the continuation of politics by other means".
My experience is that people do join up for a job, a different job with opportunities and challenges that test them. To say that they know what they are signing up for and should not complain is crass, irresponsible and a demonstration of ignorance. Neither does it excuse the holders of such opinions from a moral and democratic duty to ensure the government are held to account.
Senior officers take a lot of flak for the wrongs of the military. However, they are constantly restrained by political and economic influences, but more particularly by the huge raft of apparently incompetent civil servants in the MOD.

Henry Wicks, Dunmow,

Having married in to a military family I am all too familier with the way our Country treats its serving personnel and indeed those out of service, charities being the order of the day. The vast majority of people I know are fully supprortive of our troops and the very dufficult and dangerous tasks they are ordered to undertake on our behalf. How we harness this to show those on the front line is difficult but we must find a way to show them they are fully supported and in no way forgotten. Having watched last night's Panorama it fills me with pride that we have troops barely out of school ready and indeed willing to lay their lives on the line to acheive what ever the strategy might be. Over the last decade or so we have had Ifor, Sfor, Kfor and it now seems we have WHAT FOR . If Gov't decrees that they remain let's get fully behind them!!

Alan Randle, Farnborough,

Can you imagine Blair being delighted if his kids went to Iraq? Who remembers the heart rending scenes of Cherie in tears when her son was going all the way to Bristol University?! Pass the sick bag please.

Simon, Newcastle.

Simon, Newcastle on Tyne, England

What about a link to the brewery, so we can try get some real momentum behind this scheme.

steve, swansea, wales

It is important to reacall that generally speaking the MOD accomodation that soldiers and their families live in is far far superior to where the type of people who join the military these days usually live.

As a former regimental welfare officer, my collegues and I , spent much of our time trying to train the type of women who marry soldiers in basic houshold duties.

MOD housing is far superior to most other forms of social housing

Alison Walker, London, UK

"Serve your country and we the government will look after you and your dependants"
--Sounds good?

"You'd better take out insurance though, at your own expense of course, as we are well known liars and our promises are proven worthless"
-- Sound not quite so good!

Mike Bibby, St Albans, England -not EU

All that needs saying was said long ago in Kipling's "Tommy".

Make it compulsory reading for all politicians?

Q.McCutcheon, Aberdeen, UK

"....we should have “wider debate about the financial cost of overseas deployments and the benefits to UK security [and] give priority to counter-terrorism, national disasters, and protection of the UK”.

Tony Blair did not. He did not want debate, but did not understand what he was doing (remember the 45 minutes and the admission that he never even asked whether these were battlefield or long-distance weapons?)."

I fail to see why this matters, to those who served during the "Cold War" and attended "Threat Lectures" the 45 minute reference is clear. A small but deadly battlefield weapon can be smuggled making it a long distance weapon.

"In small, telling asides he often revealed that he has no understanding of Service life."

Then it should have been the task of our top senior serving officers to damn well eductate him, not complain about it after the fact once they have their Knighthoods and Pensions and wish to promote their books - Mike Jackson take note.

Bill, Stavanger, Norway

The reason the army finds it difficult to recruit these days is that people on the whole know that all governments betray their soldiers. Wellingtons soldiers were thrown into unemployment and poverty. The soldiers of the Great war were put out of work at the mines and abandoned into squalor.
All the people who have ever died for Britain to keep out the foreigner have been betrayed by the policy of mass immigration. People die for Britain and it is given away without a fight. Whats the point? Our boys are dying in Afghanistan while Britain is becoming Muslim at home.

keith Bentham, Wigan, Lancashire

I was born and grew up in Australia and I live in the UK at the moment for career reasons. My grandfather was badly wounded at Gallipoli in 1915 and spent the rest of his life in and out of hospital - and the Turkish shell that smashed his shoulder whilst patrolling oustide his trench finally killed him in 1972.

But for all those intervening years he was well looked after by the Australian Government. He was treated at a military hospital alongside other veterans from WW1, WW2, Korea and serving Australian soldiers wounded in Vietnam. I think he was always grateful for that as even when he was in his 70s I remember visiting him and hearing the nurse call him 'Sergeant'. And as a youngster I listened to him and another young man who had lost his leg in Vietnam telling yarns and having a laugh. There was a comradery there that was unmistakable even to a 12 year old boy.

I think there is something more serious going on here - Britain no longer understands the concept of 'service'.

H, London,

Let's be frank about it.
Soldiers are just doing a job. It is a career many have chosen to pursue like others have chosen becoming an electrician or plumber. I have a few friends who are in the TA and they are doing it mainly for the Macho side. They love it. It should be pointed out to people that they can end up being hurt or worse before they engage on a career like this. And being a career it is, nothing else. Get real.

Mat, Beverley,

Soldiers have always been treated poorly by the UK. This government however take it to a new level. The public is lefty, multicultural or too knackered to care, we cant expect them to be intrested in the lads when they are away serving the country. Quite cleverly Nulabor have successfully kept quiet generals with promises of outrageous pensions and BEMs. These officers should be speaking for the lads but they choose to remain quiet. In the end there will be next to nothing left of the armed forces. Who will stand in for the fire brigade, ambulance drivers, binmen, deal with floods, search high profile events, etc..soon we will have oppurtunity to see how the UK gets by without the one thing its been able to rely on for the 600 hundred years, Should be intresting times....

ben, london,

We have kidded ourselves for years about the "military covenant". In theory it existed, and the training made one beleive it. In practice during the Cold War era with short term events such as the Falklands, any signs of covenant breakdown were dismissed, or hidden long enough for the inquisitive to pass it over. Now with long term operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the numbers, and severity of casulaties mean the issues can no longer be swept under the carpet. Furthermore, the spread of operational duties across all regiments means it affects every aspect of military life in a way not experienced since the 60s - if not before.

Our history books are full of evidence of the poor treatment of Tommy. Why is this never one of the "lessons learned" subjects. I believe morale is still high, however, Afghanistan in particular means that war fighting has now reached every facet of the Army, and continuous roulement will take its toll unless something is done. We will all pay in the end.

jimd, Norwich, uk

In the past there were a number of ex servicemen in parliament and government and in the civil service to provide a level of understanding and experience of the needs of the services. Now our masters are all experienced in committees, quangos and councils and have never had to endure physical hardship, need or fear. Courage is an alien concept and no use on a council. Much the same applies to the rest of us.
The distant knowledge of my youthful days with a cadet force and Boy's Brigade camps gives me a very different perpective from many I meet. I missed National Service by a whisker and those who served are, unfortunately for today's servicemen, no longer in a position to influence conditions.

Mike Sedgwick, Eastleigh, Hampshire

Agree that if we send the Forces in harms way that we should look after them if they are hurt doing our bidding and that they should be well equipped to do the task. Afterall would you send a Fireman to a fire with just a bucket and then not look after them if they were injured trying to put out the fire?

The Government is responsible for a lot of the Forces woes. They restrict money to the Forces and mis-manage what they do give. MOD mis-management is legendary with every project behind schedule and over budget. Maybe just cut out the middle-man and give the money direct to the Forces instead? I'm sure that would improve the time-to-implementation of a lot of the equipment purchases.

And the Government needs to re-instate Military Hospitals. When they came to power we had superb Military Hospitals that also served the local communities. The Government just closed them to save money. Look at the effect it's had on soldiers.

Bry Barnes, Somerset, Uk

The Broken Covenant goes much further that that with the military.

As a white, heterosexual, married Englishman I have witnessed the breaking of a covenant with our entire people.

During my life I have worked hard for, and took pride in, the nation to which I belonged. I come from a working class family and benefited from an earned place at a Catholic Grammar school (something now denied to working class kids by a so-called Labour government).

I joined the Round Table and worked voluntarily in my own time to organise local community events and raise money for needy elderly people and children. I gave up a job in industry to work first in social housing and eventually in two major charities at Director level. Again, in my spare time, I have been a member of the Territorial Army.

Now I look at what my country has become and wonder why I bothered.

Many millions more now feel like me.

The Covenant is well and truly broken.

Geoff Miller, Bromsgrove, England

So very right. It is not our soldiers fault that they fight on two fronts, or need to fight at all, it is the fault of our politicians. And the way the politicians treat our men, especially the wounded, is a national disgrace. Has our Government, and all the spineless MPs who should be shouting about the situation, no shame?

MP, Nth Lincs, England

Put the pen-pushers in the front line.

Thing's would soon change...

Bill Bird, Wallasey, Wirral

All countries treat their soldiers like dirt, even the US which has far more budget to spend. It's one of life's little certainties - if you put on a uniform, you will suffer for it. The big question is what motivates people to do it. I know if my son tried to join the army I'd smile in a friendly way, pat him on the shoulder and then break his knee cap. The reality is that it's no surprise to see troops mistreated, particularly when they are playing a minor role in losing an unpopular war. The only way in which things will get better is if young men stop signing up to get maimed fighting lost causes. If we can temper the testosterone and machismo, then governments will have to offer a better deal. The only constituency that can bring about serious change are soldiers themselves.

Jack Litton, Sydney, Australia

If anyone thinks that keeping forces back in the UK and not away overseas will defend us, then they are kidding. We will also be the only major nation to do so. All other major countries have forces overseas somewere. As for the military covenant, that is gone already. Trust, loyalty and integrity are no longer qualities that mean much in society today so why should one expect them from government? It's look after yourself and if you don't like it, go do something else.

Richard, Plymouth,