A number of Chorley voters have got in touch with me asking for to confirm my support for the "Veterans Pledge" and the three key demands it sets out - to keep the Office for Veterans' Affairs, commission an independent review of the medical discharge process, and remove unfair barriers to receiving benefits and compensation.
I am certainly happy to support all of these demands, as is the National Chair of TUSC, Dave Nellist.
It's always struck me that too high a proportion of homeless single men that I have spoken too, right across the country, turn out to be veterans. Just as the 'Veterans Pledge' suggests, it's clear that too many veterans' housing and health needs are not being met.
As the pledge website also suggests - even though it may be a subject some veterans may find hard to admit to - mental health issues are indeed often missed.
I was born myself to a mother old enough to have served on the radar stations on the south coast during WW2, knowing what got through would fall on her family in London. Even though not in a combat role, the stress nevertheless took its toll.
My uncles who fought in North Africa, Italy and Greece in WW2 rarely talked about what they went through, although Lt. Powell-Davies' photos on the Imperial War Museum website still give a graphic account of the kind of experiences that inevitably still weigh heavily on veterans in later years.
Martin Powell-Davies
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Candidate for Chorley
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