New Shadow Veterans Minister visits Veterans Aid
The new Shadow Minister for Veterans Affairs, Andrew Bowie, has become the first politician to make a post-election visit to Veterans Aid.
It was a meeting of minds - and Scotsmen - when the West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine MP met Kilmarnock-born CEO Dr Hugh Milroy to learn about the charity's work and get a frontline perspective on veterans' wellbeing.
Mr Bowie said afterwards, "Great to see behind the scenes at Veterans Aid, and discuss the important, outcomes-orientated work being done by Hugh and his team. I will be supporting them in their mission wherever possible."
Dr Milroy said: "It was a pleasure to host Mr Bowie at our Westminster HQ/Ops Centre, and I look forward to showing him our residential facility, New Belvedere House, in the near future. We discussed a range of issues - primarily the underlying scourge of poverty, from which veterans are not immune, but also the skewed perception of veterans and the importance of looking at outcomes when allocating funding.
"Sadly, within our sector, far too much money has been wasted over the years on vanity and brand related projects for veterans that were never based on need or had an utterly peripheral impact. I have lost count of the numbers of projects that have come and gone. It is time for a new beginning. I got a very strong impression that the Shadow Veterans Minister is keen to do just that ,which was very refreshing."
