Families of war dead lash out at bonus payments for MoD staff

Ministry of Defense staff in the UK were paid more than £47m in bonuses in the first seven months of this year. When that was revealed last week, the nation recoiled, led by the mothers of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan condemned the Ministry of Defence (MoD) last night for awarding its civil servants bonuses totaling £47m in the first seven months of this financial year. Hazel Hunt, whose 21-year-old son Richard died in Helmand province in August, told The Guardian, "I think its obscene, I really do." Colonel Bob Stewart, former commander of UN Forces in Bosnia, said simply, "I am absolutely staggered." The details of the latest payouts were revealed just 24 hours after the bodies of six soldiers were flown back to Britain, bringing the death toll of UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan to 232. A total of £288m has been paid out in bonuses to civil servants since 2003 – the year Britain went to war in Iraq – according to the official figures. Anger about these starkly contrasting figures has been widespread. Media outlets of every political stripe from every region of the UK have voiced outrage at the bonuses, as well. The Daily Mail called the bonuses "indefensible" and described the MoD as "hugely overstaffed... [and] notorious as one of the least efficient in Whitehall." The Scotsman could barely restrain its fury, using "Outrage at £47m bonus for MoD pen pushers" as the title for one of its articles. Even the oft-staid Times used 'Obscene' in the headline on this story.