By TOM NEWTON DUNNPolitical Editor
Published: The Sun Monday 09 Nov 2009
GORDON Brown was accused of disrespecting our war dead yesterday with TWO shameful blunders. He got a dead soldier's name WRONG in a letter to the hero's mum - and FAILED to bow at the Cenotaph.
His gaffes came despite The Sun's campaign to remind him there is a bloody war on.
Blundering Mr Brown left war hero Jamie Janes's grieving mother in tears by sending her an error-filled letter of condolence in which he even mis-spelled their name.
The hand-written note to heartbroken Jacqui JANES about her 20-year-old son, began: Dear Mrs JAMES.
Grenadier Guardsman Jamie was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan on October 5. PMs write to all next-of-kin of the fallen. Mr Brown's mistakes fuelled claims he does not care about Britain's forces. He telephoned Jacqui today to apologise for his mistake.
No comfort ... Jamie's mum Jacqui with a photo of him
Jacqui, 47, said: "He couldn't even be bothered to get our family name right. That made me so angry. "Then I saw he had scribbled out a mistake in Jamie's name. "The very least I would expect from Gordon Brown is to get his name right. "The letter was scrawled so quickly I could hardly even read it and some of the words were half-finished. It's just disrespectful."
In the original letter, Mr Brown: SPELLED Jamie incorrectly and then corrected it by scrawling over the last letter. COMMITTED four other spelling mistakes: Greatst for greatest, condolencs for condolences, you instead of your, and colleagus for colleagues. He also wrote the letter "i" incorrectly 18 times - mostly by leaving the dots off them but once by using two in "security".
And he ended with a repetition - writing "my sincere condolences" and then signing off "Yours sincerely".
Tragic ... Guards heroJamie Janes
Mum-of-six Jacqui went on: "In the days after Jamie's death I got letters from Prince Philip, Buckingham Palace, the Defence Secretary and his regiment. "They were all written from the heart and made me feel Jamie's death was important to them. Then I got Gordon Brown's. I only got through the first four lines before I threw it across the room in disgust.
"I re-read it later. He said, 'I know words can offer little comfort'. When the words are written in such a hurry the letter is littered with more than 20 mistakes, they offer NO comfort.
"It was an insult to Jamie and all the good men and women who have died out there. How low a priority was my son that he could send me that disgraceful, hastily-scrawled insult of a letter?
"He finished by asking if there was any way he could help.
"One thing he can do is never, ever, send a letter out like that to another dead soldier's family. Type it or get someone to check it. And get the name right."
Jamie joined the Grenadier Guards just after his 16th birthday, following his older brother Andrew, 26, into the Army. He died two weeks into his second Afghan tour, blasted by a hidden Taliban bomb.
His mum, from Portslade, East Sussex, said: "Jamie was the fifth generation from our family to join the infantry. "He was so proud to be serving his country and making life better for the people of Afghanistan. He told me how rewarding it was. "But the Government sent Our Boys and Girls out without the best equipment and my little boy came back in a coffin."
Four ex-military chiefs told Mr Brown on Friday that the Armed Forces "felt he has never really been on their side and they have not had his support".
A spokesperson for Mr Brown said last night: "The PM takes a great deal of time writing letters of condolence. "The reason he personally writes to every family is to acknowledge the debt of gratitude owed by the country to those who have died. "He would never knowingly mis-spell anyone's name."
Mr Brown has previously spoken of how he lost an eye in a rugby accident as a schoolboy.
He told the BBC's Andrew Marr in September: "I have had very serious problems with my eye and it has been very difficult over the years. But you can do a job, you can work hard."
t.newtondunn@the-sun.co.uk
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
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