On a visit to HMS Ark Royal, Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged his support for the Armed Forces by announcing that the military covenant will be given the force of law in forthcoming Armed Forces legislation.

The Guardian reports (08 Jun 2010) that the head of the army during the invasion of Iraq, giving evidence at the Baha Mousa Inquiry, has delivered a withering attack on the commander of the regiment in whose custody a civilian was beaten to death:

According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, a spokeswoman for the English Defence League (EDL) has claimed majority support amongst the armed forces:

The German Radar Commission Report concluded that during the operation, maintenance and repair of radar units operated by the Bundeswehr and the former DDR's Nationale Volksarmee (NVA), exposures to ionizing radiation and high-frequency radiation can occur and that this ionizing radiation arises from stray sources such as component parts and electron tubes, in some cases resulting in serious health problems. The report was first published in 2003, but an English translation of its summary has only recently been produced, and has been circulated by EUROMIL to its member and observer associations, including BAFF.

One test for the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government could be how it approaches the human rights of armed forces personnel. Some commentators distrust the whole idea of human rights behind the barrack gates, or while deployed: 'You can't have human rights in the heat of battle'.

BAFF understands that around 760 service personnel in Afghanistan used the special Op Herrick service voter registration form to register to vote. Of these, some 500 applied for a proxy vote and some 260 applied for a postal vote.

An electoral official who is closely involved in national arrangements for troops voting from Afghanistan, and who has a significant number of service personnel and families in his own local area, has supplied figures on the number of service voters in Afghanistan who registered under the special arrangements and have successfully voted by post in the 2010 General Election.

(6 May 2010) The Lancashire Post has a story 'Troops to have say electronically' which is widely understood to mean that British troops in Afghanistan have been given the chance to vote electronically in today's General Election. We do not believe that such a thing has happened, however. We think the story is prompted by the fact that the final batch of specially-adapted service voter registration forms (which incorporate postal or proxy voting applications) were delayed in Afghanistan due to the volcanic dust cloud and that the Ministry of Defence, acting in consultation with the Ministry of Justice, Electoral Commission and local electoral officials, arranged for these registration forms to be transmitted electronically to electoral registration offices across the country.

With polling day almost upon us, BAFF has received several enquiries about the attitude of the competing political parties to the principle of a representative professional staff association for the armed forces. Based on responses to our representations during the last Parliament about statutory recognition of that principle, we can confirm that it has official support from the following parties:

A major article for BBC News (30 Apr 2010) reports that for the families of servicemen and women, the war in Afghanistan casts a long shadow over their lives - and how they will cast their vote.