Nick

It would be nice to establish any trade mark features on these medals to help identify these fakes, that is if they are as good as they purport to be. Makes you realise if someone can do this as a cottage industry what could be achieved with real industrial facilities and expertise. He got greedy, that appears to be what gave him away.

It looks like this to me but the odd word may be wrong ? The Police Commissioners inform me that Ivory papers will enable the holders to stay up to the last moment possible nearly up to the time the pro(cession?) appears

More sad news. RIP Audrey Thanks for the update.

I agree with you Paul, Customs seems to be the most likely explanation fits with the collar tabs and cap.

And the article highlights the difficult issue of how do you determine who qualifies for such a medal. I am not saying there shouldn't be one, but for example a campaign medal will be awarded for all those in operational theatre for the prescribed number of days. Doesn't matter you role, whether you are front line at most risk or in a support role, if you are there for the number of days required you qualify. When the conflict is on your home soil there is no geographical boundary so days served is a bit of a mute point. But as has been said already do you give it to only front line staff on COVID Wards/ ITU, paramedics or do you give it to all NHS staff regardless of role. Then there are the thousands of others all risking their health and lives to keep the country going care workers in private nursing homes, social workers, volunteers, key workers, police etc etc, There comes a point when there are so many deserving people where do you draw the line.

Well for a first finished painting that is a particularly fine work, well done I wish I could paint like that ! I really like the bust as well. My skills go as far as helping the kids paint their Warhammer figures. Although I think I am now more into it than they are, as I am finding it a great way to relax in the evening.

more testing stuff

So this is where the info is on this topic what do you think

In the UK there are 1.2million NHS workers in England alone you then need to factor in Scotland, NI and Wales., if you then consider any other persons such as NHS volunteers 700,000 of them or other public facing key workers involved in the fight like police, military, Border Force, council employees, Public Health bodies etc etc Then there are charity workers exposing themselves to help people in unfortunate circumstances. Thats the tip of the iceberg and a lot of people to consider. The criteria would have to be very strict to make such a medal feasible i.e. front line carers exposing themselves to high risk of infection. But then that would denigrate other essential persons who have placed themselves at high risk of infection for example cleaning staff, in hospitals. We need to see how this pans out in the long term, as it is just the beginning. You may be right that like WW2 a series of medals needs to be considered dependent on role. Call me a cynic but the one factor in the UK that will without a doubt influence any such decisions will be the role the military play in this. If they are deployed in significant numbers, then standby for medals to be issued. If not then other than recognising the acts of a few key individuals such as the usual bigwigs at the top, or those that have sadly paid the ultimate sacrifice or placed themselves at immense risk is the more likely option.

Andrej now working fine. Cheers John for sorting that one out.

Bedford Trucks ?