#Willenhall military veterans' support volunteer John Elwell has launched a new #parliamentary petition calling for a Uniformed Services Month to be introduced in the #UK to celebrate uniformed workers.
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00:00So we're here in Willanall, Shortheath, and what's your name sir?
00:04John Elwell.
00:05John Elwell. So John, we buy a rather special bench here, we buy the War Memorial, but this one kind of pays tribute to not just soldiers. Just fill us in a little bit.
00:15This bench, our community interest company, Shortheath, lest we forget, funded and installed this bench.
00:22And the idea of this bench is it's a thank you from all of the community to everybody that's served.
00:29And the figures on the back, you can see they represent Nan, Mum and Dad, and the children.
00:34And inscripted on the bottom is today, tomorrow, forever, thank you. It's our way of showing appreciation to everybody that's served in the armed forces.
00:43So we have lots of days that recognise people. We have Black History Month, and we have Armed Forces Day, and a number of other days.
00:51But you're calling for, well fill us in, what are you calling for?
00:56I'm asking the government to assist me to increase the length of Armed Forces Day to actually Armed Forces Month.
01:03But at the same time, where we have those soldiers, sailors, airmen, who signed that blank cheque, deserve to be included in the value of my life.
01:12We have people attending police, fire, ambulance service, are going out to work every single day, and their families don't know whether they're coming back.
01:21So what I'm calling on the government to do is to assist me to create Uniform Services Month.
01:26So for the whole of that month, we pay tribute and acknowledge everybody who puts on a uniform for our safety, and it comes to a finale on Armed Forces Day.
01:36Cool, just to give us some proper time to give that respect properly.
01:41And like you say, the police and the fire service, those kind of services, they don't really get that acknowledgement, do they?
01:47I don't think so, no.
01:49Everybody who will hate the police officer that will knock you off for driving a 38 mile an hour in a 30 mile an hour, about the same token,
01:56you'll be standing there and saying there's a madman with a knife, can you put your body on the line to protect me and my family.
02:02And instead of, as we did for the NHS, clapping at the bottom of our drives, I'd like to extend it so that annually we can say we're really going to show our appreciation.
02:13And it goes with a lot of the colleges as well, which now instruct uniform services.
02:19It gives us a good month there where it can all be showcased to everyone.
02:24Our understanding is that in other countries they do kind of do this, don't they, and make it a bit more of an event, rather than just, you know, we get an Armed Forces Day.
02:34But other countries drag it out a bit more, don't they, so they can make a bit more of it.
02:40And I just think, why can't we?
02:42I believe we've got the best armed forces in the world, we've got the NHS which we all appreciate and we know, let's show it to the world, let's make something special of it.
02:51It must be pretty demoralising if you actually do any of these things we're talking about as a job and you think, well, do people actually appreciate what we do?
02:59And I'm trying to show that appreciation.
03:02Do you have anyone that's served in your family in any of the uniform services, John?
03:06All my uncles did. Dad did, he was in Royal Army Medical Corps and I've got other uncles that were in the Navy and the Air Force.
03:14So it's just the way the families were back then when National Service was in.
03:19So we're calling upon a Uniform Services Month to make more of Armed Forces Day.
03:25Let's make a bigger thing of it, a longer thing of it and also combine that with police, fire, ambulance, NHS, all those kind of people as well.
03:34If people want to find out more and get involved, John, how can they do that?
03:38It's actually on the government petition sign, if you just go onto there, find it, I'd ask people to share it, to sign it.
03:47And it is a signature per person, not a signature per household.
03:51So mums, dads, children over 18 or adults over 18, they can sign it.
03:57And I'll just keep spreading the word, if I can get this to 100,000 signatures, it will be debated in Parliament.
04:04And I think that anybody that really appreciates what we're doing would back it.