OUCH: Gordon Brown snubbed by soldiers’ ‘curtain’ protest. “Gordon Brown was snubbed by badly injured Afghan veterans when they closed curtains round their beds during a hospital visit and refused to speak to him. More than half the soldiers being treated at the Selly Oak hospital ward in Birmingham either asked for the curtains to be closed or deliberately avoided the prime minister, according to several of those present. . . . Furious about equipment shortages and poor compensation for their injuries, one soldier said:’It is almost as if we are the product of an unwanted affair … he has done nothing for us.'” New Labour expects sacrifice but returns no loyalty. This is the result, and they’ll be lucky if it stops here.