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Foreign Affairs and Defence

I rise with both surprise and humility: surprise that there is not more competition from Labour Members to laud the Government’s achievements on international affairs and defence; and humility following the two excellent maiden speeches to which the House has been treated. I am from the Marches myself—Monmouth does not seem so very far away from Worcestershire—but I have learned things today that I did not know. That just goes to show that sometimes one can learn things from speeches made in the House of Commons. I salute the passion of the speech that we have just heard and also its messages, which are widely shared among Conservative Members. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (David T.C. Davies) on a speech at which he will look back with pride in years to come. The same is true of the hon. Member for Leicester, South (Sir Peter Soulsby), although I think that I know which of those two characters will be more trouble to his Whips Office—I speak as someone recently released from the burdens of that office. However, I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on a fine speech. It is customary to say that we have had a good debate at this stage of our proceedings on the Queen’s Speech, but it is true. The debate has been characterised by many fine speeches. I was interested to sit next to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Kenneth Clarke) during his contribution. He was harsh on the Prime Minister and I certainly share his harsh analysis of the Prime Minister’s record. However, he perhaps missed one thing that I rather wish that he had done as Chancellor of the Exchequer: independence of the Bank of England. The Government might just be remembered for that; it is perhaps their sole claim for a place in the history books of the United Kingdom. It was a pleasure to hear the speech made by the hon. Member for Sunderland, South (Mr. Mullin). He told us that he was the first MP elected at the general election and for a period the only MP of the new Parliament. That reminds us of the person who I hope will be our last MP elected in a few weeks time and who is sadly missing from our proceedings today. I think that I should refer to him by name because he is not currently a Member—you will correct me if I am wrong, Mr. Deputy Speaker—but it would be nice to have Patrick Cormack back.