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Defence in the World

I am sure that they do a superb job, but the question remains: why Sierra Leone and not other parts of the world? I raise the question only because I believe that the British public need greater clarification when Governments take decisions to deploy troops. The public need to understand why they have been sent to Sierra Leone and not another African country. There are so many trouble spots around the world that the Government have a responsibility to explain why they will intervene in one place and not another. We need to be able to say, ““No, we cannot commit troops to that particular problem, because we are already overstretched.”” We need to focus more on some of our own interests. Today has been a very painful day for Members on both sides of the House. For me, homeland security is very important and that brings me back to what my speech has been about. We do a great deal around the world, but it is now the time—when we are under threat from terrorism—to start to focus more on Great Britain, on protecting our borders and our country, instead of spreading ourselves so thinly across the world.