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Armed Forces Bill

I did not intend to speak in this debate, so I shall be brief in my support of the Government’s proposals. Parliament sets a maximum penalty, not a minimum. The hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) addressed hard cases—I am not sure whether or not I have his attention—but that is not relevant to the setting of a maximum penalty. If we set a minimum penalty, he could make his case, but the measure is required to cover all eventualities. The historical background that he gave illustrates that point. No one has greater admiration or affection for the hon. Member for Thurrock (Andrew Mackinlay) than me, but the campaign that he has waged on first world war executions overlooks many inconvenient facts. I was privileged to be briefed on the issue by a retired Air Force officer, who spent a year or two going through every one of the 260 folders that survive from the 300 original folders. He examined the background, and he established that there was a total of 3,000 cases: 90 per cent. of executions were refused on appeal. Among the small number of executions, there appear to be a few cases in which there was a genuine injustice. I shall cite an example of a case for which most hon. Members would accept that a sanction of some sort was appropriate. A professional solder who joined the Army five years before the first world war deserted—