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Armed Forces Bill

That is right. My hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington is seeking to get rid of that hugely excessive sentence, and that is why his amendment is worthy of support. I welcome my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary to his post and wish him great success in it. I am sure that I will be more supportive of him on other occasions. However, I was a little alarmed when he intervened on my hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington to refer to absence without leave, the sentence for which, under clause 9, must not exceed two years. Indeed, he could have referred to disobedience to lawful commands, for which, under clause 12, the sentence is not to exceed 10 years. There is a bit of cherry-picking going on whereby the military authorities, or perhaps the Ministry of Defence, can pick and choose which sentence they want to apply to those who use the illegality of the war in Iraq as their defence. In the end, they could still use clause 8, which provides for a sentence of up to life.