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Armed Forces Bill

Again, that is an excellent intervention. The Trooper Williams case underlines it. I take the point that the hon. Member for Portsmouth, North (Sarah McCarthy-Fry) made earlier. As far as Trooper Williams was concerned, the commanding officer was his god. He was his figurehead of leadership, justice and everything that happened inside the 2nd Regiment, Royal Tank Regiment. If we attack that relationship, two things happen. First, the private soldier—lance corporal and so on—feels that there is no longer an umbrella of protection given to him by a man whom he knows personally, who, within the constraints of rank, is a personal friend, and who has probably served with his father, his uncle or other people from the same area—Portsmouth, Newark or wherever.