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Debate on the Address

My Lords, I am not sure that I will be a beacon of hope. May I start by saying how much I agree with those who have said that we need to rethink the strategy for the Middle East and beyond? I am talking not of military means but about involving the great departments of state and really thinking across government, as we used to be able to do. I have a real sense that we do not have government that is as well joined up as it should be. I am not going to deal with that, however; I shall concentrate on the Armed Forces. I am concerned that the pressure on them is not fully recognised. There is a danger of their becoming a fringe activity. Many people admire them and what they do, but I sense that people do not understand the pressures on them at the moment. I shall talk a little about operations, over-commitment and cuts in training and equipment, and I shall make some points about welfare. As many noble Lords have made clear, the pressure on the Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan is considerable at the moment. Indeed, when we look back at the changes made to the Armed Forces under Options for Change, it is clear that they did not recognise the intensity of operational service that we now expect from our forces. I have to say that the sense I had from the speech of the Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Drayson, was rather more optimistic than I believe is justified. Noble Lords will remember that before the Battle of Trafalgar Lord Nelson said: "““England expects every man to do his duty””." I think that the service men and women serving in Afghanistan and Iraq can expect the same from their Government, and I am not sure whether in certain areas they are getting that help and service. I shall talk first about overstretch. The gaps between operational tours were laid down in harmony guidelines that were not produced with the intensity of conflict that we are talking about in Afghanistan and Iraq; they are based more on the sort of commitment that we had in Northern Ireland. Moreover, we are already breaking those harmony guidelines. It is also true to say that, without the help of the Territorial Army, the Regular Army could not have coped. I pay huge tribute to what the Territorials have done to help the Regular Army, but that should not hide the major problem. I know that there have always been problems with manning, equipment and so forth, but I sense that the difficulties at the moment are much more intense than was the case in the past. It is strange that no actual mention was made of the Armed Forces in the gracious Speech. No special point was made about them, although the speech did manage to talk about regulating estate agents. That seems to put things in a rather strange order of priority. Many noble Lords have spoken about the intensity of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, I do not believe that in Afghanistan we are getting the support that we deserve from some of our allies. General Richards still does not have an operational reserve, which breaks one of the fundamental principles of a core command. He has no operational reserves of his own in terms of vehicles, men or, most important, helicopters. In addition, the restrictions on the rules of engagement placed on certain of the allies in Afghanistan are such that really their contributionis minimal. For example, in the north a lot of equipment is being smuggled through from the ““Stans””. For the German contingent, however, the rules of engagement are such that they cannot be as effective as I know they want to be. On top of that, we see no clear way ahead for dealing with the poppy crop. Training is fundamentally important, and while it is easy to talk about, we will not have operational success unless there is hard and demanding training—not only at the unit and battalion level, but also atthe formation level, for brigade and divisional commanders. Because of over-commitment or perhaps underfunding, exercises have had to be cancelled. While this is easy to talk about and might not get much publicity, the impact over time could be very dangerous. I know that the noble Lord, Lord Drayson, is doing all that he can to get a grip on the equipment programme, but there is no doubt that it is underfunded. Getting the priorities right is not easy, and already we see major delays in the delivery of certain equipment. Some of the problems have been solved by urgent operational requirements, but some of those would not have been necessary if the equipment programme had been right. We know of the problems with armoured vehicles and particularly with helicopters. Some tough decisions are going to have to be made about the equipment programme even if funding is improved. Those decisions are likely to stoke inter-service rivalry if the Minister takes on and makes some of those hard decisions. Because time is moving on, I shall not deal with welfare in detail other than to make one point, and that is about the pay for our Armed Forces. The Ministry of Defence has made some improvements to pay and has talked about operational allowances, but the fact is, I am told, that a traffic warden in London is paid more money than a soldier on the front line in Afghanistan or Iraq. That surely cannot be right. In summary, our Armed Forces are doing a magnificent job, but they are underfunded. I know that the Treasury will say that it has heard this before, but it is true. The Army is too small for the commitments that it is being asked to meet; the equipment programme needs a major sort-out, and the fact that training has had to be cancelled should not be allowed to slip under the fence.