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Defence in the World

This has been a very good debate. I have been doing my job for six years or so—as a jobbing Minister, as my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Andrew Mackinlay) remarked—and have had the benefit of listening to some very good debates featuring contributions ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. I will not make another comment about my hon. Friend. Today’s debate took a balanced approach and provided a helpful reminder of the important work that our armed forces are undertaking around the world. It went beyond the realms of its specific title and into the realm of foreign affairs, which I think was inevitable as there is a clear interconnection. The hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) made a thoughtful speech. Others raised points of disagreement, which is in the nature of such debates, but at least the hon. Gentleman had thought about what he wanted to say and what he sought to define, and some of the issues he raised require consideration. One of the hon. Gentleman’s points was about the way in which policy has been developed over the years. He paid proper tribute to the strategic defence review. As I have said here on other occasions, there was a degree of continuum in that process. The train had left the station before the Labour Government arrived, but it was realised that something had to be done. The process was driven by the political direction of the then Secretary of State for Defence, Lord Robertson, and the then Minister for the Armed Forces, my right hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (John Reid), the current Home Secretary. Nothing stands still in defence. The hon. Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis) referred to the new chapter to the strategic defence review—[Interruption.] Well, he referred to the two support documents.