---

Armed Forces

My Lords, I, too, greatly welcome this debate and congratulate my noble friend Lord King of Bridgwater on securing it. I share many of the sentiments expressed so far. I declare an interest as chairman of the National Employer Advisory Board for Britain’s Reserve Forces, as honorary colonel of 306 Field Hospital (Volunteer) and as honorary air commodore of 612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force. Individuals from both those units have been deployed once, twice or even three times to Iraq over recent years. They have acquitted themselves extraordinarily well and all those associated with them are extremely proud of what they have done. My noble friend Lord Freeman referred to my role as chairman of the National Employer Advisory Board. His organisation—the Council of Reserve Forces and Cadets Association—and my board work in close collaboration to try to achieve support for employers and make it possible for them to release their valuable employees to play a part in the reserves. My noble friend tempted me to comment on voluntary and compulsory mobilisation. All I would say is that we need to have a very honest and open relationship with employers and must find more innovative ways of supporting them. I know that my board, no doubt with my noble friend’s support, will continue to keep that under close review. I would like to speak on a rather wider topic relating to defence, which has, in a sense, been touched on by many who have spoken today. If defence of the realm in its broadest sense is the first real responsibility of government, it is becoming increasingly clear, as I try to represent the interests of employers in the reserves field, that Governments of all political persuasions and the armed services have a substantial responsibility to do whatever they can to educate much more broadly the public about why defence is a vital part of public sector responsibility. The public at large, the electorate, are understandably full of enthusiasm for a properly resourced and managed health service—the noble Viscount, Lord Slim, gave an analogy about false teeth—education system, police service and much else. Successive Governments of either party spend much time trying to capture the public imagination in these and other fields with promises of improvement and extra funding, which are not always successfully delivered. One can obviously argue that there is a lot of politics in those areas. However, many areas of public policy are of potentially diminished value unless the overall defence of Britain’s interests in the protection of international public order—a phrase used by the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire—can be achieved. I am afraid that public interest and enthusiasm, and therefore the pressure that can be applied from it, is not the same for adequately funded, trained and equipped armed services, which donot strike so much of a chord with the public imagination. Therefore, inadequate enthusiasm is generated for the funding necessary. I believe that that is for several reasons. First, despite the publicity given to current operations, there is a widespread lack of knowledge of what makes our armed services what they are; namely, their ethos, their culture, their expertise, the loyalty of one man or woman to another and to their units, and much else besides. That is because the Armed Forces are, I fear, increasingly seen as remote from the rest of society. Gone are the days when the bulk of the population had some connection with the armed services, such as family members who fought in the last war or have experience of national or regular service. Of course, there is a marked degree of enthusiasm and appreciation of what our armed services do in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Sierra Leone or wherever. But I do not believe that there is widespread understanding of the superlative professionalism, flexibility and adaptability that the modern serviceman exhibits and achieves. It may be understood in this House very clearly, but I am afraid to say that, despite some of the headlines in the papers and elsewhere, there is not a genuine universal appreciation of what it is all about. As chairman of the National Employer Advisory Board, I know of many employers who visit our Armed Forces in operational theatres or on exercises, and from time to time I go with them. It never ceases to amaze and encourage me when I go with them, or when I hear of their exploits when they come back, to see those employers express surprise and delight at the sheer professionalism and expertise of those whom they meet. They often have no previous experience of what our Armed Forces do, whether regulars or reservists—from my experience, I defy anyone nowadays to tell the difference between them on operations. Fewer Members in another place have military experience, and there are fewer in industry, fewer in the academic world and fewer in the public sector, although I like to think as I work with the Reserve Forces that they are part of a bridge between the regular forces and society at large. There are fewer individuals to be true ambassadors for what it means to be a service man or woman and what should be made available to them to enable them to do their duty without undue strain. Elements of service life are sadly and markedly lacking in many aspects of society; self-discipline, loyalty, sense of duty and respect are among them. But they are the bedrock on which the successful Armed Forces are built. I venture to suggest that they should also be the bedrock on which a lot of other things are built. Somehow—and Governments of whichever political hue need to give a lead on this—we have to find ways of broadening the true understanding of what defence in its wider sense is all about and why it is as necessary now as it ever was. I shall certainly not today enter the debate about Iraq or Afghanistan and the politics of why we are there. However, given that we are there, our armed services, which are doing a superb job under extremely difficult circumstances, need to be properly equipped and supported. The covenant, which has been referred to by so many today, needs to be developed in a much more widely understood debate. That debate should be not so much about why we are there, but about why sufficient resources to man, equip and sustain our Armed Forces should matter just as much to the man in the street as provision for the National Health Service or a properly funded education system does. The role of the community in defence is an area of public responsibility and public policy that all of us have to try to find ways of taking much more seriously. If defence is the first priority and responsibility of government, as it most certainly should be, it is increasingly essential that that responsibility should be much more widely articulated, understood and accepted by us all. In that way, enthusiasm for our armed services can be enhanced and, with that, the imperative, political or otherwise, of public pressure to secure the necessary funding—up to a significantly higher proportion of GDP—can be brought much more starkly to the front of people’s minds. The national public debate to support and fund our armed services should become much more strident.