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Defence Policy

I am grateful to the Secretary of State for his intervention, but it does not move us much further forward. I seriously suggest that he listen to the British Armed Forces Federation and the Royal British Legion, and look at their websites. He should listen to them, not to me. I have to say that I am not surprised that the Royal British Legion thinks ill of an Administration whose armed forces compensation scheme is designed to shift the burden of proof in the MOD’s favour, to narrow eligibility criteria and to impose onerous time restrictions on claimants? That is precisely what the scheme has done. I know Ministers mean well—I do not doubt that—but these are hardly the actions of Ministers who are falling over themselves to fulfil their side of the military covenant. In one of the most thoughtful contributions of the day, my hon. Friend the Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) called defence the Cinderella of public services, and I fear that he is correct. A number of Members mentioned housing. When I was a practising doctor I had a fair amount to do with military public health, but I never thought that as a Member of Parliament I would visit barracks that were infested with cockroaches. One young man said to me, ““I do not have to put up with cockroaches when I am at my mum’s house, so I do not see why I should have to do so when I am living in barracks.”” What messages do conditions like that send to the men and women whom Ministers say they value so highly?