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Debate on the Address

My Lords, this is the first time that I have spoken on defence in your Lordships' Chamber in the 21 years-plus that I have been here. I had a great deal of fellow feeling for the noble Baroness, Lady Taylor, on taking up her new post. I am only about two weeks longer into this argument than she is. I should mention the noble Lord, Lord Drayson. When it was known that I was taking up this portfolio, he extended the helpful attitude towards me that many noble Lords have mentioned today. The rumour mill is already grinding that he is going off to drive cars down race tracks at tremendous speeds and that the great urge to do so came on him very suddenly. However, he takes part in racing anyway. But even if the desire to race has become so overwhelming that he can no longer accommodate his duties in this Chamber, I wish him well. Even if he will not speak at the Dispatch Box, I hope that he will return to the Chamber very soon because he has genuine ability and displays great humour. He knows how not to take himself too seriously while still doing his job. I hope that we see him back here soon. The main point about the Armed Forces is that we are asking them to do an awful lot. We are asking them to take part in our wars of choice; that is, wars that we do not have to fight to defend ourselves. Certain of these wars perhaps should be fought. Indeed, the destruction of the Taliban, or the driving from power of a regime that supported Al’Qaeda, which attacked ourselves and our neighbours, is something that one finds considerable difficulty disagreeing with. However, as regards other forms of military adventurism that we have experienced over the last few years, I felt very comfortable sitting on these Benches when the relevant decisions were made. But the fact of the matter is that we are asking our Armed Forces to do a great deal. In Afghanistan, particularly at the moment, we are asking them to fight a very hot war on a small scale. As regards the level of casualties, the noble Lord, Lord King of Bridgwater, described what happened to one of the battalions of the Parachute Regiment. If my memory serves me right, I believe that it is the Third Battalion. It took something like 10 per cent casualties during a tour of duty. If I remember what limited military theory I have picked up, a 20 per cent casualty rate means that a unit is unsustainable. It is taking heavy casualties. Even for a crack battalion in a very professional army like ours this is worrying. Many units are coming back and reporting that they have lost five, dead. It is only now that the media are realising that 30 or 40 people have been hospitalised. Many of them will never be fit enough to return to service. This degree of commitment and the ongoing number of troops involved in the front line are leading to real overstretch. I should like to concentrate on what we are doing to support those troops going through this. As regards the planning and the time in service, it is clear that the time spent resting and regrouping—I forget the exact military terms—is being exceeded. Virtually everyone with a lapel here is wearing a poppy today. The Royal British Legion has pointed out to everybody in its recent appeals that it has a whole new list of clients under 35. These people are experiencing combat stress and need medical treatment and support. That group of people and that organisation consider that the Government are not supporting them and are not making sure that they get what they are entitled to when they are being asked to do something which the Government of the day have chosen to undertake. The most recent example of this was the almost shambolic reporting in the press on Monday that they were being asked to pay a little more insurance as their compensation was not enough to cover them and their families if they were injured or killed in action. The ins and outs of that case do not really matter; the fact is that it is presented in our national press as service people having to fork out because someone is ordering them to go into a dangerous situation. The damage done to the perception of the Armed Forces is almost incalculable. Coverage was also given of the wonderful practice that we have of insuring your own kit. I do not know what the armed forces of other countries do in this regard, but if we go on in this way, we shall not present an image to the Armed Forces that will build up their morale. They are tired and their families are under stress. We have had the ongoing discussion about the poor accommodation available to the military. The Minister’s brief may well say that it is getting better. That may be the case, but why did it get so bad in the first place? Why did we not invest in the Armed Forces? The Audit Commission report published last year said that we are keeping people in our armed services by paying them little extra bonuses every now and then—little bounties. Why do we not review their pay structure to keep people in the armed services? Then we have the ongoing idea about the treatment of people in our medical system. We have done away with military hospitals. The noble Lord, Lord Drayson, and his officials argued that it would be very difficult to maintain separate hospitals with a sufficient number of patients. That might be a valid argument, but people perceive that they are not being treated properly. War pensions are supposed to be received as priority. Can the Government tell me that every member of the NHS knows that war pensions for members of Her Majesty’s forces are supposed to be received as priority? I bet the answer is no. The war pensioners themselves do not know. Are people told, ““Yes, you should support these people. Yes, you should make sure that the pensions get through””? The perception that we are creating about our Armed Forces is that they are wonderful so long as they do their job, do not die in large numbers and we do not have to worry about them. I am starting to get that feeling from groups outside. Unless we start to address it, we will have shrinkage in our professional Armed Forces that might end up in a downward spiral of recruitment. If that is allowed to happen, we will not be able properly to carry out any of the activities that we now undertake, and are in danger of effectively turning a good professional Army into a scruffy one.