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Debate on the Address

My Lords, of the subjects for today’s proceedings on the gracious Speech of Her Majesty, the last item is defence. That is what I shall try to concentrate my remarks on, after some notable speeches. I have much sympathy with the Minister, who has stood rather like a brave No. 15 at Twickenham, fielding all sorts of things. He has a little to come from me, but he need not worry too much. I believe that we have another debate on 22 November, when we will be able to expand a little more on defence. As defence was referred to by Her Majesty in the gracious Speech, it is worth following up many of the excellent speeches on defence that have already been made by some now absent friends—they are no longer in the Chamber. It was about 30 years ago that my noble and learned friend—and, for the first time, I can say kinsman—Lord Lyell of Markyate rose up at party conference and said: "““The prime duty of the Government is the defence of the realm””." Unlike me tonight, he did not have to go on. Bands and banners were struck up; that was his speech made. He was of course quite right. One reason why I want to add my short comments tonight in support of much of what has been said today is that we have been very much concentrating on the military activities in Afghanistan. The Minister will be able to cover that tonight and, no doubt, at great length later in the year. We have been hearing that the Afghan campaign may well take many years. The noble Earl said that it would be a very long campaign, not necessarily merely military. There is another reason why I am detaining your Lordships for a short while this evening. There is an esteemed all-party group in your Lordships’ House chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde. We call ourselves the All-Party House of Lords Defence Group. Thanks to a wonderful relationship with the former Minister, the noble Lord, Lord Drayson, we have been extremely lucky. We hope that we shall be able to continue under the new Administration to polish that great relationship. I have been reprimanded at least three times for ringing the Minister’s office saying, ““We are the House of Lords Defence Group. We are the warlords””. I am told to conduct myself with decorum and, above all, with restraint, which is what I shall attempt to do tonight. There is another reason, which stings home for me personally. In our group, we go from Marshals of the Royal Air Force and Field Marshals right down to, in my case, Second Lieutenant Lyell, Lord. I had 19 months of national service. In a week’s time, I shall not be with your Lordships, because I shall be with 16 other fellow recruits in the guards’ depot at Caterham. We started our national service—two years full-time or four years part-time, that depended—under the wonderful tuition of a sergeant who may well be known to my noble friend Lord Howell of Guildford. He was called Sergeant Kiwi Clements of the Coldstream Guards. He was a perfect example of the British Army. In eight weeks, he brought 16 of us to be competent young soldiers. He taught us many things. He kept it simple. Above all, the motto that he instilled in us was the same as we have seen on television adverts: "““Be the best. Join the Army””." Another motto, which comes from the blue sector of Liverpool—the noble Lord, Lord Alton, was here a moment ago—is: "““Only the best will do””." That also goes for the British Army. As we see and hear day after day and night after night, the British Army lives up to those two mottos in action in appallingly difficult conditions in Afghanistan. I had the very good luck—I do not know what he thinks—to serve with my noble friend Lord King in Northern Ireland. Even in the four years in the pressure cooker of Northern Ireland, I never heard him make such a passionate and excellent speech as he made earlier today. He made my speech for me. Indeed, many of my comments have already been made by the noble Lord, Lord Addington, who referred to the welfare, and above all the care and devotion, that we owe to our Armed Forces in Afghanistan and all around the world. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Drayson, and his department, and I hope that my thanks will be passed on. The House of Lords Defence Group has made two visits—we may get an opportunity to refer to this when the Minister returns later this evening or at a later stage. Usually if we are lucky enough to make visits and learn things, and if there are small points of criticism to be made and things need doing, we try our hardest to be discreet and not to echo this in your Lordships’ House, even though it is an august and excellent Chamber. On the other hand—and I have been lucky enough to serve with this group for nearly 30 years—when we find points of excellence, we may take the licence to refer to them. Last July, the group made two visits, one of which was to the Royal Naval Air Station down at Culdrose. We found a mixture of things. Captain Thicknesse runs squadrons of Sea Kings, Merlins and Seahawks there. The way in which Captain Thicknesse and the Royal Navy look after the families is first class. We understood that the average length of service of servicemen and their families at Culdrose, which is a good way from your Lordships’ House, let alone from my home in Scotland, is eight years. Two or three of the servicemen whom we met had been with their families there for close on 20 years. RNAS Culdrose is a prime example. One week later, the group was fortunate enough to go to Royal Air Force Coningsby, where we saw the first two operational squadrons of the new Typhoon. Group Captain Atha and everyone else on that station were a superb example of the commitment, drive and real excellence in service that can be achieved. I hope that the Minister will tolerate me bringing up those two cases of excellence on a night such as this. I see that the time is up for me, so I conclude, as always, by sending our very best wishes to servicemen all around the world, and to those who are serving in and preparing to go to Afghanistan. From my own perspective, I send our very best wishes to the timorous, rather shy untrained recruits—and to their instructors—who are working tonight and who in a matter of months will be serving in Afghanistan with the British Army. Their motto is ““Be the best””, and they are. We salute each and every one of them tonight.