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Defence Policy

I shall seek to abide by that, Mr. Deputy Speaker. It is excellent that the words ““Help for Heroes”” have been mentioned on a number of occasions in tonight's debate. A year into the life of that charity, of which it is an honour to be a trustee, I wish to pay tribute to those who started it up, particularly its inspirational chief executive, Bryn Parry, and to the wonderful army of volunteers, not just those in Wiltshire, who have kept the office going and who have fielded all the requests and the enormous sums that have arrived there from all around the country, but the fundraisers all around the country, who have worked so hard. It has been an inspiration to be involved. Interestingly, as has been said in the debate, people in Britain have now got it; they are able to divorce what they may or may not feel about the rights and wrongs of the operations in the world in which we are partaking from their complete and universal—almost universal—admiration and respect for our armed forces. When one talks to commanders, of whatever rank, who have returned from operations, what is clear is a universal pride in the performance and courage of those whom they have commanded. We must remember that this is the hoodie generation—the PlayStation kids—who are performing so well; they are performing as heroically as their grandparents and great-grandparents did in a more heroic age. In the few minutes available to me, I wish to raise a few points about our care for the wounded. When people are injured on operations, they receive first-class treatment on the battlefield. When they go to medical facilities such as Camp Bastion, they receive first-class treatment there too. They then come to Selly Oak, which is a world-class organisation. I am not one of those people who signs No. 10 website petitions asking for the restoration of military hospitals, because if I were still in the Army and I were wounded, I would want to go to Selly Oak. It is a centre of excellence where people have developed real skills in dealing with cranial injuries, gunshot wounds and all sorts of other requirements. People then go to Headley Court, another fantastic organisation, which will be further improved thanks to Help for Heroes and a big injection of cash from the Government. My point is that we hope that after going to such places, the personnel return to their unit. If they do not, and they cannot continue in the Army, they may have to go back to their community; we all represent those communities. There are people living in our towns and villages who may not outwardly have a visible disability, but who might have a disability inside their heads. We are only just starting to understand post-traumatic stress. We know that it can manifest itself again 14 years after an event, so there has to be a system in place to look after people if post-traumatic stress revisits them at any point. People with a disability who are trying to come to terms with life without a job and without the support of the military family are massively important. So, I am delighted that Help for Heroes has managed to support Combat Stress, Skill Force— another wonderful charity that gets servicemen into schools and other learning institutions, so that students can benefit from their presence and they can learn a new trade—and the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association. The help that has been given is enormously good. I also wish to discuss two people, whom I visited at Selly Oak some months ago: Rifleman Stephen Vause, who was in a coma, having been injured in Basra while serving with 4th Battalion, The Rifles; and Corporal Tony Burbidge. After I saw Stephen Vause in Birmingham, he went to the neurological centre at Putney, and he is now making fantastic progress at Headley Court. Having seen him more recently, when I noticed that he had progressed so much, and having spoken with his wonderful mother, Jessica Cheeseman, I realised that Stephen will require lifelong care and his mother and his wonderful family will require support for him for the rest of his days. We must consider such issues when we talk about the wounded. The other soldier I wish to speak about is Corporal Tony Burbidge, a career soldier, who was shot in the arm in Basra. I was not with him for long enough to make a full assessment, but he had regimental sergeant major written all over him—he was a real warrior, and the Army loses people like him at its peril. I do not know whether he has yet passed his fitness test to re-enter full service in the armed forces. There was much debate about that when I bicycled 350 miles with him for Help for Heroes. He said to me that he was struggling to reach the precise level of fitness required to return to full strength. I hope that the Army and the MOD can cut such people a bit of slack. I wrote to his commanding officer, Rupert Jones, and was heartened by his reply—like all good regiments, the Rifles will look after its own. I hope that MOD will recognise that if such people cannot make the precise fitness grade, we will lose a real asset and there will be many more Corporal Burbidges to look after. I would have liked to use the second part of my speech to talk about a much more contentious issue—the appalling Government decision to axe the Defence Export Services Organisation—and about why it is so damaging at a time when we must build up our balance of payments and support our manufacturing industry. However, I recognise that there is not enough time, so I shall wait for the Queen's Speech debate to make that contribution.