---

Defence in the UK

That is certainly a very interesting development, as, of course, is the French decision to rejoin fully the NATO command. These are all factors that affect the circumstances in which we organise our defence in the UK. It seems to me that in the UK defence is still the poor relation in the progressive agenda. We have seen new thinking in education and health and on the environment, but in defence we remain stuck with some outmoded habits and a lack of new thinking. As has been said, it is perfectly true that there has been substantial and significant reorganisation of our armed forces since the end of the cold war, but it is still possible to level the criticism that we remain too much configured along cold war lines and that there is a need for further reorganisation to get us configured for the modern-day realities. America has, I believe, woken up to this; President Obama is planning an overhaul of US defence procurement and strategy, bringing it out of the cold war era. When, I wonder, will we? In every debate Ministers are urged to set up a new strategic defence review so that we can reassess and realign defence, where necessary, and make new decisions about how to face future threats and challenges, yet still they resist any suggestion that that should happen. I am confident that after the next election, whatever its outcome, a strategic defence review will be set up, but it could be doing its work a great deal sooner if some of the scoping of it were to be set in train now and were to be subject to some debate before the election.