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Defence in the UK

It is a pleasure to speak in what has so far, quite rightly, been a wide-ranging debate. I begin by paying tribute to those who have given their lives in the service of this country since the last defence debate, and to their families, who are left to bear the burden for a very long time. There have been some excellent speeches, not least from my hon. Friend the shadow Secretary of State, although I am rather concerned that he did not make the point that we are living in the deepest recession in my lifetime, which will severely restrict his hopes and aspirations for future defence policy. There will be slippage in many programmes and in the amount of money that the current Government have committed for the future. Those problems will land in the lap of the next Secretary of State. I do not disagree in any way with my hon. Friend on the principle that, as well as being able to fight counter-insurgency wars, we need to be able to tackle what I call conventional, state-against-state warfare. As a down-to-earth person, however, the question that comes into my mind is how Members of all parties think that that can be paid for. The current Government will not be holding the reins, because I do not believe that they will be returned to office at the next general election. That very difficult question will therefore have to be dealt with by the Conservative party, if, as I hope, we are on the other side of the House.