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Armed Forces Personnel

No, actually, it is not. In July 2009, I produced a Green Paper on the covenant. I do not think the hon. Gentleman read it and I do not think many of the new Ministers did either, because they clearly fell for the civil service tricks that were tried on me. They were obviously told how hard it would be to implement such a measure, although they finally realised that it could be implemented. Although not widely read in the House, my Green Paper was widely welcomed by the services community. It received a good deal of coverage and would have formed part of our programme had we been re-elected. It is not true that it was not on anyone's radar screen when we were in government. I suggest that everyone should read the very well thought out Green Paper that I produced. Even the Under-Secretary of State for Defence, the right hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Mr Robathan), the current Veterans Minister, has admitted that it covered the main points. One of the Government's policies we are concerned about relates to armed forces and war widows' pensions. The year-on-year change to uprate pensions using the consumer prices index rather than the retail prices index will disproportionately affect members of the armed forces community, who rely on their pensions at a younger age than almost anyone else. The impact will be felt not just by the present generation, including those who are fighting today in Afghanistan, but by those who landed on the beaches of Normandy. The Forces Pension Society estimates that, as a result of the Government's changes, a disabled double amputee of corporal rank aged 28 will lose some £587,000 by the age of 70, and that a war widow with children will receive a basic per annum pension that will be £94 less next year. The society has said:"““The extent of devaluation of Armed Forces pensions has become a matter of deep concern to Service people, past and present.””" The society's chairman, Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Moore, has said:"““I have never seen a Government erode the morale of the Armed Forces so quickly'””." Julie McCarthy of the Army Families Federation—I had the privilege of working closely with her when I was a Minister, and I pay tribute to her and to the representatives of the RAF and Naval Families Federations—has said:"““The demands of the service have not gone down... but””" personnel"““are seeing their pay frozen, the threat of redundancy and now allowance cuts.””" [Interruption.] In the light of that, I wonder whether the Minister will tell us why—[Interruption.]