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Debate and Adjournment debate on Thursday, 17 November 2005, in the House of Commons, led by Adam Ingram.

Defence in the United Kingdom

Debate on a motion for the adjournment on Defence in the United Kingdom.

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
439 c1135-210 
Session
2005-06
Department
Ministry of Defence
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 439 c1135 (Link to this contribution) Order. I should point out before we start this debate that it is incumbent on everybody in the Chamb...
Speaker | 439 c1159 (Link to this contribution) Order. May I remind all hon. Members that Mr. Speaker has imposed a 15-minute time limit on speeches...
Show all contributions (141)
David TC Davies | 439 c1151 (Link to this contribution) : I have not been in Parliament long, but will my right hon. and learned Friend confirm that, during...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1151-2 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point. I am looking across the Chamber at certain Labour Members, who I ...
Lord Reid of Cardowan | 439 c1151 (Link to this contribution) In terms of the absolute amount in real terms, the money allocated has gone up by 1.4 per cent. per ...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1151 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State and I could go on for a long time with this ping-pong across the Dispatch Box...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1151 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State always makes these figures sound as if there is an increase. I seem to rememb...
Peter Kilfoyle | 439 c1152 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. and learned Gentleman makes much of the loss of manpower—politically incorrect, I kno...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1152 (Link to this contribution) I think that I will go back to the right hon. and learned Gentleman’s earlier comments. I indicated ...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1152 (Link to this contribution) We made it clear that we were going to find savings of £2.7 billion, which we were going to transfer...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1152 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman give way?
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1147-8 (Link to this contribution) I rise to speak today with somewhat mixed feelings. On 6 December, at my own request, I shall return...
Lord Beamish | 439 c1148 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. and learned Gentleman talks about overstretch of the armed forces, but will he tell t...
Lord Reid of Cardowan | 439 c1149 (Link to this contribution) I have no intention of trying to cover all the points that the right hon. and learned Gentleman rais...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1150 (Link to this contribution) I have heard this argument on a number of occasions: that because the Conservative Government made c...
Lord Reid of Cardowan | 439 c1150-1 (Link to this contribution) I am willing to engage in this discussion with the right hon. and learned Gentleman, who like me has...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1149 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for the Secretary of State’s clarification and obviously I accept what he has to say. ...
Lord Reid of Cardowan | 439 c1149-50 (Link to this contribution) There are two different statements there. We are all concerned about IEDs—improvised explosive devic...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1150 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Secretary of State. When I referred to Iraq I was quoting the words of the form...
Lord Reid of Cardowan | 439 c1150 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman confirm that under the Conservative Government defence exp...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1143-4 (Link to this contribution) I am usually generous and I have been exceptionally generous this afternoon, but I really do want to...
Lembit Opik | 439 c1144 (Link to this contribution) The Minister has been generous and I thank him for giving way. I and others welcome many of the cha...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1144 (Link to this contribution) I am being very careful about what I say, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The inquest has not yet commenced and ...
Lembit Opik | 439 c1144-5 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Minister for his reply to my first question. Does he accept that the reason why...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1144 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his comments. I have not seen the report either. I note what...
Speaker | 439 c1144 (Link to this contribution) Order. I am conscious that the Minister is treading carefully. He will be aware that parts of the is...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1146-7 (Link to this contribution) I do not know whether my hon. Friend is asking me specifically about the warship programme. I am con...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1145 (Link to this contribution) I hope that the hon. Gentleman does not over-interpret what I am saying. There are good reasons why ...
Lord Beamish | 439 c1145-6 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend knows that many shipbuilding communities throughout the country are waiting wit...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1141 (Link to this contribution) We need to look at things proportionally. We could have party knockabout—[Hon. Members: ““Why not?””...
David TC Davies | 439 c1141-2 (Link to this contribution) As someone who served in the Territorial Army when the last cuts were being made in the 1980s and ea...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1142 (Link to this contribution) I do not know who was giving advice at that time, but there was major mismanagement of the economy, ...
David Hamilton | 439 c1142 (Link to this contribution) I supported the changes taking place in Scotland and am pleased that recruitment is increasing, but ...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1142 (Link to this contribution) We will seek to do so. I do not know precisely where the barriers are, but all Members could help by...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1142-3 (Link to this contribution) No, I want to make some progress. I have already touched on our recognition of the importance of fa...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1143 (Link to this contribution) No, I really have been generous. If I can make some progress I shall return to the hon. Gentlemen. ...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1154 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I am sure that Ministers heard his remarks. I hope that they wi...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1154 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. and learned Gentleman should wait and hear what my intervention is. Why does he alway...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1154 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way if the Minister wants to answer my question.
James Gray | 439 c1153 (Link to this contribution) : Is my right hon. and learned Friend aware that the situation in the TA may be significantly worse ...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1152-3 (Link to this contribution) I know from my own constituency experience, because I have Tidworth in my constituency, that there h...
Peter Bone | 439 c1153 (Link to this contribution) : I am sure that my right hon. and learned Friend is aware that the Government recently changed the ...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1153 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend and neighbour makes a good point. It again highlights the difference between the Mini...
Mark Pritchard | 439 c1153-4 (Link to this contribution) Does my right hon. and learned Friend share my concern at the haemorrhaging of special forces to the...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1153 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. He knows that my Front-Bench colleague, my ho...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1139 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman hits on another point that we must address. I do not know whether the Under-Secre...
David Chaytor | 439 c1139 (Link to this contribution) On the question of human resources, will he look again at the way in which the armed forces advise y...
Bob Russell | 439 c1137 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister confirm that about 9 per cent. of the soldiers in the British Army are not British...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1137 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that I said quite that at Defence questions the other day, but we would need to check...
Mike Penning | 439 c1137 (Link to this contribution) Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Can the Minister assure the House that no one from the 1st battalion ...
Speaker | 439 c1136 (Link to this contribution) Order. The hon. Gentleman is making a rather long intervention, and he must use the correct parliame...
James Gray | 439 c1139 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister pay particular attention to a detailed matter regarding our Commonwealth soldiers?...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1138-9 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for those remarks, and he is right. Change is always difficult, but ...
David Drew | 439 c1138 (Link to this contribution) I mentioned at Defence questions on Monday that I had the opportunity last week to spend time with t...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1137 (Link to this contribution) The reason for the proportion of non-British citizens is probably a mixture of those alternatives. A...
Philip Hollobone | 439 c1141 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister confirm that manpower in the Territorial Army is now at its lowest level since the...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1140 (Link to this contribution) There will be an announcement on the names in the not-too-distant future. The hon. Gentleman asks me...
Tobias Ellwood | 439 c1140 (Link to this contribution) I am trying to put in context what the Minister said about looking after the historical legacy of th...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1140 (Link to this contribution) No, I want to make some progress. I understand that my hon. Friend wishes to speak in the debate, so...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1140-1 (Link to this contribution) I have given the ones that are doing well—[Laughter.] No, we must be realistic about this. The deter...
Michael Moore | 439 c1140 (Link to this contribution) For completeness, will the Minister tell us what happened to the figures for the King’s Own Scottish...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1139-40 (Link to this contribution) To be realistic, I could say that there are other things that could be improved. We are not perfect....
Lord Robathan | 439 c1135 (Link to this contribution) I had a long telephone conversation with General Jackson on Tuesday afternoon and I hope to meet him...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1135-6 (Link to this contribution) I have been intervened on Mr. Deputy Speaker, and I do not know whether you are going to allow me to...
Mike Penning | 439 c1136 (Link to this contribution) As we discussed in the House the other day, the new arms plot and the reconfiguration of the infantr...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1135 (Link to this contribution) Recent defence debates have provided an opportunity to discuss the qualities of the armed forces and...
Adam Ingram | 439 c1135 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Gentleman.
Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton | 439 c1178 (Link to this contribution) On Monday, the Minister said that TA manning levels are 31,680. In my role as an officer in the TA, ...
Ann Winterton | 439 c1177-8 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly in this important and wide-ranging debate on defence in t...
Jeremy Corbyn | 439 c1175-7 (Link to this contribution) I have no intention of turning it into a debate on Iraq, but Iraq is an important factor in British ...
Speaker | 439 c1175 (Link to this contribution) I am quite happy to have a passing reference to the position of troops in other countries, but I do ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 439 c1175 (Link to this contribution) I do not want to challenge your ruling, Madam Deputy Speaker, but if it is about defence in the UK i...
Speaker | 439 c1175 (Link to this contribution) Order. May I remind the hon. Gentleman that today’s debate is about defence in the UK?
Jeremy Corbyn | 439 c1174-5 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to able to take part in the debate. Unfortunately, the Minister of State would not give...
Ann Winterton | 439 c1178-9 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes his point very clearly and backs up what I am trying to say. Part of the probl...
James Gray | 439 c1179 (Link to this contribution) : I want to pick up on a small and technical but important detail. If a member of the Territorial Ar...
Bob Russell | 439 c1193-4 (Link to this contribution) I will respect your request for brevity, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and ditch two thirds of my speech so th...
Robert Key | 439 c1189-93 (Link to this contribution) Defence is the first duty of any Government but, at the moment, the defence world seems to be in a p...
Mark Pritchard | 439 c1194-5 (Link to this contribution) I join colleagues and hon. Members in paying tribute to Her Majesty’s armed forces around the world ...
John P Smith | 439 c1180-3 (Link to this contribution) It is always a privilege to take part in defence debates for the important reason that it gives us a...
Speaker | 439 c1189 (Link to this contribution) Order. About six hon. Members still wish to participate in the debate. I calculate that we have abou...
Lord Beamish | 439 c1186-9 (Link to this contribution) I echo the tributes that my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of Glamorgan (John Smith) paid to our me...
Mark Pritchard | 439 c1195-6 (Link to this contribution) Wiltshire can wait for now. My right hon. Friend for North-East Hampshire was quite right to say tha...
David TC Davies | 439 c1196-7 (Link to this contribution) It is my great privilege to represent the men and women of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers i...
Philip Hollobone | 439 c1197 (Link to this contribution) I, too, had a brief career in the Territorial Army, serving from 1984 to 1993 in the Oxford universi...
Mark Pritchard | 439 c1199 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend share my concern that the Bowman radio does not fit into Land Rovers and that th...
Tobias Ellwood | 439 c1199 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point. The Clansman radio system was introduced in the 1970s and we are ...
Adam Afriyie | 439 c1199 (Link to this contribution) Was my hon. Friend also concerned about the equipment in use on the ground, such as Clansman radios,...
Tobias Ellwood | 439 c1197-9 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone). This is the firs...
Lord Robathan | 439 c1202-4 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State says from a sedentary position that it has been an excellent day; he has not ...
Lord Robathan | 439 c1200-2 (Link to this contribution) Defence in the United Kingdom is a fairly topical subject given the bombings in July, terrorism in t...
Tobias Ellwood | 439 c1199-200 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes a good point, which is an indictment of the project. I learned from going out w...
Lord Touhig | 439 c1204-6 (Link to this contribution) This has been an important and valuable debate, and every Member’s contribution has helped in that r...
Lord Touhig | 439 c1206 (Link to this contribution) No. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me but I have very little time. Under normal circums...
Lord Robathan | 439 c1206 (Link to this contribution) Will the Minister briefly respond to my question about the report in The Daily Telegraph on Monday?
Lord Touhig | 439 c1207-10 (Link to this contribution) As I think that the right hon. and learned Gentleman knows, the responsibility of the Attorney-Gener...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1207 (Link to this contribution) It is important that we get this straight. Is the Minister saying that the Attorney-General on no oc...
Lord Touhig | 439 c1210 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman must forgive me, but I will not give way. I assume that he stood on the basis of ...
Lord Reid of Cardowan | 439 c1156 (Link to this contribution) I have listened very carefully indeed to the right hon. and learned Gentleman, who is always judicio...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1156 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State will note that my words today are largely not my own—they are the words of fo...
Lord Reid of Cardowan | 439 c1156 (Link to this contribution) Not only do I take that seriously but I met the Chiefs of the Defence Staff a considerable time ago ...
Julian Lewis | 439 c1160 (Link to this contribution) In support of the hon. Gentleman’s remarks about Trident, although from the opposite side of the arg...
Peter Kilfoyle | 439 c1159-60 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry that the Secretary of State is about to leave—ah, he has decided to return. It is not for...
Desmond Swayne | 439 c1157 (Link to this contribution) On 10 November, at column 35, the Secretary of State spelled out in answer to me the high stakes in ...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1157 (Link to this contribution) I do not think that in anything I have said—or, indeed, in what was said by the former Chiefs of the...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1158-9 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend who, as the House knows, has had experience on the ground in Iraq. I...
Peter Kilfoyle | 439 c1160-1 (Link to this contribution) A future risk assessment was carried out in March 2003 to consider our changing circumstances, but u...
Michael Moore | 439 c1167 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. I do not wish to comment, but I am sure that the Minister has heard the hon. Lady’s point. P...
David Wright | 439 c1167-8 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (Mr. Moore) in thi...
Michael Moore | 439 c1161-6 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Kilfoyle) made some important points, to which I hope to ...
Ann Winterton | 439 c1166 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman confirm that the Scottish regiments—I have an interest because members of my...
David Wright | 439 c1168-71 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is right. We may be taking a step too far with some of the proposals for privatisatio...
Jeremy Corbyn | 439 c1168 (Link to this contribution) As someone who grew up near the Donnington depot—which we used to refer to as the dump, but that is ...
David Wright | 439 c1168 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right. The FDSCI announcement was about job losses at Donnington, but I hope t...
Mark Pritchard | 439 c1168 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman mentioned jobs growth at Donnington. Can he clarify which Minister confirmed, and...
David TC Davies | 439 c1171 (Link to this contribution) I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s comments and I am delighted that he supports Britain having an indepe...
David Wright | 439 c1171 (Link to this contribution) I apologise. I was willing to let the hon. Gentleman intervene. My position is clear. I support the...
Jeremy Corbyn | 439 c1171 (Link to this contribution) Is my hon. Friend confident that this deterrent is either a deterrent or independent?
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 439 c1172 (Link to this contribution) I agree with much of what the hon. Member for Telford (David Wright) has just said. I share fully in...
David Wright | 439 c1171 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. Let us start to think about identity and how we connect and reconnect our communities with o...
Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 439 c1173-4 (Link to this contribution) I shall draw that question to the attention of my Committee. It is an interesting idea and it would ...
Jeremy Corbyn | 439 c1173 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased by what the right hon. Gentleman says about the possibility of the Defence Committee un...
Ann Winterton | 439 c1179 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for clarifying that. One can imagine a tight-knit unit with a medic...
James Gray | 439 c1183-6 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Vale of Glamorgan (John Smith) and I have three things in common, the first of w...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1154-6 (Link to this contribution) I have known General Mike Jackson for a long time. He and I have had our disagreements, as the House...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1152 (Link to this contribution) I will in a second. Let me finish the point. I fear that the major project report 2005 will make fu...
Marquess of Lothian | 439 c1149 (Link to this contribution) Since I took on this role for the Opposition, I have made it clear that I believe that it is essenti...
David Wright | 439 c1171 (Link to this contribution) That is the very debate that we need to have, but I have put my position clearly on the line this af...
Lord Touhig | 439 c1206-7 (Link to this contribution) I am making a number of points, and I hope that the hon. Gentleman accepts that I shall come to that...
David Wright | 439 c1171 (Link to this contribution) That is an interesting point, but times have moved on. I hope that I have made my position very clea...
Subjects
Armed forces Defence Army Deployment Air force Defence equipment Recruitment Navy Military bases Radar Military aircraft Scotland Technology Reorganisation King's Own Scottish Borderers Royal Scots
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