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Defence in the World

Secondary information

Type

Parliamentary proceeding

Reference

475 c875-952 

Session

2007-08

Department

Ministry of Defence

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber

Related items

Deposited Paper DEP2008-2246
Monday, 2 June 2008
Deposited papers
House of Commons

Deposited Paper DEP2008-2247
Monday, 2 June 2008
Deposited papers
House of Commons

Proceeding contributions

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c889-91 (Link to this contribution) I think that I have taken enough interventions. The point I am making is that the militia pretended ...

Liam Fox | 475 c891-3 (Link to this contribution) Since the previous defence in the world debate, 95 British service members have made the ultimate sa...

Show all contributions (133)

David Kidney | 475 c893 (Link to this contribution) I would like to raise one thing that was not on the hon. Gentleman's list. One legacy of the 63 year...

Liam Fox | 475 c893-5 (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman will have a little patience, I shall come to exactly that issue towards the en...

Paul Keetch | 475 c897 (Link to this contribution) Under the terms of the agreement, the Falkland Islands, an overseas territory, does not possess its ...

Liam Fox | 475 c897-8 (Link to this contribution) Of course we are not considering that that should be in any way a unique UK capability. My question ...

Lord Beamish | 475 c895 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman saying that if he were the Secretary of State for Defence he would not support...

Liam Fox | 475 c895-7 (Link to this contribution) I doubt whether many of those serving think that overstretch is a myth. The hon. Gentleman might wan...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c897 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is right about the security of energy supply, so does he agree that the time is n...

Liam Fox | 475 c897 (Link to this contribution) When I recently visited the Falklands, there was an active interest in that, although whether those ...

Tobias Ellwood | 475 c886 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for that comment. On my previous visit, I was shocked to learn that the international ...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c886-7 (Link to this contribution) I give the hon. Gentleman that assurance, but with respect, there is a balance to be struck. Having ...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c886 (Link to this contribution) I give way to the hon. Gentleman, who I know has some knowledge and even, dare I say, expertise.

Patrick Mercer | 475 c889 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?

Andrew Murrison | 475 c888 (Link to this contribution) So it was a training exercise?

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c888-9 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman interrupts with a sedentary comment about whether that was a training exercise. H...

Patrick Mercer | 475 c888 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted to hear what the Secretary of State says about the recent upsurge in violence being m...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c888 (Link to this contribution) All the American resources in Basra came there for two principal reasons. First, on account of the d...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c887-8 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend asks a perfectly sensible and appropriate question. I give the answer that I always g...

Lord Davies of Stamford | 475 c923-5 (Link to this contribution) It was clear at the time that the Prime Minister believed that the situation in Iraq was such that i...

Robert Key | 475 c925 (Link to this contribution) No, he did not.

Lord Davies of Stamford | 475 c922-3 (Link to this contribution) In the brief time for which I will speak, I want to take up four points that were raised by the Secr...

Willie Rennie | 475 c923 (Link to this contribution) I hear what the hon. Gentleman says, but did he regard the Prime Minister's statement last year that...

Lord Davies of Stamford | 475 c926 (Link to this contribution) When the hon. Gentleman and I served as defence spokesmen in the Conservative party we certainly did...

Lord Beamish | 475 c926 (Link to this contribution) May I inform my hon. Friend that this is not the first time that the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr....

Robert Key | 475 c926 (Link to this contribution) It is so simple but clearly beyond the hon. Gentleman's understanding. For those who did not hear my...

Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 475 c920-2 (Link to this contribution) We look forward to hearing the answers to these important questions, which relate to the relationshi...

Julian Lewis | 475 c920 (Link to this contribution) My right hon. Friend refers to the Secretary of State's agreeing with the reduction to 2,500. I remi...

Nick Harvey | 475 c913 (Link to this contribution) I have been suggesting that we undertake a strategic defence review, which I believe the hon. Gentle...

Julian Lewis | 475 c913 (Link to this contribution) Given that we are engaged in not one but two major counter-insurgency campaigns, there is no danger ...

Nick Harvey | 475 c913-4 (Link to this contribution) I have not called for those forces to be much reduced; I have called for more co-operation with the ...

David Kidney | 475 c914-6 (Link to this contribution) I apologise to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for missing the first few minutes of his ...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c916 (Link to this contribution) Would my hon. Friend like to emphasise the point that the north-west is one of the most fertile recr...

David Kidney | 475 c916-9 (Link to this contribution) I certainly endorse my hon. Friend's oft-made point that there is good recruitment in the north-west...

Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 475 c919 (Link to this contribution) Our armed forces are committed across the world, and I intend to concentrate on Iraq, Afghanistan an...

Lord Beamish | 475 c919 (Link to this contribution) Will the right hon. Gentleman also pay tribute to the men and women of the armed forces, including t...

Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 475 c919-20 (Link to this contribution) That is true. I am thinking in particular of the Canadians, who have lost a large number of troops i...

Liam Fox | 475 c913 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way a second time. If he believes that our forces are...

Julian Lewis | 475 c947-9 (Link to this contribution) It is often alleged that this Government have no strategy and are hopeless, adrift and directionless...

Bob Ainsworth | 475 c949-52 (Link to this contribution) I do not have much time to reply to the debate, and I am sure that I will not be able to answer all ...

Bernard Jenkin | 475 c942-5 (Link to this contribution) Of course we have common interests on which we should work together, but we cannot allow other natio...

Willie Rennie | 475 c945-7 (Link to this contribution) I understand, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that I have six minutes in which to complete my remarks. I am plea...

Willie Rennie | 475 c942 (Link to this contribution) What the hon. Gentleman is saying is interesting, but does he not recognise that sometimes there are...

Tobias Ellwood | 475 c938-41 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to participate in the debate. My first question is whether ““Defence in the World””...

Bob Russell | 475 c937-8 (Link to this contribution) I am mindful of the needs of others, and of your request for shorter speeches, Mr. Deputy Speaker, s...

Lord Beamish | 475 c936-7 (Link to this contribution) Those points were raised, but there was no criticism of the actual changes. The hon. Gentleman sat o...

Gerald Howarth | 475 c936 (Link to this contribution) I wish to put it on record that there was concern at the time that the tariff would not take full ac...

Lord Beamish | 475 c934 (Link to this contribution) The report deals with that issue. We recognised what the Government had done to help with combat str...

Willie Rennie | 475 c934 (Link to this contribution) I am a member of the Defence Committee, which produced the report, and I found many instances of fir...

Lord Beamish | 475 c935-6 (Link to this contribution) As the hon. Gentleman says, when we took evidence in the Scottish Parliament we were shocked by the ...

Lord Beamish | 475 c932-3 (Link to this contribution) May I, first, apologise to you and the House, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for not being present for the begi...

Lord Davies of Stamford | 475 c933 (Link to this contribution) Does my hon. Friend agree that military personnel serving in those difficult situations do not want ...

Lord Beamish | 475 c933-4 (Link to this contribution) I am not sure that our armed forces abroad welcome visits by all journalists, but every time I have ...

Tobias Ellwood | 475 c934 (Link to this contribution) Without detracting from the fantastic work done at Selly Oak and Headley Court, which I recently vis...

Lord Davies of Stamford | 475 c926-8 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point. The judgment of the hon. Member for Woodspr...

Speaker | 475 c932 (Link to this contribution) Order. A number of hon. Members are seeking to catch my eye, but we are running out of time. If cont...

Robert Key | 475 c928-32 (Link to this contribution) I listened to the speech of the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Mr. Davies) more in sorrow th...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c905 (Link to this contribution) I cannot disagree and I hope that the winding-up speech will contain a good announcement for us—some...

Julian Lewis | 475 c905 (Link to this contribution) I am sorry to interrupt the hon. Gentleman's excellent speech, but a recent written answer gave some...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c905 (Link to this contribution) I cannot disagree. We need that news tonight.

Jim Sheridan | 475 c905 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend may be aware that there are already threats of job losses on the Clyde if those aircr...

Lord Beamish | 475 c904 (Link to this contribution) Would it not also help if the Chinooks, which the last Tory Government procured, could actually fly?...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c903-4 (Link to this contribution) I do not disagree; in fact, my right hon. Friend may well be aware that there has been a change in c...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c904-5 (Link to this contribution) My understanding is that we are investing a lot of money in trying to get those aircraft into servic...

Paul Keetch | 475 c904 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman knows that I have raised this issue with the Prime Minister. Would it not be a fi...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c904 (Link to this contribution) Of course it would. What can we say about mothballed Chinooks that were meant for our special servic...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c902 (Link to this contribution) I agree. We need equality for members of our armed forces. They all risk their lives and should get ...

Jim Sheridan | 475 c902 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend raises the important point of recognising the role that our troops play. When they re...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c903 (Link to this contribution) I do not disagree; in fact, that is my point. It was this Government who introduced the compensation...

Tobias Ellwood | 475 c903 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a powerful argument. Let me put to him a circumstance that arose recently. ...

Bob Ainsworth | 475 c903 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend should not assist in perpetuating the myth that we are comparing like with like. We s...

Robert Key | 475 c898 (Link to this contribution) May I clarify what my hon. Friend has just said, as it is absolutely crucial? I take it that he was ...

David Kidney | 475 c900 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman exonerate Denmark and the Netherlands from what he has just said about prese...

Liam Fox | 475 c898-900 (Link to this contribution) All members of NATO have to decide what to put first: their national interests and historical grieva...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c901-2 (Link to this contribution) It is important that we are talking about defence in the world, and I should like to start by paying...

Liam Fox | 475 c900-1 (Link to this contribution) It is clear that the Netherlands and Denmark have been operating honourably in the south of the coun...

Nick Harvey | 475 c912-3 (Link to this contribution) It is fair to say that icebreakers would not be at the top of our shopping list. We are all keen th...

Bob Russell | 475 c912 (Link to this contribution) Icebreakers.

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c912 (Link to this contribution) Which part of the shopping list would the hon. Gentleman prioritise and which part does he not suppo...

Nick Harvey | 475 c911-2 (Link to this contribution) The Minister makes an interesting suggestion. I do not have such an inflator at my fingertips, but i...

Bob Ainsworth | 475 c911 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman, unsurprisingly, predicts well. However, why does he raise the issue in that way?...

Nick Harvey | 475 c911 (Link to this contribution) I will give way to the Minister. I predict that he will say, as he has previously, that neither we n...

Bob Ainsworth | 475 c911 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Nick Harvey | 475 c910-1 (Link to this contribution) Yes, it might indeed be climate change. Both recruitment and retention remain essential to our effo...

Bob Russell | 475 c910 (Link to this contribution) It is climate change—it is all one big season now.

Nick Harvey | 475 c910 (Link to this contribution) It is important that we should see it, as should the Committee that the right hon. Gentleman chairs....

Nick Harvey | 475 c910 (Link to this contribution) I think that there will have been raised eyebrows among the public with regard to certain uses of he...

Jim Sheridan | 475 c909-10 (Link to this contribution) While we are on the subject of helicopters, does the hon. Gentleman agree with me, and with the gene...

Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom | 475 c910 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the Ministry of Defence promised the Defence Committee in May last ...

Nick Harvey | 475 c907 (Link to this contribution) It has never been the policy of our party that we should withdraw them overnight, but it remains our...

Liam Fox | 475 c906 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way so early in his speech. Will he clarify whether i...

Nick Harvey | 475 c907-9 (Link to this contribution) I have made it perfectly clear that, as things stand today, we would not start to withdraw the troop...

Tobias Ellwood | 475 c907 (Link to this contribution) Further to the question that my hon. Friend the Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) has just asked, woul...

Gerald Howarth | 475 c906 (Link to this contribution) I have just had my invitation to the roll-out of the A400M on 26 June. I hope the hon. Gentleman wil...

Nick Harvey | 475 c906 (Link to this contribution) I welcome this debate, and I shall start, as others have, by paying tribute to the work of our armed...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c906 (Link to this contribution) That is a kind offer, but I am sure that we will all get an invitation. The A400M is an important ai...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c880-1 (Link to this contribution) Broadly, although the situation in Kosovo has to be nurtured and encouraged step by step, most peopl...

Paul Keetch | 475 c881 (Link to this contribution) Would the Secretary of State reflect on the fact that we are talking not about European troops deplo...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c880 (Link to this contribution) First, the hon. Gentleman is right to pay tribute to those forces whom he served with, and as he wou...

Chris Bryant | 475 c880 (Link to this contribution) Following on from my right hon. Friend's point about the number of troops in Kosovo, many of us were...

Lord Beamish | 475 c883 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend give way?

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c882 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend puts her finger on one of the key aims of Veterans day—a day of appropriate celebrati...

Linda Gilroy | 475 c882 (Link to this contribution) I thank my right hon. Friend and his colleagues for their work to ensure that we mark the contributi...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c881-2 (Link to this contribution) I reassure my hon. Friend that many debates that NUT meetings generate have the opposite effect from...

David Drew | 475 c881 (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the steps he has taken on Kosovo, which is a function of our ...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c881 (Link to this contribution) I am always happy to accept congratulations for the Government, no matter where they come from—[Laug...

Lord Beamish | 475 c883 (Link to this contribution) Like other members of the Defence Committee, I value those visits because they give us an insight in...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c883 (Link to this contribution) The matter needs to be looked into quickly. I will take it away and get back to my hon. Friend. I ha...

Liam Fox | 475 c883 (Link to this contribution) On a point of clarification, the Secretary of State recently made a statement on the future rapid ef...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c884 (Link to this contribution) We will not be in a position to announce the in-service date for FRES until the main investment deci...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c883 (Link to this contribution) I am conscious of the time that I have been on my feet and the many pages that remain in front of me...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c884-5 (Link to this contribution) I would not rely entirely on the statistics published by the Taliban on the size of the poppy crop w...

Willie Rennie | 475 c884 (Link to this contribution) I hear what the Secretary of State says about improved security in Afghanistan. I often think that t...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c885-6 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes another good point, which reinforces the part of my response to the hon. Member...

Linda Gilroy | 475 c885 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way again. Does he not agree that another important...

Bob Russell | 475 c877 (Link to this contribution) Can the Secretary of State clarify how many countries have deployed troops to southern Afghanistan? ...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c876-7 (Link to this contribution) I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman for, in an early intervention, putting his finger on an issue th...

Tobias Ellwood | 475 c880 (Link to this contribution) The 2nd Battalion, The Rifles is the battalion with which I served and I hope that the House wishes ...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c878-9 (Link to this contribution) I do not intend to get diverted into a debate about procurement or equipment issues. I have a number...

Gerald Howarth | 475 c878 (Link to this contribution) I am extremely grateful to the Secretary of State, as indeed we all are, for his giving way. He ment...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c878 (Link to this contribution) It is well known that the Department goes through a process of regularly reviewing its equipment pro...

Lindsay Hoyle | 475 c877 (Link to this contribution) Is it not fair to say that the weight has been on the few and our NATO allies have been shy in comin...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c877-8 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend. We have repeatedly debated and discussed this matter, and I have repeat...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c875-6 (Link to this contribution) I am glad to have been able to drag the hon. Gentleman to his feet, and I shall deal in more detail ...

Paul Keetch | 475 c876 (Link to this contribution) Will the Secretary of State give way?

Philip Hollobone | 475 c876 (Link to this contribution) Is not the context of this debate that although the United Kingdom has, pro rata, the best armed for...

Nick Harvey | 475 c875 (Link to this contribution) We had two particular objections to the ballistic missile defence programme proposed by the American...

Brian Jenkins | 475 c887 (Link to this contribution) I listened with interest to the fact that the Afghan national forces are now coming into play and ar...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c877 (Link to this contribution) There have been significant developments in that direction in the sense that the French have agreed ...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c876 (Link to this contribution) I shall not give way any more on this matter, as I shall deal with it specifically in my speech. I a...

Lord Davies of Stamford | 475 c925-6 (Link to this contribution) I listened very carefully to what he said and I cannot imagine what other purpose there was of sayin...

Bernard Jenkin | 475 c941-2 (Link to this contribution) I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Ellwood) on his remarks about the lac...

Lord Browne of Ladyton | 475 c875 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House has considered the matter of defence in the world." I welcome this o...

Subjects

Armed forces Defence Deployment Casualties Iraq Peacekeeping operations Military bases Military alliances Terrorism Security USA Afghanistan NATO Peace negotiations

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