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3.32 pm
Laura Moffatt (Crawley): It is a great pleasure to follow the right hon. and learned Member for North-East Fife (Mr. Campbell). I respected his contribution to the
Select Committee on Defence and miss him now that he is no longer on it. [Hon. Members: "Aah!"] It was extremely helpful to the new members on the Committee to have anchors--members who knew the subject inside out--to help us understand the issues.This is an interesting area, particularly when one comes new to it. I have found some defence terminology extremely difficult to get to grips with. We often talk in the Select Committee, and wherever the Select Committee goes to visit the armed forces, about UAVs, Paveways, DSO and bars. I find the subject of today's debate much easier to get to grips with, as it is about what those who serve in our armed forces mean to us and how much they are a force for good in our nation.
Some right hon. and hon. Members say that our armed forces must be held in special regard, and I believe that to be true. But it troubles me, particularly having been a nurse, when people say to me as a Member of Parliament, "Of course, you don't quite understand how things work in the armed forces." They talk in a very patronising way, as if not having served in the armed forces means that one cannot understand how they work. People have done that to nurses for many years. They call them wonderful angels, but the reality is that nurses, just like those in the armed forces--although we respect and understand that extra mile that we want our armed forces to go for us--want to be treated decently. We all want to be offered the advantages that other people have. Why should we not?
People sometimes argue that the armed forces should have a different system of discipline from that available to other members of our community. That argument cannot be supported. Why should they not be treated decently, with proper remuneration? Their contribution should be reflected in the remuneration they receive and in the way in which we view them. Their backgrounds should be respected and their rights protected. Their families should be decently housed, their children should receive a good education and there should be first-class health care for all. Their equipment must not let them down, and they should have time to recuperate between tours of duty. My hon. Friend the Member for Vale of Glamorgan (Mr. Smith), who is no longer in the Chamber, referred to that. However, having visited many of our armed forces in the United Kingdom and abroad, I understand that part of the reason why personnel want to be there is that they like being kept busy and active. Striking the right balance is important. That is why getting things right for our service people's families back home is so important. The Select Committee has considered many of those matters. Those are the issues that I particularly enjoy, and we have tackled them in depth.
The Government are making enormous progress. We are tackling the things that most trouble our armed forces abroad. Why should a serving soldier be worried because his wife or partner is concerned that their daughter is moving school for the fourth time? That means that he cannot concentrate on his job. Why should we allow that to happen? The Government are actively tackling that issue to ensure that we offer decent education and change the way in which we allow accommodation to be kept for service families even though there may be changes for the person serving.
No matter where we went--and particularly in the Falkland Islands--the question of access to telephones drove people crazy, I was in the Falklands for just a week, and I felt completely isolated from my family. I had to
buy a £10 phone card, which was chewed up instantly. As soon as we got home, however, Ministers responded and enormous changes were made to the amount of time that people were allowed to telephone home and use computers to send e-mail. Those are the things that make a difference for our armed forces.I have already mentioned discipline. Some people argue that the Armed Forces Discipline Bill will change the way in which we do business and destroy discipline within the armed forces. I cannot think of anything more untrue. We should all be subject to the same rules and regulations. If I were at home and my husband was in trouble for some reason, I would want to be sure that proper procedures were being adhered to, rather than his being taken behind the latrines and told off. We must ensure that those in the armed forces are subject to the same rules as the rest of us.
The armed forces are special--we cannot get away from that. Respecting every member of the armed forces is crucial, irrespective of where and who they are, whatever their gender, sexual orientation or ethnic origin. If there is anything in our society that should be a meritocracy, it must be our armed forces.
We must ensure that everyone has a career path through the services. I am heartened by the way in which the national vocational qualification system has been embraced by the armed forces, and the learning credits and extended learning credits have been taken up so successfully. I believe that if people are fit for the armed forces and get a good education, they are fit for life itself.
We must be careful not to forget about people once they are in the armed forces. We must set targets to improve their work, and the Government have been brave about that: for example, they have set targets for the number of people from different backgrounds in the forces. There is no better way to be judged, because these are not just weasel words--the Government are striving to achieve the targets that they set, and I am very pleased to hear that, in many ways, they are doing just that.
I return to the important question of service families. We must ensure that our service men and women are able to settle down and do the jobs demanded of them. We are struggling to recover from the appalling mess that resulted from the previous Government's housing sell-off. Few members of the Select Committee disagree about that. I too pay tribute to the Army Families Federation, whose excellent reports are a superb source of information, for the Select Committee and all hon. Members, about the problems faced by army families.
The federation has recommended that the relatives of serving men and women abroad should be able to make decisions about what happens to their homes. Why should people serving in Kosovo, for instance, have to worry about things back home, such as moving house? Why should not their spouses or partners be able to deal with that? I support the recommendation wholeheartedly.
Unlike the previous Government, this Government are able to look holistically at the problems faced by all our communities, including the armed forces. Housing and forward planning for our service personnel is crucial. I was heartened that the housing Green Paper recognised for the first time that some service personnel should be considered homeless. The way forward must be to talk to local authorities and housing associations. I am not keen on the phrase "joined-up government", but it must be right to involve other Departments in resolving those people's difficulties.
The Select Committee deals with many matters, but I am especially interested in the defence medical services. I was recently lobbied by people campaigning for Crawley hospital, who told me about their experiences talking to Ministers, so I--and other Select Committee colleagues--understand the strength of feeling involved.
The Select Committee often revisits the question whether the defence medical services will recover from their almost impossible position. However, I believe that that recovery is beginning. There is now proper co-operation between those services and the national health service to resolve their joint problems. The House cannot pretend that the two services can be separated and that they have nothing to do with each other. I think that that has sometimes been the temptation, but we must consider the two services together.
The Select Committee report was a little firm on the question of the Territorial Army, about which the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier) has been most exercised. Many members of the Committee supported the hon. Gentleman in his work to ensure that the Government understood the worth of the Territorial Army. In my own town, the 103 Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers regiment has undergone painful and enormous change, but it has said that that has been to its advantage, as its TA personnel are used more effectively and are more involved in regimental activities.
However, we must ensure that the Territorial Army gets the training days that it needs. They are crucial if the TA is to play its part. Its members are keen to work alongside their full-time counterparts, so it is vital that they get the necessary training.
There has been an enormous upturn in recruitment to the armed forces. The success of the recently introduced taster days prompts me to suggest that all three services should offer work experience. I do not know whether other hon. Members are like me in allowing young people into their offices for two weeks so that they can see how the House works. I cannot take them everywhere, but I can give them a good idea of what it is to be a Member of Parliament. I hope that my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary will listen to the suggestion that work experience might give young people a better idea of service life.
The people in our armed forces enthuse me and make me willing to sit for hours in the Select Committee meetings to make sure that we get right the way that they do their business, as we are in business on their behalf. We must also remember those who have served before, and I am keen to recognise the contribution of women, especially in the second world war. Important fundraising efforts are in hand for a memorial to those women who served in the forces and to those who contributed in other ways to the war effort. I have done some fundraising with the women's section of the British Legion at Lowfield Heath. They are wonderful women and keen to raise some cash for the memorial.
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