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The Earl of Onslow: And major, and probably colonel and lance-corporal. However, all such officers we saw had had unpleasant experiences of sexual harassment. In most cases, nothing had happened as a result. The officers concerned did not want to take action because that would have been embarrassing and difficult. One such case resulted in a court martial. It seemed that there were too many such incidents. I do not know what can be done about that.
Pay 2000 has also caused problems. One warrant officer was promoted on 28th March. Another was promoted on 1st February. Pay 2000 meant a difference of £45 per day in their pay. I believe that that was the figure. It was sufficiently large for me to notice. The noble Lord, Lord Tomlinson, who was present, will perhaps confirm or correct that figure. The differential in pay was considerable.
I turn to equipment. Bowman, the Army wireless system, is Heaven knows how far behind. Somehow, the system must be put right. It is intolerable that people should go into battle with wireless sets which do not work when the Dutch and Canadians all have perfectly workable systems which we could have bought off the shelf. The SA80 rifle used not to work at all. Everybody says that the new version is extremely good. Why was it not used? Because the Army said that it could not be got to the aircraft carrier. That excuse is not acceptable.
There are further problems with equipment. There is no Scimitar replacement. When I joined the Army there were Dingo scout cars and Daimler armoured cars, which were designed in about 1941. Subsequently, Saracens were used. I refer to the light cavalry reconnaissance vehicle. There seems to be a great problem with that replacement. I suspect that we are paying too much, unnecessarily, for the Eurofighter. I am told that the money spent on carriers—I totally support the carriers—is making a terrible hole.
We went also to Sierra Leone. That arose by accident. Ministers refused to make up their minds until quite late as to whether or not to intervene. Triumph was not present, so we went by air to the airbase. The sudden arrival of really professional soldiers threatened the various warring parties. They drew back and within minutes we were involved in a neo-colonial situation. That was welcomed beyond anything by the people who live there. At a reception at the High Commission, I asked the chief policeman, "How long would you like us to stay and advise you?" He replied, "Twenty-five years". Their experience of their own self-government has been catastrophically disastrous.
I hope that the Government will ensure that the aim is clear. At present, our presence in Sierra Leone is based solely on bluff of an immensely high quality. I was in the jungle keeping my two colleagues awake and the animals away by snoring. I saw one of the soldiers, a mortar platoon corporal in the descendents of the Durham Light Infantry, in the pouring rain. I asked the soldier what he was reading. I am not normally totally lost for words, but he said that he was reading Homer's Odyssey. He then said that he interspersed it with Jackie Collins; a good intellectual mix.
My point is that we are in serious danger of getting into overstretch. Twenty-seven per cent of the Army is now committed. I know that the figure was 27 per cent when the present Government came into power because that is what Mr Hoon said yesterday. The Army hoped that the SDR would make it 20 per cent. It is making certain that one cannot have proper training, proper leave and proper rotation. Soldiers who like being soldiers want to do their job properly. They want to be soldiers. They do not want to be stuck in Catterick. But if one overstretches them—they are 8,000 people under-strength at the moment, so I am told—one will make retention of them difficult and be in danger of degrading our most wonderful asset. It is a stupendously good asset.
Mr Blair goes prancing around the Indian subcontinent, heavily disguised as Peter Sellers, without the accompaniment of Sophia Loren, with a magic carpet on his head. That may be a little unkind, but it is quite funny and I think reasonably accurate. Perfectly reasonably he has this wonderful machine with which he wishes to play. What are we doing in Afghanistan? I do not know. The Kyber Pass is blocked. The bridges over the Oxus are blown. We are under command of the Americans. The Americans do not want to do anything that we are doing in Kabul. We are not allowed outside of Kabul. This is an overstretched commitment. It goes too far. I do not know what it is there for.
I might have been a little unkind to Mr Blair; all Prime Ministers are prone to play with this lovely little toy, the British Armed Forces. I concede that if I was Prime Minister I could not resist the temptation. But, resist it they must, because if we overstretch them, if we make them do more than they can do—they will try their hardest—we shall destroy a quite exceptionally high-quality instrument. It is that with which I am concerned. I beg to move for Papers.
3.22 p.m.
Lord Hardy of Wath: My Lords, I must apologise for arriving a little late to the debate. I apologise, not least to the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, because the House and I certainly like to hear the noble Earl. I do not think that we should like to see him as Prime Minster; heaven knows what would happen.
The noble Earl brings to the House not merely his own experience of a historic kind, but the advantage of the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme, which he and my noble friend Lord Tomlinson enjoyed last
year. It brings a refreshing relevance to the experience and quality of debate in both this House and in the other place.I understand the noble Earl's anxiety about the commitments which our Armed Forces bear at the present time. Unlike the noble Earl, I am nowhere near so critical of them. That is partly because the rotation between overseas duty is now better than it was before the SDR. The present level of overseas service is that which was required or planned within the SDR. It commanded widespread approval. Nevertheless, it is a point that exercises Her Majesty's Government because we must ensure that our forces are not deployed overseas on tasks which may prevent them maintaining the high skills which must be retained by adequate training and exercise in the broad range of military duties.
I agree with the noble Earl when he referred to our Armed Forces as being of very high quality. That is undoubtedly an advantage to Britain. It undoubtedly also allows Britain to more than justify its place within the western alliance and its seat on the UN Security Council. We are obliged to punch our weight. It is sad that we have been punching more than our weight for a very long time. It is rather a pity that in the long years during which we were on the Opposition Benches, the then Government were far too tame in their attitude to our European neighbours, who were quite prepared to see us bearing a grossly unfair share of the security burden. One hopes that greater effort will be maintained by the present Administration to encourage our European partners to make the proper contribution which, in all fairness, their membership of the NATO arrangement requires.
The noble Earl referred to equipment. I do not think that the present Administration has any reason to be apologetic about their approach to the equipping of our Armed Forces. No one suggests that they are perfect. But the imperfections which they inherited were substantial and more than justified the approach which can best be described as Smart Procurement. I make no claims for the quality of that policy because a number of years will need to elapse before it can be properly assessed. When one considers the deficient Bowman system, and the year after year that passed while that grossly inefficient arrangement applied, one can only congratulate Her Majesty's Government on seeking to remedy that appalling inheritance of incompetence.
I hope that the Smart Procurement, which is an attempt to secure reasonably firm specifications, will not lead to such regular, frequent and multitudinous changes in specification which have delayed equipment to our Armed Forces year after year. The approach embodied in the policy has a great deal to commend it.
So far as concerns commitments of equipment for our Armed Forces, I do not know whether we would have seen the same degree of determination and resolution that has been shown with Eurofighter. When the present Government were elected, the Eurofighter faced very real question marks, not least
because of the attitude of our German friends, who seemed to delay matters considerably. They have the same problem with regard to the future military transport. The Government have met that particular need for heavy lift by their arrangement with regard to the C-17 aircraft. We hope to see progress in the long-term provision of the future European large aircraft. But there are doubts about that. In the eyes of some noble Lords, that issue may not strictly relate to the Army, but if we do not have the heavy lift capacity, Her Majesty's Government are weakened in the response that they are able to make in international crises.It is in the response to those crises that we have cause to congratulate Her Majesty's Armed Forces. They have borne an enormous variety of burdens. They exist, of course, primarily to defend the realm, to—if you like—shoot people where necessary in the defence of this country's interest. But a huge part of their endeavour has been in the service of humanity, in responding to catastrophe, famine, fire and flood. They have done so in ways which are of great advantage to this country and which can give a great deal of professional satisfaction to our Armed Forces.
It is a pity that the national press often seems to ignore the enormous contribution which our Armed Forces make to international humanity and stability. Often, they are looking to criticise and condemn without looking at the achievements and contributions which are offered. It is not quite the same with local newspapers. There we see regular reports throughout the length and breadth of this country. They deal with local people from units which are still associated with the locality, of their service here, there and indeed almost everywhere.
Those young men, and young women—
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