Alex Chalk, James Sunderland, Tobias Ellwood, Professor John Louth and Dr Sarah Ingham discussed procurement at our event yesterday.
Decades of under-investment and an unserious strategic culture have created a military whose primary function seems to be peacekeeping – but does less of that than Zimbabwe.
The APPG’s survey of ex-servicemen and women will reveal where current support systems are falling short of the first-class standards we expect.
We trust those who served in arms, or in uniform, with great authority and significant power. They must be held to the highest standards.
On paper, the UK has large stockpiles of last-generation tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other materiel explicitly stockpiled to combat Russian aggression in Europe.
As it never attracted as much ire as Iraq we may never see a proper inquiry into a decades-long, £27.7 billion failure.
Time and again, recent governments have preferred hitting the panic button to telling the public things they don’t want to hear.
Warm words about those serving oversees ring hollow when their families are shivering in sub-standard accommodation.
There is a danger that the military becomes merely a reserve of manpower for domestic services, rather than an instrument of our global ambitions.
Media portrayals of ex-servicemen and women as PTSD-riven criminals shapes public perceptions and hurts the prospects of those leaving the Armed Forces.
The Armed Forces Covenant promises that service men and women will not be disadvantaged as a result of their service. To ensure this is upheld, the five-year time limit needs to be scrapped.
More work is needed to ensure proper protection for ex-servicemen and give victims’ families a chance at the truth.
An excessively sentimental attitude towards the military has gone hand-in-hand with decades of cuts.
It’s no good massing troops in eastern Europe if the western powers depend on Beijing for critical industries and infrastructure.
This powerful focus is too often today reserved for the separatists in the devolved administrations who aim to divide us.