News

.... a weekly column from Michael Howard MP

10 May 2007

 

The most solemn and sad moment of the parliamentary week, these days, is the beginning of Prime Minister’s Questions. Hardly a week now goes by without the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition expressing their sympathy with the family of the latest British casualty in Iraq or Afghanistan. Invariably tribute is paid to the valour of the dead and the debt we owe our armed forces.

But how do we discharge that debt to the living?

The record is, I fear, not a good one. A few months ago a coroner described the failure to equip our servicemen in Iraq with sufficient body armour as “unforgivable.” And in the last few days the All Party Public Accounts Committee has expressed its dismay that little has been done to reduce the incidence of so-called “friendly fire,” that terribly misnamed phenomenon which has caused so many tragically unnecessary deaths. In Afghanistan there have been authoritative reports that our forces do not have enough of the vehicles they need.

I agree with the coroner. These failures are indeed unforgivable. The least we can do for the brave young men and women who risk their lives on our behalf day after day is to make sure that they are properly equipped and properly protected from avoidable risk.

How do we look after them when they are at home? You may recall that a few weeks ago there was a storm of controversy about the standard of accommodation that is provided for our service personnel when they are back at base. I asked if I could see for myself the kind of accommodation that is available at Shorncliffe and last Friday morning I went along to have a look.

Inevitably the picture was somewhat mixed. Some of the accommodation I saw was good, some adequate. But I was shocked to be shown a house described as “uninhabitable” with mould clearly visible. Maintenance is now the responsibility of a company called Modern Housing Solutions who were told about these conditions more than 6 months ago and have failed to respond.

The playground, potentially used by 200 children, was declared unsafe last August and the Ministry of Defence’s own Estates Department has still done nothing to fix it.

This is all completely unacceptable. I am writing to the Secretary of State for Defence, asking him to take urgent action to deal with this lamentable state of affairs. The men and women we ask to risk their lives on our behalf deserve better.