Andrew Selous
Main Page: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)Department Debates - View all Andrew Selous's debates with the Ministry of Defence
(13 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dr Fox
I think the key element is the confidence we can give the people of Afghanistan that the international community’s relationship with that country will not end when our combat forces leave at the end of 2014. As we have trained up the Afghan national security force to have greater capability, there is now greater emphasis both on the political space and on redevelopment and reconstruction, rather than on the purely military arguments.
Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)
T9. What plans do the Government have to mark the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, which ended a quarter of a century of conflict in Europe and packed Napoleon off to St Helena?
Mr Robathan
My hon. Friend may know that I spent some 15 years in the Coldstream Guards and he will know—he has historical knowledge—that the Coldstream Guards shut the gates of the chateau, or the farm, of Hougoumont. Wellington said that the battle would have been lost had that not happened. Our relationship with France has changed a little since the Napoleonic wars, and this is now an historical matter. I understand that our colleagues in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have set up a Waterloo 200 committee to discuss the commemoration, but it will certainly be commemorated by the Coldstream Guards, among others.