"My Lords, can I ask my noble friend the Minister what the closest Royal Navy ship was to the Philippines when this accident happened—because historically the Navy has been very involved in these things—and was its tasking changed at all as a result of this?..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the concerns raised by the Chief of Defence Staff in comments to the BBC regarding (1) the threat posed by Russia to the United Kingdom, and (2) the United Kingdom’s defence capability...." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, our Armed Forces and our defence industries are, I believe, teetering on the brink of disaster due to lack of investment over certainly the past 15 years but actually even longer and lack of decisions recently about spending the money that apparently is being released for defence. There …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, I am a simple sailor. Recently, I have spoken to a number of simple soldiers, who may be even simpler. When we joined the military, we felt that there was an agreement that, as long as we acted in good faith, the country would support us.
"My Lords, when the ISC did its study on China last year, we were very concerned to find a large number of Chinese students blocking or filling up courses on quantum, AI and the like. When we analysed further, we found that quite a large number of those students were …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, my noble friend the Minister will be aware that in the Navy we are all taught to swim. Does she agree with me that it is rather important that we enhance our swimming ability, because the reduced number of ships we have do not now have the weapons …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, during the Cold War, I was a member of the “red tie” group, which consisted of intelligence officers, operations teams and the defence industry. Basically, we monitored the Soviet submarine threat. By the end of the Cold War, at any given time, we knew exactly where all its …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, I agree entirely with my noble friend the Minister that we must not let this war end with the Strait of Hormuz, a very important international waterway, being closed. It is in global interests and in our interest that this does not happen. We are very good at …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"To ask His Majesty’s Government what assistance, if any, the UK has agreed to provide with mine clearance operations in the Strait of Hormuz...." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, we have to realise that it is almost impossible to defend against exoatmospheric ballistic missiles trying to strike one’s country. Indeed, those are the nuclear warheads—if Russia ever goes to war, nuclear-wise—that will be coming towards us. They are hugely expensive and really difficult to take down. Drones …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech