"My Lords, my noble friend the Minister will be aware that when I was First Sea Lord, I used to encourage my sailors to all be on board the ships when they were working...." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"Why should the Civil Service work to a different pattern? Admittedly it has few ships, but I would be very interested to know...." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, it is inevitable that many speakers today will be covering the same ground, but I do not think that is important because the full impact of the war in Ukraine should be aired in this Chamber. I am delighted that this has been an opportunity to do that.
"Does my noble friend the Minister agree that hedgehogs, rather like frigates, are an endangered species, and that there is a need to look at some positive action by the Government to help protect our hedgehogs in this country?..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, my noble friend the Minister mentions that Ireland might increase defence spending. There is no doubt that, through the Second World War and the Cold War, in effect the United Kingdom made sure the defence of Ireland was secure, with almost no contribution from Ireland. We are now …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree that, if we get defence policy wrong and there is a war, welfare and the National Health Service will count for nothing?..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"Does my noble friend the Minister agree that we have slightly lost sight of why youngsters want to join the military? I do not believe youngsters have changed that much and I think Capita got it wrong in spades. The sorts of reasons one joined were for action, danger, excitement, …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"My Lords, previously I said, slightly tongue in cheek, that going for the best is often a problem in terms of protection. There is a real risk of going for more and more to protect us, but in the final analysis we cannot totally protect everyone. We talk about looking …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech
"I thank my noble friend the Minister for his reply, although my question has been rather shredded of various elements by the previous debate. It is worth remembering that 80 years ago as we speak, the British Pacific fleet was leaving the waters around Okinawa, heading towards the Japanese homeland. …..." Lord West of Spithead - View Speech