Military Covenant

Patrick Mercer Excerpts

Wednesday 21st November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Patrick Mercer (Newark) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop), who has reminded me of something that happened eight or nine years ago when I was fishing in Robin Hood’s bay with my son, who was about 12 at the time. We were surrounded by a gang of lads who were watching us and what we were doing. I turned to them and said, “I imagine you’re joining the Army, aren’t you?” They said, “Not just that, but the Green Howards.” It is a wonderful regiment with wonderful recruits. What a curious decision to disband it.

I pay tribute to the comments made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Lagan Valley (Mr Donaldson) and to the service of Ulstermen and, indeed, men and women from the Republic in the armed forces. With your indulgence, Mr Speaker, I should like to add some comments of my own about the application of the military covenant in my own constituency of Newark.

I will not bore the House, but I spent a lot of time in Northern Ireland. I was a fighting soldier and spent my time in difficult areas. We were not thanked by the individuals there—on the contrary, they shot at us—but when we were outside of those areas, I was struck by the people of Ulster’s warmth and their admiration for and understanding of the military culture. That is not unique, but it is rare in England. I was terribly taken with it. I think that, given the pressures of operations such as those that took place in Iraq and those that continue on the Pakistan border in Afghanistan, we forget today the sorts of pressures that not just my colleagues in the regular Army, but Territorial soldiers and officers and men in the Ulster Defence Regiment, the Royal Irish Regiment, the Royal Ulster Constabulary reserves, the RUC and now the Police Service of Northern Ireland have faced and continue to face on a day-to-day basis.

Clearly, war is difficult. War is hell. It was all very well for a regular soldier such as I to have carried out a six-month or two-year tour in Northern Ireland and to then go home to sunny England, and it is all very well to serve in Afghanistan today—which is clearly immeasurably worse than anything I experienced—but we did not have to face the same sorts of pressures as these brave men and women who often lived cheek by jowl with individuals who were sympathetic to our enemies and who were, therefore, enemies themselves. It was hellishly difficult for those individuals. It imposed a toll and it continues to impose a toll, as the previous debate showed, on those who live in dangerous and difficult circumstances. The toll is not necessarily a physical one, but it is certainly a mental one.

Let us therefore make sure that the brave men and women who have served the Crown in Northern Ireland are looked after properly when their service finishes, and I mean not just soldiers, sailors and airmen, but police officers, prison officers and the whole gamut of those who are proud to wear the Crown on their uniforms.

I am amazed and dismayed by my right hon. Friend’s comments that respite care cannot—I think I am right in saying this—be carried out in Northern Ireland at the moment. That is a terribly important point. The Minister, who understands military affairs extremely well, knows that individuals who have served wish to recover among their comrades, if at all possible. With respect, I say to the Minister that if anything can be done for those brave men and women, I would be most grateful. I utterly endorse my right hon. Friend’s comments.

I also admire the conduct of Her Majesty the Queen. I admire it in every way, but particularly admired it during her recent visit to the Republic and what she did there. She laid wreaths not just for our own men who fell as a result of the difficulties in the Republic, but for those many men who fought for His Majesty at the time, as exemplified by the Royal Dublin Fusiliers memorial in Dublin, which is hideously known as “traitors gate” by some and admired by others. Her Majesty showed no prejudice in the way that she respected those dead. I hope that the Taoiseach will accept my invitation, at some stage, to visit the graves of the Sherwood Forester soldiers, from the Sherwood Forester Brigade, who were killed in Dublin in 1916 and who now rest in their native soil of Nottinghamshire. I do not know what the reaction will be; so far, it has not been positive, but in the future I hope it will be.

Moving on to the application of the military covenant in my constituency, I hope that I can suggest one or two things that the Minister might find useful. In 2007, a young man, Lance Corporal Davis of 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, lost a leg on operations in Afghanistan. I knew his family slightly, but did not know him at all. I went to see him at hospital in Selly Oak. We thought that he was going to die. Two of his colleagues in the team with which he was patrolling did die. Luckily, Lance Corporal Davis recovered.

That presented a problem in Newark, however. His father was not only having to take two children to school, but having to hold down his job as a lorry driver while his wife lived in Birmingham with their dangerously ill son, whom they thought was going to die. The road haulage company for which Mr Davis worked—which will remain nameless—was desperately unsympathetic to him. He was told that he had used his holiday and his leave, that he had no further opportunity to take time off work and that the mere loss of his son’s leg was no excuse.

In one of the very few moments as a Member of Parliament when I have known that I was 100% right and have operated in a completely uncompromising fashion, I rang the managing director of the firm and asked whether he would like some publicity. He said that he would love some. I asked whether he would like to be on the front of every national daily the following day. He said that he would love to be. I said, “Well, not for the reasons that I am about to outline.” It worked a treat. Mr Davis was helped and he got his time off. He was able to look after not only his other children but his hero son.

That case led us to establish the Newark Patriotic Fund. In the few years since, we have dealt with more than 12 amputees and a number of men and women who have presented—I think that is the word—with all sorts of mental difficulties. The earliest case with which we are dealing is a survivor from the Korean war. I am not here just to plug the Newark Patriotic Fund, although I will mention Mrs Susan Gray and Mrs Karen Grayson, who work tirelessly for it. I commend what it does to other Members. It raises large sums of money, principally to help the families.

There is a gap in the way that the Government honour the military covenant. It is a gap not of commission but of omission, and the situation is evolving. Some useful precedents were set after the first and second world wars in how we deal with such men. I hope that we will not have many more people with traumatic injuries coming back to the Newark constituency, but we might have. However, we will definitely have a wave of mental illness that presents itself over the next decade or so. We have to look after those men—they are mainly men, although there are one or two women.

I have a suggestion for the Minister, although I appreciate that it would involve expense. I believe that part of the military covenant should be that every soldier, sailor and airman, whether regular, reservist, territorial or whatever they are called in the future, should be offered medical screening on discharge. The medical services could advise on what the interval should be, but I would have thought that it should be about every three years. The individual should be looked at and given a chance to talk. Most people who are discharged are fit, but this would be an extremely useful way to monitor those who are concealing injuries, those who have injuries they do not know about and those who are in the developing stages of mental illness. It would not be cheap or easy to administer, but it might just prevent problems that could be nipped in the bud.

To give an example, I was seen by a doctor in Lincoln about five years ago because of the injuries that I received in Northern Ireland. She said that I not only had the problems with my wounds, but extensive frostbite in my right foot. She said that unless that was put right, I would develop a problem in the future. That is a simple illustration, but unless I had seen that doctor I would not have known about it. If no one had said to me, “Look Colonel Mercer, behave yourself. Own up to what has happened and we can help you.”, life would have been more difficult for me.

[John Glen]

Given my hon. Friend’s experience, is this more about somebody’s willingness to engage and open up about difficult mental health issues than the availability of screening and services? A physical injury is one thing, but is the real issue the barrier of people not wanting to own up to the fact that there might be a problem?

[Patrick Mercer]

I am grateful for that helpful intervention. My hon. Friend is absolutely right and he will probably face many cases in his constituency that are similar to those in Newark.

In another plug for the Newark Patriotic Fund—forgive me, Mr Speaker—one thing we find is that those who are without an arm or leg have probably come to terms with that. The groundswell of support and popularity—I do not quite use the word “glamour”, but I hope the House will understand what I mean—helps those individuals to come to terms with their situation. Those who are nursing, hiding or developing mental health problems find that much more difficult to talk about, but we find at our so-called drop-in centre that people are able and willing to talk in the company of other brave men and women who are empathetic and sympathetic.

[Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Patrick Mercer]

I give way with pleasure to the hon. Gentleman.

[Mr Jones]

I am listening carefully to the hon. Gentleman. I looked at this issue when I was the Minister responsible for veterans, and may I suggest that screening at the point that someone leaves the forces is not the answer? We must ensure that individuals are flagged up so that GPs know they are veterans—the Labour party made a commitment to that, although I am not sure whether the Government have followed it through—and improve their access to mental health services. A lot of the problems that the hon. Gentleman mentions do not present until many years later and would not be picked up. I would prefer the money to go to help people at a later, rather than earlier, stage.

[Patrick Mercer]

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s intervention but I am obviously not making myself clear because that is exactly my point. There will be awful problems with this. It was difficult enough for us catch up six months later with one regular soldier who had been discharged, and ask him to re-enlist in the Territorial Army because he had disappeared into the system. I understand that this matter is not simple. Care must be provided in five, 10 or 15 years’ time and offered to everyone, as the hon. Gentleman said, not just to those who leave the forces having identified a problem.

[Mr Jones]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. This could be quite easy but I was frustrated with GPs who wanted to charge for putting an indicator on the QOF—the quality and outcomes framework. That is where money should be spent so that if people present after they have left the armed services, GPs will at least know that they have served in the forces. I am not sure whether the Minister has made any progress on that, but it is an important point and would be a better way to spend money.

[Patrick Mercer]

Absolutely.

[Mr Francois]

rose—

[Patrick Mercer]

I will, of course, give way to the Minister.

[Mr Francois]

I have not intervened purely to mention the Newark Patriotic Front—oh look, I appear to have done it. [Hon. Members: “ Fund!”] Forgive me—fund. With regard to the question from the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones), the Government are continuing to look at this issue but there is a difficulty concerning patient consent—I am sure my hon. Friend the Member for Newark (Patrick Mercer) with his considerable military experience will understand that. The intention in principle is to evolve a system—we are working on it now—so that when an individual leaves the armed forces and registers with a GP, that GP will be informed that the person is a veteran. If the veteran then begins to present symptoms, including mental symptoms, which might be an effect of their service, the GP will hopefully have been informed that the person was a veteran when they moved across.

We already have TRiM—trauma risk management—in which we invite men or women in a unit to look out for each other. If one of them starts to show signs of mental problems, the others do not shop them, as it were, but encourage them to speak to higher command to get help.

[Patrick Mercer]

As the Minister, with his military experience, will know, those systems have been in place informally for many years. I am not pretending that the measures will be simple, cheap or infallible, but if those who are discharged understand them, we stand a better chance of spending to save.

[Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab)]

The last three hon. Members to intervene have mentioned looking after the mental health of soldiers when they return, but since 2009 American soldiers have been screened before going out. Their weaknesses and strengths are measured—their strengths are recognised and their weaknesses are strengthened. When the troops return, they are given therapy, including mindfulness-based therapy, which is cheap and three times more effective than drugs in treating depression and related conditions.

[Patrick Mercer]

The hon. Gentleman is exactly right, and prompts me to share a very short anecdote. The last time I was in Afghanistan with the grenadier company of my old battalion, the company major told me that every single man in the company had used his weapon and killed or injured. I said, “Are they all right?” He said, “They’re fine, except for the company sniper. He’s killed more than 25 men now, and he’s the one man I really worry about, because he enjoys it too much.” That illustrates the point exactly—that is the sort of thing with which we must cope in future.

I will not detain the House for much longer, but I should like to make one more suggestion to the Minister. My view is that how we looked after serving and discharged personnel—it is now called the military covenant, but it was not called that at the time—was much better after the first world war than after the second world war. I commend not only the various patriotic funds that were set up, but the schemes in various large cities and towns—it was a different economic period—to set up taxi services specifically to be run by, mainly, limbless soldiers. Vehicles were bought and adapted for the men, and areas where veterans taxis would run were specifically designated. The cities and towns included Nottingham, Derby and Middlesbrough. I am not suggesting we replicate that scheme exactly, but other imaginative things can be done to help those men and women to return physically and mentally to their place in society. We could look at that suggestion to everybody’s benefit.

[Bob Stewart]

One problem with getting rid of regiments and making the infantry and other parts of the Army smaller is that we are losing regimental headquarters. Up till now, the regiment has been the one organisation to keep a proper trace on soldiers until they die. Soldiers are looked after by regimental headquarters, and friends warn when there is a problem. It is very sad, but that is one problem with losing our regimental headquarters.

[Patrick Mercer]

I am grateful to my hon. and gallant Friend. How on earth can we talk about localism while we are disbanding local regiments? I find that difficult to understand. I entirely endorse his point that the regimental structure was as much charitable as tactical, but there we are.

We have heard about the contribution of people from Northern Ireland, which I respect and honour. I would point out that Nottinghamshire—man for man—took more casualties proportionately than any other county in Great Britain in the first world war and won more Victoria Crosses. We should respect our veterans, whether they come from Fermanagh, Derby, Nottingham or London. We must give them exactly the deal they understood they would get when they enlisted. I hope some of my suggestions will be put into practice by the Minister.