Head boy of Woodroffe School makes a point to Nick Harvey MP and Sue Farrant
Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary calls for Veterans Charter and warns that the future of the RAF is in doubt
Nick Harvey, MP for North Devon and Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary was in West Dorset last Friday to meet Dr Sue Farrant, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate. They share an interest in defence issues and are both active campaigners for the welfare of servicemen and women and for veterans.
During the afternoon, they held a question and answer session with sixth formers at the Woodroffe School, Lyme Regis. Some of the students are members of the School’s Combined Cadet Force. Sue Farrant said afterwards, “We were both very impressed with the interest shown by the sixth formers and by their willingness to ask challenging questions. The discussion was wide ranging and included the nuclear deterrent, the Iraq War, bankers’ pay and higher education”.
In the evening Nick Harvey addressed a packed audience of people who had come from all over West Dorset. Commenting that too many veterans end up with inadequate access to health services or financial support, he told them that the Liberal Democrats had just introduced a Veterans Welfare Bill into Parliament. That called for a binding ‘Veterans Covenant’ setting out a duty of care for veterans in the same way that the Military Covenant does for serving members of the armed forces and their families.
Sue Farrant told the audience about a review she had led for the National Audit Office looking at the quality of accommodation allocated to service families when they were posted overseas. She said how horrified she had been by the very low standard of much of the housing she had seen, particularly in Cyprus and Gibraltar. She stressed the need for continued pressure on the government to honour the Military Covenant and said that she strongly supported a similar covenant for ex-service people.
Nick Harvey also spoke about the Strategic Defence Review, which was likely to be carried out after the general election. He believed that a Review was long overdue (the last one was 12 years ago) and expressed concern that the terms of reference might be too limited. For example, the Prime Minister had already ruled out the inclusion of Trident in the Review, which was a mistake in Nick’s view.
To the consternation of some members of the audience, Nick also commented that although the future of the Royal Navy and the Army were not in doubt, he thought it possible that there might be moves to absorb the Royal Air Force into the other two services within the foreseeable future. He stressed that this was not Liberal Democrat policy but was an idea that was under discussion at high levels within the Ministry of Defence.
