Tuesday 9th October 2012
CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE, BIRMINGHAM
SPEECH BY THE RT HON DR LIAM FOX MP TO THE LONDON SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVES AND CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS OF THE UNION FRINGE EVENT
STRONGER TOGETHER, BETTER TOGETHER, SAFER TOGETHER
[as delivered]
Of all the issues that made me gravitate towards the Conservative party none was more important than the value that it placed on maintaining the integrity and strength of our United Kingdom. And let's face it -- if you were born in the 1960s in a council house in west central Scotland you didn't join the Conservative party because you were an ardent careerist!
This year, where the celebrations of her Majesty's 60th year on the throne have been supplemented by the sporting success of team GB at the London Olympics it is an appropriate point to reflect on the strength we have drawn together from our shared history and increasingly interconnected populations. There are very few families in our country who do not have relatives in some of -- and in some cases all of -- England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are a United Kingdom of united peoples above all else.
For despite the picture that the separatists in the SNP want to paint, the United Kingdom is not an English construct. It is something that for hundreds of years we have built together, often shaping the world around us and exporting our ideas of law, human rights and democracy.
In many ways the United Kingdom was able to achieve a historic synergy. The intellectual vibrancy of the Scottish Enlightenment combined with the economic energy of the industrial revolution in England enabled our respective populations to achieve hitherto unimaginable global influence, still palpable and visible in many parts of the world today.
The role that Scotland and Scots were able to play in the influence of Empire, both material and intellectual, was only possible because of the tremendous foresight of our forefathers who recognised that we brought complementary skills and who gave birth to the union that is the United Kingdom today.
Perhaps nowhere is our shared heritage and achievement more brilliant than in our armed forces.
For 300 years we have recruited soldiers, sailors, marines and, more recently, airmen in all parts of the United Kingdom. These men and women have stood shoulder to shoulder on battlefields across the globe against our nation’s enemies. Under Marlborough, Wellington and Nelson; in India and the Crimea; in two World Wars, Korea, the Falklands, the Gulf and Afghanistan; English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish soldiers have fought with courage, determination and great loyalty to their Regiment and to the United Kingdom.
In the Army there are, indeed, regiments that are raised and recruited just in Scotland but from the earliest days of these fine regiments, their artillery support could have been Welsh, their engineers Irish and their cavalry English. These regiments are proudly Scottish and a proud part of the British Army too. A team that has been forged under fire and that lives on today in Afghanistan where the Scots Guards and 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland are fighting alongside cavalry and infantry from Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, the East Midlands, Northern Ireland and, even, Nepal!
In the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force there has never been such a distinction. There are ships that carry Scottish names and airbases on Scottish soil but the people who crew these ships and fly those jets are from all corners of the UK and, indeed, from the Commonwealth. Their shared identity is not English, Scottish, or even British but as the custodians of the finest traditions of the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.
We are stronger together.
When I visited our troops in Iraq or Afghanistan they did not ask one another whether they came from London or Belfast or Edinburgh or Cardiff. They fought as British forces under the Crown, proud of their military Heritage and selfless in their willingness to defend the security of their country and the people they love.
How wrong it is, in the light of their joint sacrifices, to attach labels and to seek to introduce division for petty and regressive political motives.
Working together over 300 years, our forces have forged a relationship that can’t just be split down proportionately based on GDP. This is not about the Royal Navy ceding to Scotland a couple of frigates; or a few Typhoon fighter jets from the Air Force; or a regiment’s worth of tanks, artillery, weapons and ammunition. Our armed forces are a human organisation and it is our service men and women who make all these battle winning pieces of equipment amount to something far greater than the sum of their parts.
The SNP are looking at our armed forces as though they were at a Pick ‘n’ Mix counter in a sweet shop. Angus Robertson dips his hand in to the Army and grabs the Scottish infantry and cavalry regiments; then the RAF to pluck a couple of fighter jets and their crews; then the Navy for some ocean going war ships and some coastal vessels too. But like a child with his pocket money he is thinking purely of what looks most attractive for the money, and ignoring the savouries he needs to balance his diet! He’s chosen an Army without any supporting arms; an Air Force without any transport aircraft or tankers; and a Navy without a fleet auxiliary.
Now, of course, the SNP would deny that their proposed forces are so unbalanced. In his Defence Policy Update published in September – a very good read for those with insomnia - their defence spokesperson talks generally – very, very generally - about support units, helicopters, transport aircraft and air defence but the numbers just don’t add up.
Take for example, the SNP’s pledge to not only take on the Scots Dragoon Guards, the Scots Guards and the existing five battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland but also to restore the Scots Borderers who were amalgamated in 2004. That amounts to just under 5,000 fighting troops and a third of the 15,000 total defence force that the SNP have outlined.
Now in Angus’s Pick ‘n’ Mix bag things are looking not too bad at this point – he’s used a third of his headcount and he’s got himself an Army – still plenty left for a Navy and an Air Force. But fighting troops need to be supported by artillery, engineers, signallers, mechanics, logisticians and medics not to mention those needed to man training facilities, Headquarters and administrative units. In the British Army the so called “tooth to tail” ratio is about two-and-a-half soldiers to every one front line soldier. So by my reckoning, if the SNP are to keep their pledge of keeping every single Scottish regiment and restoring another besides – they’re committing to an Army of 17,500. All of a sudden Angus’s sweet bag is overflowing and he’s only a third of a way along the counter.
The SNP has made much mischief in Westminster over the retention of the Scottish regiments and have dragged many retired colonels into the debate too. My fear is that the SNP have been so disingenuous that the many former servicemen who have stood with them in the fight over the Scottish regiments, are going to be let down very badly indeed when the SNP show their true colours and have to show them some numbers.
Alex Salmond is a political opportunist not a Commander-in-Chief.
You see, the integrated Defence capability of the United Kingdom is not a Pick ‘n’ Mix. Taking two out of twelve frigates doesn’t leave you with a Scottish Navy that’s a sixth as good as the Royal Navy’s frigate squadrons nor, for that matter, does it leave a Royal Navy frigate force that is five sixths as good as before. Defence just isn’t like that – there’s institutionalised excellence, bravery and pride that doesn’t come ‘as standard’ with a piece of equipment.
We are better together.
The amount of equipment that this current government has procured in difficult financial times is balanced to cover the threats that we anticipate with little left in reserve. The Navy has the ships needed to meet its standing tasks and with a few at high readiness for contingency operations but the First Sea Lord will be the first to tell you there aren’t any ships lying around doing nothing in Portsmouth.
Handing over a tenth of our Naval assets might come at the cost of our counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean or our contribution to counter-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean. These are not threats that a pacifist, non-nuclear Scotland would be spared – Scottish trade would be threatened by piracy as much as anyone else’s and the drugs can end up in Glasgow as easily as they can end up in London, Birmingham or Manchester. The United Kingdom’s defence capability is well balanced to meet the threats faced by this great country of ours. These are not England’s threats, nor Wales’s, nor Northern Ireland’s, nor Scotland’s, but threats faced by us all – together – that we have built the best pound-for-pound armed forces in the world to deal with.
You simply can’t cut off an arm and expect it to grow a body, Mr. Salmond.
Every sovereign nation has to ensure their national security and, where defence budgets are small, they tend to do this either by holding outdated equipment, building alliances with generous neighbours, or simply accepting that they are not so well protected.
We, as the United Kingdom, have a capability that can defend our shores, our airspace and our interests overseas and online. We have friends and allies that trust us implicitly after fighting alongside us for much of the last century. We can intervene in some of the darkest corners of the earth giving hope to people fighting for their freedom and we have a nuclear deterrent that ensures that we, as the United Kingdom, will never be blackmailed by a rogue nuclear power.
We are so much safer together.
To undermine our collective security, to fail to understand the deep bonds that our shared sacrifices have produced or the proud history we have developed together is not only irresponsible but shows how little the separatists really understand the indispensable role of Scotland in the defence of the interests of the whole United Kingdom. From the seizing of the French Eagle standard at Waterloo to the Battle of Balaclava and from the sands of El Alamein to the dust of Helmand we have stood proudly together. We must not allow the petty, backward looking and hopelessly ill-prepared nationalists to unravel what so many have selflessly created.
Stronger together, better together, safer together. Let’s ensure that we stay together.