16 Oct 12
LIAM FOX SPEECH TO THE TRAFALGAR LUNCH AND BUSINESS DEBATE
Three hundred and seven years ago this week, Nelson finally managed to engage the French and Spanish fleets decisively in battle. The victory off the Cape of Trafalgar that followed would ensure British dominance of the world’s oceans for a century and, in securing our trade routes, the rise of Britain to the global power it is today.
Nelson’s fleet was British with sailors drawn from all corners of the United Kingdom. Amongst them was Scotsman, Captain George Duff, a celebrated commander within Nelson’s Navy and entrusted with a key part in Nelson’s plan to finally force the Combined Fleet in to battle.
Duff’s HMS Mars was positioned close in to Cadiz so that he could forewarn Nelson of any movement and thus allow him to out manoeuvre the French and Spanish as they tried to get back in to the Mediterranean. Duff’s role was vital and his success in performing it laid the foundations for the great victory that followed.
Sadly – and the lesson in Naval history ends here – Duff was killed in the opening minutes of Trafalgar as he sailed amongst the lead ships straight in to the heart of the French and Spanish fleet.
This week we are marking the Battle of Trafalgar so I highlight the contribution of Captain Duff but if I were speaking next week I know that I’d find another anniversary of another Scottish contribution to this great union of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
But, 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 Ship or 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 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 fight these ships and fly those jets are from all corners of the UK and, indeed, 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.
Working together over 300 years, our forces have forged a relationship that can’t just be split down proportionately based on GDP. 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.
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.
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 those who argue for Scottish Independence really understand the indispensable role of Scotland in the defence of the interests of the whole United Kingdom.
Nelson knew it in 1805 when he was urging Captain Duff forward in to the vanguard of his division and we know it today –– the Scottish are a tenacious and bloody minded warrior nation who have contributed immeasurably to the defence of this country over the last three hundred years. But they have done so as part of a mighty British military and, whilst the numbers may not be what they were, that military is still one of the largest and most technologically advanced in the world.
As he sailed in to battle alongside sailors from all over the British Isles, I suspect George Duff knew only too well that we are stronger, better and safer together. I agree with him and whilst I’m hopeful of not losing my head in the cannon fire, I think that we – as British politicians and business leaders – have a responsibility to put ourselves in the vanguard of celebrating all that is great about the union.
The referendum campaign that started on Monday is not just about picking holes in the SNP’s plans. It means that those of us – both north and south of the border – who believe in the United Kingdom must make the case for keeping our great union exactly as it is –
a United Kingdom of a united people with a shared and glorious history, and a bright and prosperous future.