Lord Howell of Guildford (Con)

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, on initiating this debate and bringing out into the open so many issues that we ought to discuss much more than we do. I will fill my

One of the problems is that we do not know where these hundreds of ghost ships are at any one time or where they are going. There is a need to identify that. We should have a better system of internat

My Lords, might not the Government find it a bit easier to deal with their problems explaining defence spending if they distinguished much more clearly between the overall defence of the nation—where

My Lords, given the completely new structure and formation of the modern battlefield and the way war is being conducted, which is changing very quickly indeed, does the Minister or her colleague, the

My Lords, does the Minister agree that the real need in this area is for a far more effective maritime tracking system than we have today, for legal and illegal shipping, and for underwater and surfac

My Lords, the Minister will remember—at least I think he will remember—that, after 1945, the best brains of Britain, America and some other countries got together to rebuild the entire financial stabi