Member

The Secretary of State says that he has met veterans, and I am sure that he meets them a lot. This morning, several of us had the privilege of meeting veterans in Parliament Square. Some of them are in the Gallery right now, watching. Their sons and grandsons and—if I may say so, as a father of two servicewomen—daughters and granddaughters are watching too. They will be working out whether they should join the armed forces of today. They need to know that the Government of the day and their successors will have their backs, when events of the sort that we are describing today come to light and are raked over by our friends in the legal profession and the high court of public opinion. [Interruption.] The Secretary of State grimaces. It is the high court of public opinion, as articulated by our wonderful tabloid media, that influences opinion. I am afraid that is a reality. How we project this debate will influence how those stories are reported. It is important to keep that in mind.