Speeches by Jopp.

“We did have the NATO standard. At the end of the cold war, the only two things that were common across all NATO members were diesel and 105 mm ammunition. That was at the end of the cold war, so “good luck” is what I would say to that. You all put in your submissions to the defence industrial strategy by last Friday’s …”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“I have been to war three times, each time working for an American general—General Schwarzkopf in the first Gulf war, the outstanding David Petraeus in the second Gulf war, and General Richard Mills of the US Marine Corps in Afghanistan. One of the lessons that keeps coming up after those wars is that we have to prepare…”

“Clearly, the highest standards of independence and probity will be required of the chair in order to execute their duties, particularly given that we have not brought back to Parliament the ability to raise debt on the assets of the Crown Estate. I feel duty bound therefore to ask the Minister whether he is aware of me…”

“My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) spoke incredibly slowly and incredibly clearly—so much so that even I understood his question. However, the Minister did not actually give him an answer. When we joined the ICJ, we did so on the basis of a carve-out that meant th…”

“I always thought it was ironic that Armed Forces Day, which is a way of the nation giving back to their Armed Forces, normally meant soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines having to work another day, which did not seem to fit the bill in any way at all. With that thought, I will hand back to the Chair.”

“We have concentrated a lot on the serving issue, and it has been very helpful to talk about it, because we obviously do not get to invite those serving to come and give evidence to us. We have also looked at some of the veterans’ issues. Generally speaking, that seems to be the world that we look at: bifurcated between…”

“To join two dots, Mark, I think you said there was 16% knowledge of or recognition of the Covenant, and General, I think you said that the state seems to understand it, albeit delivery is patchy, but you were more concerned about industry and the third sector. That seemed to jump over one part. Although they might be o…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries and Galloway (John Cooper) on securing the debate at this pivotal time. It is typically prescient of him to have done so. When considering my remarks, my first thought was to try to embarrass the Governmen…”

“The then pensions Minister, Guy Opperman, said that green-lighting defined benefit pension superfunds was his greatest achievement of lockdown. The unelected Governor of the Bank of England then unhelpfully intervened and said that superfunds would be a risk to financial stability, and as a result the Pensions Regulato…”

“6. If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the Pensions Regulator on economic growth.”

“The Labour party has been running the NHS for 25 years in Wales, where waiting lists are through the roof, compared with those in England. Does the Secretary of State agree with Mr Mark Drakeford that what Wales really needs is fewer hospitals?”

“4. What recent discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on NHS reform in Wales.”

“You both talked about capability gaps, in particular in answer to Ian’s question about the White Paper and not duplicating NATO’s work in terms of capability gaps. Ed, in terms of the specific, hard-end capabilities that had to be borrowed from the Americans, you alighted on some of them. When I ask the question, “Wher…”

“We had better not go into that.”

“I am reminded that, at the end of the Cold War, when it really mattered, the only common kit and equipment across NATO was diesel and 105 mm ammunition. Even that did not galvanise us to get our act together and be particularly interoperable.”

“It is always tricky, when looking at burden sharing, because it does rely on trust. As ever, as you said, it always ends up being a couple of nations, when it is hitting the fan, that say, “You and me, brother, we are going to go and do this together”. If there were a couple of areas where the UK could really offer to …”

“On the politics of Europe and European cohesion, by which I mean the EU, we have a problem at the moment in terms of France and Germany being in some sort of political stasis because of the electoral cycle. In the meantime—we left it—how is the rest of the EU getting on in terms of its own cohesion? Armida van Rij: The…”

“I have a simple question: would it be compatible with the military covenant to make compensation payments to former members of the IRA?”

“On Friday, I had the opportunity to visit Manor Mead special school, where 60 members of staff look after the 92 pupils, many of whom have the most severe learning disabilities and autism. I was absolutely blown away by the care of the staff, and I was particularly grateful to be shown around by the adorable Luchia, on…”