Speeches by Jopp.

“My train got cancelled on my commute home last night from Waterloo to Sunbury, but that gave me the wonderful opportunity to catch up on one of my favourite radio programmes—that of Mr Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live. My joy was only increased when I had the opportunity to listen to a rare interview given by the Leade…”

“The permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence said recently that he would reduce the number of permanent civil servants at the MOD by 10% by the end of this Parliament. Will the Cabinet Office be larger or smaller at the end of this Parliament?”

“They say that one ought to build one’s enemy a golden bridge. I think the compromise and pause proposed by the National Farmers Union is an elegant solution. That golden bridge is now being signposted by Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, the Co-op, and all the major retailers the Minister claims to be engaging with. Why does he not j…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Bradley Thomas) on securing this debate. I am time constrained, but I want to mention St Mary’s in Stanwell, a grade I listed 12th-century Norman church. An overseas visitor remarked to me recently how odd it was that the Normans chose to build such a beautiful c…”

“In some people’s view it is as dangerous as teaching a 16-year-old to disassemble an Armalite.”

“It strikes me that we would all love the certainty of being in a condition of absolute peace or absolute war, because then things would be clear. The trouble is that we are not, at any one time, and that—to me—is the grey zone. At one end, that is actually just life; it is sub-state or inter-state competition, which so…”

“Because “The war is coming” seems like a very binary, on/off, “peace or war” sort of language. It almost does not hit the mark when it comes to this constant state of conflict narrative. We were talking earlier about deterrence and subsea infrastructure. It would seem slightly de trop, if someone pulls up a cable with …”

“Our Secretary of State for Defence is one of the most classic talk show guests I can imagine. With that, I will hand you back to the Chair.”

“You have a range of adversaries out there, and you have seen them develop these new techniques onto the surfaces that you refer to. There's nothing new under the sun but national character. To what extent does that inform the way in which they develop their own offensive capability?”

“That is very much looking at it from our point of view, and how we protect against said attacks, but I want to invite you to explore the nature of the threat. You have described it as autocratic, as if that covers the spectrum, but is there a nuance within that in terms of our adversaries’ national approach to the way …”

“In our last session, we were discussing how we loved the clarity of the ideas of perfect peace and perfect war, because then our rules kick in and we know where we stand, but this “grey zone” that we are talking about really just represents life. The gap on the spectrum between competition and conflict is another grey …”

“The hon. Member describes morale as being at an all-time low. Last week, along with a number of colleagues from the Defence Committee, we both had the opportunity to visit RAF Lossiemouth, where we saw a range of service personnel at the top of their game. I am intrigued to know whether he would characterise their mora…”

“The hon. and gallant Member referred to the armed forces complaints ombudsman giving evidence to the Defence Committee last week. Her report from 2023 detailed that three complaints were made against the ombudsman organisation itself. Was he as dismayed as I was that she was not able to recall the details of the one co…”

“On the whole-nation approach and the digital edge, if we were talking about teaching 12-year-olds how to disassemble an Armalite, we might end up in controversial conversations with the National Union of Teachers, but because we are talking about digitalising our youth, those skills can be generic. That suggests to me …”

“To follow on, I guess the other side of Calvin’s coin is cost and cash. I do not want to probe around the operational out of bounds box, because this is pretty much an area of policy. We have taken the decision internationally to skim off the interest from the seized Russian assets. Does there come a time—have you done…”

“Funnily enough, in another part of this building a discussion is ongoing about whether we should ban people under 16, or 18, from having smartphones.”

“I rise to speak primarily in support of amendment 8, but I will also give some broader reflections on the Bill. We all need to be very clear that the welfare of service personnel is the responsibility of the military chain of command. No other supernumerary bureaucratic organisation can take that responsibility away fr…”

“I do acknowledge that important difference. I think that amendment 8 seeks to enhance and strengthen the independence of the Armed Forces Commissioner from the chain of command, and I commend it to the hon. Gentleman. The German armed forces commissioner finds herself reporting and making recommendations on matters suc…”

“I think the hon. Member will recall from his time on the Bill Committee that the Front-Bench spokesman, my hon. Friend the Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge), referred to us as fulfilling the role of critical friend.”

“I offer these comments as a critical friend. I think it important for people listening to this debate and referring to our proceedings at a later time to realise that, utterly untrammelled, these measures will generate a bureaucracy all of their own. We do not wish this to be a good idea that we have in peacetime that …”