RAF Centenary

Debate between Jim Shannon and Madeleine Moon

Monday 26th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (Bridgend) (Lab)]

It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Aldershot (Leo Docherty), a fellow member of the Defence Committee, and the Chair of the Committee, the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis).

I speak as chair of the all-party group on the Royal Air Force, an alumnus of the armed forces parliamentary scheme with the RAF, chair of the all-party group on reserves and cadets forces, about which we have heard a lot, and, very proudly, co-chair, with former Air Chief Marshal Lord Stirrup, of the Royal Air Forces Association parliamentary branch here in Westminster.

We have heard a lot about this year being the 100th anniversary of the RAF, but we have also been celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first world war. It is coming to an end, but I urge people if they have time to pop down to Porthcawl and see the fantastic display both commemorating the events of the first world war and showing the connections of Porthcawl and south Wales to the RAF.

I have a poster in my office that was put out in the first world war encouraging people to join the new Air Force. It is a wonderful inducement to join, saying, “If you volunteer to join, you will not be forced against your will to join the Army or the Navy.” I can see people thronging to join up on that basis alone.

We heard early on about the RAF being formed on 1 April 1918, with the merging of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. That partnership endures and is still important today, and those of us who are following events on the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier can see how vital that synergy continues to be through to today.

Right at the start, the RAF was a service that embraced new technology and techniques, and it has been that way ever since. The new air service fought all over and in every aspect of the battlefields of the first world war, providing invaluable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability, as well as carrying out what we all know in terms of its bombing missions, and that was vital to the eventual victory.

After the war, innovation moved into civilian life. A department of civil aviation was created within the Air Ministry to regulate aviation in the UK in 1919, the same year that two RAF officers, Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown, made the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic ocean, a seemingly impossible task.

During the interwar years, the RAF began its long tradition of training apprentices in the skills of aircraft engineering and maintenance, setting them up for great careers both in the service and in the growing aircraft industry, which was vital for the regeneration of the UK economy. During those interwar years, the RAF became a true national institution. With the outbreak of the second world war, the RAF once again stepped up to defend the country; it fought valiantly, defending our skies and our shores from invasion.

I want to talk about two things. The first of them is the way the RAF has always been willing to absorb people from across the world. The RAF’s No. 145 Squadron consisted of men from Belgium, Australia, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Trinidad, Poland, the US, Canada and South Africa. The fantastic Air Transport Auxiliary consisted of 166 women pilots who often flew a plane after getting just 15 minutes to read a manual. They had no navigation capability; they literally had maps on their laps and navigated themselves around the country. But it attracted pilots from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the US, Poland and the Netherlands, again coming to Britain to fight on our side, but coming to Britain also because of the chance to fly with the RAF.

Since I have been chair of the all-party group, we have taken to having a battle of Britain dinner. I want to tell Members about the first of them, because it was one of the most moving experiences I have had in this House. I asked those pilots and aircrew who were with us if they would each give us just three minutes of their memories. The first man said, “I want to thank the merchant navy. Without the merchant navy and their bravery, we couldn’t have flown. So that is my memory: the death of all those men in the merchant navy.” Everybody was rocked.

Then the second man stood, and he said, “I want to thank the French civilians. My plane came down and I walked for two days. I did not know where the heck I was, and eventually in desperation, I knocked at a door and a family took me in. They hid me; at risk to their own lives, they fed me, they dealt with my wounds, and then they moved me from family friend to family friend until I actually made it to Portugal. And I got back, and I had the chance to fly again.”

The whole history of the RAF is about amazing people. I cannot tell hon. Members how wonderful everyone from the RAF I have ever worked with has been and how willing and open to new ideas and innovation they are.

During the cold war, the RAF played a critical role in keeping us safe. We tend to dismiss the cold war now, but it was the deterrence represented by the RAF that kept us safe. Because people knew the risk of challenging the Royal Air Force, the cold war remained a cold war and never became a hot war. Even today, the RAF remains one of the world’s most capable and respected air forces. Its fighter capability and its intelligence gathering are huge.

During its first 100 years, the RAF has shown the spirit and invaluable service that our air force provides to this country, not only in defending our skies but in innovating, adapting and improving and in making use of new technology in combination with the skill and professionalism of its servicemen and women to create a national institution that we are all rightly proud of. That challenge continues and faces us every day.

The Secretary of State talked about Carbonite-2, the satellite capability launched recently by the RAF, along with its range of sensors and ground stations. Carbonite-2 is huge by comparison with some satellites that we see nowadays. It is about the size of a washing machine, but its telescope and high-definition video recording will provide critical information for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance—ISR—purposes. That information will be sent into the cockpits of our fighter jets before we know it.

In 2017, I presented a report to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on “The Space Domain and Allied Defence”, in which I said:

“NATO needs a whole-of-alliance approach to protect its interests in space to enhance resilience and deter any threat to its space-based capabilities.”

I am very proud that the RAF takes on that challenge.

[Jim Shannon]

It would be remiss of us here in the House not to record our congratulations to the hon. Lady on becoming President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. We are all greatly encouraged by her elevation to that position, and we wish her well.

[Mrs Moon]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments.

We have a problem within the NATO alliance, however. At the moment, there are just six postings in NATO, in six different departments, that are designated as space operational positions. That is not good enough. We must all welcome the development of the bi-strategic command space working group, which has recommended the creation of a NATO space operational centre of excellence to offer expertise and experience that will benefit nations across the alliance. We are fortunate here in the UK, because we have a very capable space technology community. Not everyone is so advanced in that field, and we need to spread that expertise.

NATO’s joint air power strategy is dependent on national space-based capabilities to support air, maritime, land and cyber domains, and for early warning, ISR, communications, positioning, navigation and timing information. We are at a time when the treaties and regulatory and legal frameworks relating to space will have to change. We have always argued that space should not be weaponised, but the threats that are coming our way indicate that other countries will not abide by the existing rules, and we need to be ready to face those threats.

The Secretary of State talked about the RAF already being engaged in 15 missions across 22 countries, the majority of which are alliance missions. We all have a responsibility to ensure that they have the money, the personnel, the training and the best technology to ensure that the RAF’s edge is maintained and that its ability to command the air environment continues.

One of the most amazing things about being a member of the Defence Committee is that we have the capacity to drill down into areas that other people do not always understand. An example would be the RAF rules of engagement. When I was doing a report on behalf of the Committee on remotely piloted air systems—known as drones to the rest of the world—it was fascinating to see the rigorous nature of the rules of engagement and of the tests that everyone going in to pilot a drone in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world is required to go through before they can go on duty. It was fascinating to see the checks and balances involved, and the requirement to ensure the safety of civilians, which was central to everyone’s thinking. I do not think that we speak enough about that. We do not tell our public how high the level of integrity is of the people who serve this country, how that manifests itself day after day and how respected it is around the world.

I want briefly to mention the importance of the defence industry. The combat air sector has contributed 80% of the total defence exports over the past 10 years. It has an annual turnover of £6 billion and supports 18,000 skilled jobs. That vast network is part of the RAF legacy and an offshoot of this national institution.

I cannot finish without speaking about the people of the RAF. The hon. Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker) and I share a great friend. When I became the chair of the RAF all-party parliamentary group, a liaison officer was appointed by the Ministry of Defence to ensure that I understood things and perhaps that I behaved myself—he did not do very well at that—as well as to ensure that I was accurate in the things that I said and did. That man was Wing Commander Philip Lamb. After being a parliamentary liaison officer, he went on to be the station commander at St Mawgan and then to become our defence attaché in Sweden. It was there that he became ill. On the day—in fact, at the very minute—that I was told I was to be the next President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, a text appeared on my phone. I opened it, and it told me that Philip had died. Philip was a man who, like so many in the RAF, served his country with distinction, commitment and integrity. Like so many others, he was a man who let the world know that the RAF still attracted the best people. They are people who really do go through adversity to the stars in protecting this country.

Anti-Corruption Strategy: Illegal Wildlife Trade

Debate between Jim Shannon and Madeleine Moon

Wednesday 28th February 2018 Westminster Hall

[Zac Goldsmith]

A staggering quantity of illegal wildlife trade happens online, so one way to deal with demand would be to tackle that trade online. Will the hon. Gentleman join me in paying tribute and offering huge thanks to organisations such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare that have done so much to persuade big online retailers to weed illegal wildlife trade out of the way they do business? Taobao, Alibaba and eBay have massively changed their policies as a consequence of campaigning by groups such as IFAW. We all owe them a debt of gratitude.

[Mrs Madeleine Moon (in the Chair)]

Order. The hon. Gentleman has made a number of long interventions and there is one more speech to go.

[Jim Shannon]

It is my belief that we need to introduce legislation quickly to play our part in reducing the number of animals killed by poachers, and ensuring that narwhal, walrus and hippopotamus ivory will not be used as replacements so that those animals become next in the firing line. We must end the trade. We can up our game and do a better job of playing our part. That can begin today, with this debate. Let us set the scene. I ask the Minister and her Department to take heed and urgently implement the steps to legislation.

Incontinence

Debate between Jim Shannon and Madeleine Moon

Tuesday 5th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Moon]

I thank my hon. Friend for her work in this area. That most certainly would help, and it is so simple; it is not a huge thing to do. Another example is simply having a shelf in toilets where someone with a colostomy or ileostomy can place the clean bag, so it is readily available while they remove the full bag. That would make things so much easier and healthier, by ensuring there is no cross-infection. Instead, people often have to scrabble on dirty toilet floors, trying to access what they need.

All the figures I have to hand today are estimates—as one patient group pointed out to me, the collection of statistics in this field is patchy at best, and putting a true figure on the scale of the problem is very difficult—but we will not tackle taboos until we start talking about them: we must destigmatise the subject so that no one faces humiliation if they admit to a problem. We need to bring this issue out into the open once and for all, so that people no longer suffer in silence and we can reduce the long-term health implications and additional costs for the NHS.

An analysis of calls to the Bladder and Bowel Foundation’s helpline in 2015 suggested that half the people with a continence problem had never spoken to a healthcare professional. Another study found that only one in three families seek help for children and young people with a continence problem. Imagine the long-term impact on a child’s health of having to try to manage such a problem at school, with all the stigma of being the smelly kid and all the fear of having an accident during a lesson.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing this subject forward; it needs to be aired and she is doing that very well today. I thank her for that. Does she agree that young people suffering from ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases need more help and support to deal with the lifestyle changes that these illnesses can bring? The latest statistics show that 75% of those young people say that they cannot have an active social life because of their condition, and I believe that restaurants, shops and councils have a responsibility to do more to help them to lead as normal a life as possible.

[Mrs Moon]

I would ask every Member to consider the impact on their life of suddenly having a desperate, urgent need to access a toilet while at work or walking down the street, and there not being one available. Of course we must do more; no one can assume that incontinence is not coming their way or coming to a member of their family. As a society, we have to take responsibility for ensuring that people can access toilet facilities wherever they are and whenever they need them.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mrs Moon]

We need to reconsider the issue of VAT on a whole range of sanitary and continence products. As a society, we need to take responsibility for the facts of our daily life. For a person on any sort of restricted income, such as those on benefits, the costs even of simple laundry are huge when dealing with incontinence.

Some families are spending up to £100 a week buying incontinence products. It is ludicrous if they are not able to access those products through the health service or joint stores with local authorities. It is a postcode lottery whether or not a person can access the help and support they need, which is shocking. Think of the savings in sickness pay, in hours of work lost and in mental health and wellbeing if we started to tackle this problem.

It is time to raise a number of issues, including what happens when things go wrong.

[Jim Shannon]

The hon. Lady has referred to people being caught short and, from my knowledge of people who have come to me with their problems, there is a lack of understanding from employers towards employees who have these problems, with people losing their jobs. Does she agree with me and other Members that there has to be a better understanding from employers of employees who have this problem?

[Mrs Moon]

I recently had a meeting with employers in Bridgend, and the chief executive of CGI was present. That company is proactive in asking its employees what problems they have so that it can support, rather than punish, when those problems affect people’s working situation. People with incontinence should feel confident that they will not lose their job if they say, “Actually, I have this problem. I am going to have to go to the toilet.” Shockingly, I found another employer in my constituency that was making deductions from employees’ wages every time they left the floor to go to the toilet because it was time away from their telephone response service. Yes, we need to consider the whole issue of employment practice in relation to incontinence.

Between 2007 and 2015, 92,000 women in England are thought to have had vaginal mesh implants as a treatment for incontinence. As many as one in 15 women have gone on to have those removed because of complications. The individual testimonies of those affected are dreadful, and while dealing with the wider issue of incontinence we must not forget their plight. I commend the work of my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Owen Smith), who has brought this issue to the attention of the House, but it is also important that the Government carry out a full audit, establish a registry to determine how many women have been affected, suspend this treatment and look at how we can make sure that the damage and destruction of people’s lives does not continue.

I know you have been generous with our time, Madam Deputy Speaker, as the House has concluded its other business so early, but I hope that the need for action on this has become obvious. First and foremost, we need to work collectively to raise the profile of incontinence as a public health issue, not as a personal failing—that is how it is seen. If I have an incontinence problem, it is seen not as my having a medical problem but as there being something wrong with me. That view needs to be turned around. People need to be able to talk to their GP. If we go into any pharmacy, we see a sign saying. “If you’ve got a cough and it persists, see your GP.” There are signs saying, “If your mole is changing size, talk to your GP.” We need to have something that says, “Suffering incontinence? Well don’t suffer in silence, talk to your GP. You will be able to access help and support.” We need to stop assuming that this is something that affects older people and to engage schools in understanding how it affects young people. We need to educate young people on bowel and bladder health. Why on earth do we not talk about this? Are we really so hung up that we cannot talk to young people about the fact that at some point in their life they may have a problem, tell them what they do about it and say what sort of help they can get?

Will the Minister give us an idea of what his Department plans to do to tackle the huge hidden problem of incontinence in this country? Will he agree to talk to the devolved Administrations so that we do not just set something up for England, but we all take responsibility for this? I am sure that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and my hon. Friend the Member for Newport East (Jessica Morden) would agree that we must get this sorted once and for all.

When people seek help they need to feel that health professionals will be equipped to help them. It is also important that doctors are trained in this; it needs to be part of the core training of all nurses and doctors. It should also be there for those who are training to be nursery nurses. We need to build that conversation and to do it soon. It is important that the General Medical Council takes responsibility for moving this forward. I am aware that in England the NHS published “Excellence in continence care” in November 2015, which sought to define what best practice should be and to make recommendations. The document was very welcome, but implementation has been slow. The executive summary even commented on that, saying:

“Over the years, some excellent research and guidelines have been produced for best practice continence care but this work has often stalled as it has not translated into a clear commissioning plan for a local continence pathway.”

Will the Minister ensure that every local authority and every health authority has a clear continence pathway? That is not a big ask; they should be doing it already. Can we make sure that such pathways are now in place?

Continence services in the UK vary in quantity and availability, with a report in 2010 concluding that patients were faced with a “life sentence” of suffering due to non-existent or poor diagnosis, a lack of treatment plans and poorly co-ordinated care. Earlier this year, a Paediatric Continence Forum audit established that only 41% of clinical commissioning groups and health boards provide all four main continence services and product provision. That is absolutely shocking.

I hope I have convinced the Minister that he should take the opportunity to make a change in the quality of life for far too many people in this country. This is a problem area that we have neglected for too long.