Strategic Defence Review 2025

Lord Empey Excerpts

Friday 18th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord McCabe, on his maiden speech. If a Glaswegian can become a Brummie, everything is possible. I also put on record my thanks to the Minister for his efforts in ensuring that the armaments business throughout the United Kingdom is regionally recognised. He and his colleagues did a lot in recent months to help ensure that companies such as Harland & Wolff in Belfast and others in the armaments sector were allowed to survive. I am pleased to say that with the involvement of the Spanish company Navantia, Harland is now investing heavily in preparing for the solid support vessels, and I put on record my thanks to the Minister for his work in that department.

In a very un-Scottish introduction, the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, began his introduction with his conclusion—I think many Scottish Presbyterian ministers would find that a bit challenging in the past. He did, however, make the point that we of course do not want to see our country in a constant state of war readiness, and that we can sometimes talk ourselves into that problem—but equally, we cannot ignore what is going on.

The noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, pointed out that the post-war international rules-based order is now largely ignored by all major countries, including the United States. It pays absolutely no attention to it whatever; indeed, it holds it in contempt, in many cases. In these circumstances, we need a holistic defence policy.

The most successful defence policy will ensure peace. The best armaments are those which are never used. This is a conundrum and my concern is that our society is not necessarily grasping that. The noble Lord, Lord Bailey, made a point about how the country deports itself internationally: we are not regarded by the Russian state as a serious threat; it holds us in contempt. We cannot even control our own borders. We are held to ransom by gangsters and thugs.

In those circumstances, I agree with the point about society that the noble Lord, Lord Robertson, made in his introduction. We have to have this conversation and get our younger people to realise the threats. Those of us who grew up in the post-war generation have lived a life of luxury, largely of peace. While my part of the country has at least seen how things can go wrong, the vast majority—thank God—have not. Let us keep it that way, but the Government and Parliament have to concentrate on ensuring that society as a whole is part of this. We have to discuss it. We have to talk about it through cadets or in schools; it has to start at the ground and work up. That would be our best defence.