13/07/2017

:00:00. > :00:00.gave their lives a century ago for the freedom they enjoy, will have

:00:00. > :00:15.the decency to do so quietly. We now come to the general debate on

:00:16. > :00:24.the commemoration of Passchendaele, the third battle of Ypres. Just

:00:25. > :00:31.before I call the Minister to introduce the debate, I would most

:00:32. > :00:38.unusually like to welcome to the Palace of Westminster the two police

:00:39. > :00:45.officers who apprehended the murderer of our late colleague Jo

:00:46. > :00:48.Cox. Craig Nicholls and Jonathan Wright are here with us and we would

:00:49. > :00:54.like to welcome them and commend them for their bravery.

:00:55. > :01:03.And it is fitting that we should do so as we are about to have a debate

:01:04. > :01:11.commemorating those who gave their lives for freedom and democracy.

:01:12. > :01:15.Minister Mr John Brennan. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. And I would

:01:16. > :01:19.like to reiterate your words of welcome to Mr Nichols and Mr Wright,

:01:20. > :01:24.and I'm sure the whole house are very pleased they are with us today.

:01:25. > :01:31.I beg to move that this house has considered the commemoration of

:01:32. > :01:34.Passchendaele, the third battle of Ypres. The commemoration of

:01:35. > :01:39.Passchendaele is just one of the National events in our First World

:01:40. > :01:45.War centenary programme as announced by the previous Prime Minister in

:01:46. > :01:49.2012. This four year programme has seen us deliver national events to

:01:50. > :01:56.mark the centenary of Britain's entry to war on the 4th of August,

:01:57. > :02:05.1914. With the service for the Commonwealth at Glasgow Cathedral

:02:06. > :02:08.and at Westminster Abbey, and in April 2015 we marked the Gallipoli

:02:09. > :02:16.campaign in Turkey and at the Cenotaph in Whitehall.

:02:17. > :02:25.Can I also congratulate the two police officers for their bravery?

:02:26. > :02:31.Does the Minister have any plans to come -- any other plans to

:02:32. > :02:35.commemorate battles? That is something I will consider but no

:02:36. > :02:40.immediate plans. Last year and made the we commemorated the famous

:02:41. > :02:45.Battle of Jutland with events in Orkney and one month later on July

:02:46. > :02:50.one. We remembered the Battle of the Somme with national events in

:02:51. > :02:56.France, London and Manchester. Overnight vigils were held at

:02:57. > :03:02.Westminster Abbey and in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast and replicated

:03:03. > :03:05.in local communities across the UK. Before I go on, I would like to

:03:06. > :03:09.acknowledge the huge support of my honourable friend the member for

:03:10. > :03:17.South West Wiltshire, who has shaped and steered the centenary programme.

:03:18. > :03:22.He is a hugely valued colleague and my Parliamentary Labour. It is also

:03:23. > :03:25.an opportunity for me to congratulate him on his appointment,

:03:26. > :03:29.his election to the chairmanship of the Northern Ireland Select

:03:30. > :03:34.Committee. If he brings the integrity, wisdom and hard work to

:03:35. > :03:39.the role he has had on this project, the House will be very well served.

:03:40. > :03:43.In addition, you would like to thank the members of the Secretary of

:03:44. > :03:47.State's First World War centenary advisory group and provided vital

:03:48. > :03:50.advice and guided my department through the programme every step of

:03:51. > :03:55.the way. I was tempted to name all of them, but there are too many, but

:03:56. > :04:01.I would like to put on record the gratitude of the Government for

:04:02. > :04:04.their work. In just over two weeks' time, we will deliver our next

:04:05. > :04:08.commemorative of end. Officially known as the third Battle of Ypres,

:04:09. > :04:14.Passchendaele is one of the most famous battles of the First World

:04:15. > :04:19.War. I will certainly give way. I'm very grateful to the Minister

:04:20. > :04:27.and I would also add my commendation to the actions of the police

:04:28. > :04:32.officers here. The South Wales Regiment had heroism at

:04:33. > :04:36.Passchendaele and had members of my constituency. But also, those

:04:37. > :04:40.soldiers were also lost in the days leading up to the battle. The second

:04:41. > :04:44.battalion Monmouthshire Regiment moved up to the forward line on the

:04:45. > :04:48.29th in preparation for battle on the 31st. As we appropriately

:04:49. > :04:52.remember those who gave so much in the battle, we also remember those

:04:53. > :04:55.whose lives were lost perhaps through injuries in the days before

:04:56. > :04:59.as well. I'm grateful to the honourable

:05:00. > :05:02.gentleman for that contribution and with his customary eloquence, he

:05:03. > :05:05.makes a very wise point and it would be accurate in the sense that and it

:05:06. > :05:12.would be echoed in the sentiments across the House. The battle was not

:05:13. > :05:20.only famous, infamous, for the terrible conditions, but also for

:05:21. > :05:27.the scale of the losses. In the region of 250,000 Allied soldiers

:05:28. > :05:31.and around the same number of German soldiers, a total of at least half a

:05:32. > :05:38.million men on both sides, were wounded, killed or missing. Quite

:05:39. > :05:45.frankly, and believable numbers. -- unbelievable. Between July 31 and

:05:46. > :05:54.November the tenth 1917, this battle saw the British Army attempts to

:05:55. > :05:58.break out of the notorious Ypres assailant and troops from across

:05:59. > :06:03.Britain and Ireland took part, along with significant numbers from

:06:04. > :06:07.today's Commonwealth, particularly from Australia, Canada, New Zealand

:06:08. > :06:15.and South Africa. Allied air losses played an important role, providing

:06:16. > :06:19.vital reconnaissance. Sorry, Allied air forces played an important role,

:06:20. > :06:24.providing vital reconnaissance for the ground forces and fighting

:06:25. > :06:27.deadly dogfights with their German counterparts in the skies above the

:06:28. > :06:32.trenches. The battle was conceived in part as a means of influencing

:06:33. > :06:36.the struggle against German submarines and the Royal Naval

:06:37. > :06:40.division fought on the battlefields of Passchendaele alongside other

:06:41. > :06:45.soldiers. Many others contributed during the battle and in the

:06:46. > :06:51.fighting around Ypres during the conflict, including service men from

:06:52. > :06:55.India and the West Indies, labourers from China and of course the nurses

:06:56. > :07:01.and medical staff who worked behind the lines to treat the wounded. For

:07:02. > :07:07.all those who fought in that small corner of Flanders in the late

:07:08. > :07:14.summer and autumn of 1917, including in the Belgian French and German

:07:15. > :07:17.armies, it would prove to be one of the most gruelling experiences of

:07:18. > :07:22.the conflict. Much of the First World War's most enduring

:07:23. > :07:27.photography, poetry and art work was inspired by the desolate landscape

:07:28. > :07:33.which became a featureless quagmire over the course of the battle. After

:07:34. > :07:40.periods of intense rain, the Mont became so bad that men and animals

:07:41. > :07:45.could be swallowed up in the swamp. Images such as the photography of

:07:46. > :07:52.Frank Hurley or the evocative paintings of Paul Nash are a

:07:53. > :07:57.harrowing reflection of the utter devastation. Many families, villages

:07:58. > :08:01.and towns were touched by the fighting. In Wales, the battle is

:08:02. > :08:12.remembered partly for the loss of the renowned poet Ellis Evans,

:08:13. > :08:17.better known by his bardic name, who died on the opening day of the

:08:18. > :08:21.battle. May I first of all apologise to the ministers pushed up a will

:08:22. > :08:26.have to be briefly absent for part of the debate, but I will at the

:08:27. > :08:30.earliest opportunity. In light of what he said about photographs and

:08:31. > :08:36.knowing props are not always welcome in the chamber, can I showbiz of

:08:37. > :08:40.photographs that shows Passchendaele village in June 1917 and in December

:08:41. > :08:45.1917 -- can I show these photographs. From a distance, you

:08:46. > :08:49.can see how entirely the landscape was obliterated by the bombardment.

:08:50. > :08:58.I thank my right honourable friend for his very personal intervention.

:08:59. > :09:02.I think the House will welcome that. Order! The Minister is right, the

:09:03. > :09:07.House will welcome the honourable gentleman's illustration, but the

:09:08. > :09:14.House will note that is a good reason why we do not use props. In

:09:15. > :09:18.this exceptional circumstance, I have not stopped the honourable

:09:19. > :09:24.gentleman because I know that he has shown the book with the very best of

:09:25. > :09:29.intentions. I am not quite sure how Hansard will record a picture! But

:09:30. > :09:36.the Minister is right to note the honourable gentleman's point.

:09:37. > :09:43.Minister. Speaker. That day also saw the death of the Irish poet France's

:09:44. > :09:47.lead which. And it is important to remember that many of those who

:09:48. > :09:52.fought at Passchendaele were conscripts and this was a war that

:09:53. > :09:54.had already led to huge changes around these islands. Women were

:09:55. > :10:00.already playing a vital role in the war effort, particularly in the

:10:01. > :10:04.production of munitions for the artillery, which was so critical to

:10:05. > :10:08.the outcome of the fighting. And for many of us, Passchendaele has

:10:09. > :10:18.epitomised the horrors of trench warfare on the Western front.

:10:19. > :10:22.Does my honourable friend... He knows I am about to say recall that

:10:23. > :10:29.I presented to the city of Salisbury through him and the Wiltshire

:10:30. > :10:36.Regiment a bugle that was used by the first Regiment of the Wiltshire

:10:37. > :10:42.Regiment. And it was I understand now in the museum as a recognition

:10:43. > :10:47.and a memory of those people who fought in that wonderful battle.

:10:48. > :10:52.I am very grateful to my honourable friend for reminding me and the

:10:53. > :10:57.House of that kind gift. And I think it represents a platter of gifts and

:10:58. > :11:03.memories that many members of this House and many constituents have

:11:04. > :11:07.enough families concerning the First World War and the Second World War,

:11:08. > :11:12.and it is really important that we put those exhibits outbursts of the

:11:13. > :11:20.next generation can fully grasp what actually happened during this period

:11:21. > :11:24.of our history. I rise because of the description of

:11:25. > :11:29.this is a wonderful battle. To many of the people who were there,

:11:30. > :11:36.including my father, this was a terrible, terrible tragedy as a

:11:37. > :11:40.result of the misjudgement by the generals and others. We cannot look

:11:41. > :11:44.at this without remembering that many of those who lost their lives,

:11:45. > :11:51.they did not give their lives, they were told if they went there, they

:11:52. > :11:56.would stop the homes. They went that as a result of persuasion and

:11:57. > :12:00.propaganda -- three. To learn the proper lessons of warfare, we must

:12:01. > :12:07.remember that, and the immense wasteful loss of human life. Well,

:12:08. > :12:10.I'm grateful for the Underhill -- honourable gentleman's contribution

:12:11. > :12:13.and every member will have a different emphasis and

:12:14. > :12:17.interpretation of events and I hope the debate will give an opportunity

:12:18. > :12:23.to reflect in our own way on how we would wish to record events 100

:12:24. > :12:31.years ago. Let me now turn to national events. Three commemorative

:12:32. > :12:37.events will be held in Belgium on July 30 and the 31st 2017 at iconic

:12:38. > :12:41.locations where soldiers fought and died and died and they are

:12:42. > :12:48.commemorated. On Sunday, July 30, we will begin with the traditional Last

:12:49. > :12:55.Post ceremony in Ypres. This is one of the most iconic memorials. It was

:12:56. > :13:01.an honour those who are in the First World War. And it bears the names of

:13:02. > :13:06.more than 54,000 individuals who died there while serving with the

:13:07. > :13:13.forces of Britain, Australia, Canada, India and South Africa. But

:13:14. > :13:18.for whom there was no known grave. Designed by Sir Reginald Blom Gills,

:13:19. > :13:22.it is a remarkable monument and a fitting place to start proceedings.

:13:23. > :13:27.The Last Post ceremony has been held back every evening at 2,000 hrs

:13:28. > :13:32.since the railing of the memorial in 1927. With the exception of the

:13:33. > :13:39.period Second World War when the ceremony was held at Brookwood

:13:40. > :13:45.military cemetery near Woking. It is organised by the Last Post

:13:46. > :13:53.association and has been performed since origin. It will commemorate

:13:54. > :13:58.the history with Belgium. A UK military band and the nationally

:13:59. > :14:00.quiet of Scotland will perform. Reefs will be laid by

:14:01. > :14:09.representatives of 20 Tri Nations who fought during the war. 200

:14:10. > :14:12.invited guests will attend, as well as 200 descendants who were

:14:13. > :14:17.successful in a public ballot and whose ancestors were named on the

:14:18. > :14:24.many gate. After the Last Post ceremony, events will be how in

:14:25. > :14:30.Marco Square Ypres to an estimated audience of around 6,000 members.

:14:31. > :14:39.Here, we will creatively tell the story of the war in Ypres from 1914,

:14:40. > :14:44.with a particular focus on the third battle of Ypres of 1917. So

:14:45. > :14:47.projecting on the Cloth Hall, we will use a range of contemporary

:14:48. > :14:52.digital projection techniques to bring history to life projections

:14:53. > :14:58.which will enable the use of a broad of visual media from photographic

:14:59. > :15:03.and film archive, to animation. These projections will be supported

:15:04. > :15:07.by live readings of poetry and musical performance, including the

:15:08. > :15:11.orchestra and choir. The event will add a distinctive, engaging and

:15:12. > :15:15.contemporary element to the centenary programme which will help

:15:16. > :15:21.to reach a wider and I hope younger audience which is a key objective of

:15:22. > :15:26.the commemorations. So on Monday, July 31, exactly 100 years since the

:15:27. > :15:28.battle began, a national commemorative event will be held at

:15:29. > :15:37.the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Cemetery. And in terms

:15:38. > :15:43.of burials, it is the largest cemetery in the world. The final

:15:44. > :15:50.resting place of almost 12,000 Commonwealth servicemen of whom more

:15:51. > :15:54.than 8300 remain unidentified. I will certainly give way.

:15:55. > :15:59.I am grateful to my honourable friend. He has mentioned the

:16:00. > :16:04.Commonwealth War Graves Commission site at Ypres and another now. Will

:16:05. > :16:08.he join me in paying tribute to all of those not just in north-western

:16:09. > :16:11.Europe but around the world who maintain our Commonwealth War Graves

:16:12. > :16:15.sites with such dignity and so brilliantly maintain the memory of

:16:16. > :16:19.those who died in the service of our country?

:16:20. > :16:25.An extremely grateful to my honourable friend and I am about to

:16:26. > :16:27.do that, but he has spoken quite rightly about the enormous

:16:28. > :16:33.contribution they have made over the last 100 years.

:16:34. > :16:38.So it is the final resting place of nearly 12,000 Commonwealth

:16:39. > :16:42.servicemen, of whom are over 8000 remain unidentified and among them,

:16:43. > :16:51.four German soldiers. At the heart of the cemetery is the blockhouse, a

:16:52. > :16:55.formidable German fortification captured in the fighting and then

:16:56. > :16:59.used as a medical post. After the war, remains were brought there from

:17:00. > :17:05.around the surrounding battlefields, but most buried there were thought

:17:06. > :17:09.to have died during the third battle of Ypres. When the gate was

:17:10. > :17:15.constructed, its walls proved insufficient to bear the names of

:17:16. > :17:19.all the missing of the Ypres salient Soviet memorial wall bears the names

:17:20. > :17:27.of nearly 35,000 men who were killed after the 16th of August 19 17 and

:17:28. > :17:31.whose names are not known that. Thank you for giving way. If he

:17:32. > :17:38.troubled, as I am, by the inherent tension within the nation

:17:39. > :17:45.commemoration, commemorative programme for the First World War,

:17:46. > :17:51.between the need to remember the sacrifice of previous generations,

:17:52. > :17:57.the desire to instil in current generations the need for patriotism

:17:58. > :18:05.and potential sacrifice, but with the First World War the dreadful,

:18:06. > :18:11.needless mass loss of all life, in a way that is perhaps different from

:18:12. > :18:17.the Second World War? Well, I think that's a typically

:18:18. > :18:21.thoughtful representation of the challenge in getting these

:18:22. > :18:26.commemoration is right. I hope that the honourable gentleman will

:18:27. > :18:31.recognise that a lot of thought and work has gone into trying to get

:18:32. > :18:34.that balance right, and I hope when some of my colleagues, particularly

:18:35. > :18:38.the member for South West Wiltshire, contributes later, will understand a

:18:39. > :18:43.bit about how that has been balanced.

:18:44. > :18:49.So I just want to reflect, as I said I would, on the sea WGC, who

:18:50. > :18:58.commemorate the missing at the men in gate and is further 35,000 on the

:18:59. > :19:02.wall at Tyne Cot. When the names another nearby memorials are added,

:19:03. > :19:10.the number comes to some 100,000 soldiers who have no known grave.

:19:11. > :19:15.Numbers, I think, that are unimaginable in modern-day warfare.

:19:16. > :19:19.But following the ballot launched in January for free tickets, I'm

:19:20. > :19:24.delighted that around 3900% and guests will attend the event at Tyne

:19:25. > :19:30.Cot. The content and staging of the event will evoke, I hope, a strong

:19:31. > :19:34.sense of place, making full use of the poignancy and historical

:19:35. > :19:40.significance of the cemetery. There will be readings by military

:19:41. > :19:44.personnel and descendants, musical performances by UK military bands,

:19:45. > :19:51.acquire and solo performances and a formal act of remembrance. Readings

:19:52. > :19:55.of soldiers' recollections, and I read some poetry will tell the story

:19:56. > :19:59.of the third battle of Ypres, and the experiences of men who fought

:20:00. > :20:05.there. Content will reflect the contribution of men from across the

:20:06. > :20:11.UK and Ireland, as well as from the Commonwealth. In addition, from the

:20:12. > :20:15.29th of July to the 31st of July, the Passchendaele centenary

:20:16. > :20:18.exhibition will be held at Passchendaele Memorial Park. We have

:20:19. > :20:22.been working with the memorial Museum of Passchendaele and will

:20:23. > :20:30.include contributions from UK and Belgium museums. There will be art

:20:31. > :20:35.and artefacts, exhibitions, living history groups and areas for

:20:36. > :20:41.historical talks and musical performances in open and covered

:20:42. > :20:44.areas. The Passchendaele museum will also have an exhibition called,

:20:45. > :20:47.landscape of war, which will be open to visitors. At this point I would

:20:48. > :20:51.like to thank and acknowledge the help and support that although local

:20:52. > :21:01.organisations and local communities have given to us in and around Ypres

:21:02. > :21:06.and Zonnebeke in the planning stages. Their support has been

:21:07. > :21:14.invaluable and my thanks goes in particular to the mayors in

:21:15. > :21:17.Zonnebeke. And visible from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission,

:21:18. > :21:22.which this year is celebrating its own centenary. This organisation is

:21:23. > :21:26.one of our key partners and does outstanding work in ensuring that

:21:27. > :21:32.1.7 million people who died in the two world wars will never be

:21:33. > :21:39.forgotten. They care for cemeteries are memorials at 23,000 locations in

:21:40. > :21:46.154 countries and territories around the globe, making sure that our war

:21:47. > :21:50.dead are honoured with dignity. Recently the CWGC launched a new

:21:51. > :21:56.scheme for interns who have been welcoming and guiding visitors at

:21:57. > :22:02.major cemeteries and memorials, including at Tyn Cot this summer.

:22:03. > :22:08.The military of defence, our key partners, contributing assets for

:22:09. > :22:12.these events. And the BBC will be broadcasting the events on both

:22:13. > :22:19.Sunday night and Monday. So our key themes across the entire First World

:22:20. > :22:22.War centenary programme of remembrance, youth and education. In

:22:23. > :22:26.terms of use and education, I'm really pleased the National youth

:22:27. > :22:32.choir of Scotland will perform at all three commemorative events and

:22:33. > :22:37.around 100 graduates of the National citizens service, aged 16-19, will

:22:38. > :22:40.be part of the delivery team at the commemorations. The graduates have

:22:41. > :22:47.undergone an educational programme about the First World War in

:22:48. > :22:49.preparation... I would be happy to give way.

:22:50. > :22:53.Thank you for giving way on what he has presented to the House. I

:22:54. > :22:56.completely agree, if any right and fitting we should commemorate the

:22:57. > :23:00.loss of life that Passchendaele. Woody answer the question about the

:23:01. > :23:04.role of medical profession after Passchendaele and much of the trench

:23:05. > :23:07.warfare of the First World War? Given the fact we are commemorating

:23:08. > :23:13.those who lost their life, those who came home would have suffered, many

:23:14. > :23:16.of them, from shellshocked and so many advances in psychology were

:23:17. > :23:20.learned on the front line. Will it play any part in the commemoration

:23:21. > :23:25.of those who survived? I think that in the way we remember

:23:26. > :23:30.these events now, given the understanding we have now of many of

:23:31. > :23:37.the impact of war psychologically, we will have those things in mind.

:23:38. > :23:40.It is very, very difficult to go back and reinterpret events as they

:23:41. > :23:44.were at the time and as they were experienced at the time. But I think

:23:45. > :23:47.the honourable gentleman makes a very perceptive and worthwhile

:23:48. > :23:52.point. I would like to add the Royal

:23:53. > :23:55.British Legion's National Memorial in Staffordshire is holding a

:23:56. > :23:59.special service on the 31st of July and will include a broadcast on

:24:00. > :24:03.large screens of our national event taking place at the Tyne Cot

:24:04. > :24:07.Cemetery. Members across the House are encouraged to attend this free

:24:08. > :24:11.event if they can, and encourage their constituents to do so as well.

:24:12. > :24:15.More Victoria crosses were won on the first day of the Battle of

:24:16. > :24:20.Passchendaele than any other single day of the battle in the First World

:24:21. > :24:25.War, and 61 VCs were awarded in the campaign as a whole. All 61

:24:26. > :24:28.recipients will be honoured with a commemorative paving stone in the

:24:29. > :24:31.town of their birth on the anniversary of the action for which

:24:32. > :24:38.the Victoria Cross was awarded. The commemorative paving stone

:24:39. > :24:41.initiative forms part of the centenary programme and in the case

:24:42. > :24:44.of the men born overseas, their commemoratives paving stones have

:24:45. > :24:52.been placed at the National Memorial argument. Passchendaele also a

:24:53. > :25:00.medical officer received his second Victoria Cross. On the evening of

:25:01. > :25:05.Passchendaele he was wounded but under heavy fire and in appalling

:25:06. > :25:12.weather, he continued to search no no man's land to search for the

:25:13. > :25:18.wounded. Whilst taking a rest is first aid post it was struck by a

:25:19. > :25:24.shell. Although he had at least six injuries he managed to crawl away

:25:25. > :25:28.and was picked up and taken to the clearing station where he died on

:25:29. > :25:34.the 4th of August, 1917. We are also supporting Passchendaele at home, in

:25:35. > :25:39.partnership with the big ideas company. They are over 400 graves in

:25:40. > :25:42.the UK, very likely to belong to service men injured at the Battle of

:25:43. > :25:46.Passchendaele, who died of their wounds afterwards. The project will

:25:47. > :25:50.work with schools and communities across the country to identify

:25:51. > :25:56.graves in their area and to find out more about the brave men who fought

:25:57. > :26:03.at Passchendaele. So as you have heard, and I hope you agree, these

:26:04. > :26:06.commemorative events, Madam Deputy Speaker, to mark the Battle of

:26:07. > :26:12.Passchendaele, will be both educational and poignant and help us

:26:13. > :26:17.to reflect on this terrible war and battle 100 years ago.

:26:18. > :26:24.The question is this house has considered the Battle of

:26:25. > :26:30.Passchendaele, the third Battle of Ypres.

:26:31. > :26:33.Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker and can I thank the Minister for his

:26:34. > :26:39.speech and take this opportunity to welcome him to his new post. And

:26:40. > :26:44.also, may I add on behalf of Her Majesty's official opposition, their

:26:45. > :26:48.gratitude and thanks, although they have left now, the two police

:26:49. > :26:52.officers who helped apprehend the killer of Arbilla beloved late

:26:53. > :26:58.colleague, Jo Cox, whose plaque is now here behind me and rightly

:26:59. > :27:03.standing with all the plaques of honourable members who gave their

:27:04. > :27:07.lives on behalf of the country in previous conflicts, including the

:27:08. > :27:11.First World War. And across this house, we are immensely grateful for

:27:12. > :27:15.the opportunity to commemorate Passchendaele, the third Battle of

:27:16. > :27:19.Ypres, and the chance to speak of our military history, of Armed

:27:20. > :27:25.Forces community and the sacrifices made and are still being made on our

:27:26. > :27:29.behalf. I would like to take this opportunity also, on behalf of the

:27:30. > :27:34.official opposition, to pay tribute to those who had served in our Armed

:27:35. > :27:37.Forces and those who continue to serve in our Armed Forces. We are

:27:38. > :27:43.all grateful for their courage, as they serve to keep us safe.

:27:44. > :27:49.As we have heard, the Battle of Passchendaele stretched from July to

:27:50. > :27:53.November 1917, as the Allied forces and the German Empire battled for

:27:54. > :27:59.control of the ridges around Ypres on the Western front. It was the

:28:00. > :28:02.first major British offensive on Ypres and the stalemate of the

:28:03. > :28:13.Battle lasted for months, marked by battles within the battle.

:28:14. > :28:17.Casualties on both sides, as we heard, difficult to calculate, but

:28:18. > :28:21.well over half a million casualties when counted together, and yet the

:28:22. > :28:27.village of Passchendaele itself was only five miles away from the

:28:28. > :28:30.starting point of the Allied forces' action.

:28:31. > :28:33.The battle, as we've heard, is notorious, not just for its number

:28:34. > :28:38.of casualties but also for the conditions in which the battle was

:28:39. > :28:41.fought. The first few days of the offensive were marked by the

:28:42. > :28:46.heaviest rainfall in 30 years, turning the field into a quagmire

:28:47. > :28:52.which trapped soldiers and horses and immobilised weaponry. A century

:28:53. > :29:00.on, in the safety and grandeur of this place, it's difficult if not

:29:01. > :29:03.impossible to imagine the mud, the blood and the horror and the sheer

:29:04. > :29:08.scale of the losses of Passchendaele, but that is why it is

:29:09. > :29:15.absolutely right that we do remember. 325,000 Allied casualties

:29:16. > :29:20.is difficult to comprehend, as is their bravery, valour and sacrifice.

:29:21. > :29:27.And in the minds of many, as we've heard, Passchendaele has come to

:29:28. > :29:32.epitomise the senselessness, ultimately, of war. So these moments

:29:33. > :29:36.of commemoration are important, and I'd like to join the minister in

:29:37. > :29:41.thanking all of those involved, and including the Imperial War Museum,

:29:42. > :29:44.the BBC, the Royal British Legion, the Commonwealth War Graves

:29:45. > :29:47.Commission and all the other organisations, including those

:29:48. > :29:51.mentioned by the Minister, who worked so hard to ensure that we do

:29:52. > :29:57.not forget. Indeed, we are fortunate at the

:29:58. > :30:00.moment to have an exhibition here in Westminster Hall, or in the Palace

:30:01. > :30:03.of Westminster Hall, about Parliament and the First World War,

:30:04. > :30:07.which I would encourage all honourable members to visit if they

:30:08. > :30:13.haven't already done so. The scale of the Great War was such

:30:14. > :30:17.that today most cities, towns and villages have a memorial which lists

:30:18. > :30:23.the names of the local people who died while fighting for Britain in

:30:24. > :30:27.that war. As a Welsh MP, Madam Deputy Speaker, you won't be

:30:28. > :30:31.surprised that I would observe sacrifices made in the First World

:30:32. > :30:36.War continue to resonate in Wales, despite the passage of 100 years.

:30:37. > :30:41.The first significant losses of Welsh life came in October and

:30:42. > :30:45.November of 1914. The Germans rushed for Belgian seaports but were

:30:46. > :30:48.repelled by units of the Welsh Regiment and the South Wales

:30:49. > :30:53.borderers, who suffered many casualties. But before the events of

:30:54. > :30:58.that war, Passchendaele in particular, as the Minister made

:30:59. > :31:03.reference to, is a part of Welsh cultural memory. Every village in

:31:04. > :31:09.Wales was affected. 20,000 first language Welsh speaking soldiers

:31:10. > :31:14.alone were killed in this battle. The soldiers of the Welsh Regiment,

:31:15. > :31:19.the South Welsh borders on the Royal Welch Fusiliers all fought alongside

:31:20. > :31:23.each other in the 38th division, and further, the Welsh Guards fought at

:31:24. > :31:30.the third Battle of Ypres. That 38th division was devised by David Lord

:31:31. > :31:36.George, who went on to become Prime Minister after it was devised and

:31:37. > :31:43.whose statue frankly entrance to this chamber and who himself was a

:31:44. > :31:47.first language Welsh speaker. In 1915 the division suffered very

:31:48. > :31:51.heavy casualties on the Somme, but in 1917 it had come to be seen as an

:31:52. > :31:55.elite division, particularly following the Battle of pilgrimage

:31:56. > :32:04.at the beginning of the third Battle of Ypres. The cafe is not far from

:32:05. > :32:09.Ypres has been dedicated by the owner to the many Welsh soldiers who

:32:10. > :32:15.died in the area in 1917, and the red Dragon on a black background

:32:16. > :32:18.worn by the 38th division is the inspiration for the shoulder flash

:32:19. > :32:23.worn by the Royal Welsh today. I think that is a testament to the

:32:24. > :32:34.significance, the cultural significance, of the 38th division.

:32:35. > :32:40.It is for reasons like this public sacrifice are commemorated today and

:32:41. > :32:45.in Wales in relation to Passchendaele. When contemplating

:32:46. > :32:50.casualties on such a huge scale, we often turn to individual stories in

:32:51. > :32:58.remembrance, as the Minister did in his remarks, and that is what I

:32:59. > :33:06.would like to do in my speech. As he said, 100 years since Passchendaele

:33:07. > :33:13.is also 100 years since the staff filed of the black chair. That is

:33:14. > :33:18.the annual Welsh language cultural festival where people compete at

:33:19. > :33:23.sinking, dancing and reciting poetry. Held every summer, the

:33:24. > :33:27.sheer's in a couple of weeks, and I am pleased to say it will be a free

:33:28. > :33:34.event held in the capital city of Cardiff where my constituency lies.

:33:35. > :33:38.In 1916, some people called for that Eisteddfod to become salt. They did

:33:39. > :33:43.not think it would be appropriate to spend time sinking while men were

:33:44. > :33:49.fighting and dying on their behalf in the trenches -- to become

:33:50. > :33:53.cancelled. David Lloyd George said, it is true that thousands of gallant

:33:54. > :33:58.men falling in the fight, let's sing of their heroism, let's sing of our

:33:59. > :34:04.land that gave birth to so many heroes. So in 1916, the Eisteddfod

:34:05. > :34:08.went on. And the following year in 1917, as the Battle of Passchendaele

:34:09. > :34:18.continued, the Eisteddfod was directly touched by the tragedy of

:34:19. > :34:22.that battle. Evans, under a now famous pseudonym, was judged as the

:34:23. > :34:25.winner of the chair, the highest honour of the Eisteddfod, granted to

:34:26. > :34:31.the best poet writing in the traditional strict metre of the

:34:32. > :34:35.Welsh language. However, when the winner's pseudonym was called in the

:34:36. > :34:40.traditional dramatic ceremony of the Eisteddfod, nobody stood up. In the

:34:41. > :34:45.audience, to reveal themselves as the triumphant poet. It was then

:34:46. > :34:52.announced the winning barred had been killed in battle six weeks

:34:53. > :34:59.prior. One of 4,000 men killed in a single morning when the Welsh Royal,

:35:00. > :35:06.Royal Welsh usually is went over the top of Passchendaele. The poet has

:35:07. > :35:09.become the subject of poems himself, history lessons in classrooms across

:35:10. > :35:15.Wales and even the subject of an Oscar-nominated feature film. And

:35:16. > :35:20.the poignant story captured the morning of a nation. So in a way, it

:35:21. > :35:28.is doubly appropriate the front bench reads in this debate today,

:35:29. > :35:32.the Department For Culture. In the greatest perils, it is poetry, songs

:35:33. > :35:37.and the Arts that keep people going and miraculously, even though we

:35:38. > :35:42.would not want this to happen, they turned the horrors of war into the

:35:43. > :35:47.beauty of artistic inspiration. Of course, the war effort in the UK was

:35:48. > :35:51.not only made up of the men who went to fight, there were surgeons and

:35:52. > :35:56.nurses on the battlefields and at home, women became the backbone of

:35:57. > :36:01.industry. And I would like to make mention of my own constituency in

:36:02. > :36:08.1917, the Women's Land Army formed a 20,000 women and listed. Green farm

:36:09. > :36:13.in Cardiff West is now a housing estate which was built to deliver

:36:14. > :36:17.Homes for Heroes after the Great War. But as a farm, it was run

:36:18. > :36:23.predominantly by female farm hands during the war and one of these

:36:24. > :36:28.workers left domestic service to work on the farm. She said, every

:36:29. > :36:31.morning, we would get up at five o'clock and milk 100 cows and we

:36:32. > :36:37.would then take the milk to the hospital. So I am proud and I am

:36:38. > :36:42.sure we are all proud of the efforts of those such as Agnes and so many

:36:43. > :36:46.other women across the country, in her case, she is part of Cardiff

:36:47. > :36:50.West's history, but I am proud and humbled by the sacrifices we still

:36:51. > :36:56.see from our Armed Forces communities across the UK today. The

:36:57. > :37:01.UK Armed Forces continue to protect us, Madam Deputy Speaker, involved

:37:02. > :37:06.in over 30 operations in over 20 countries. Abroad, our forces work

:37:07. > :37:10.in Afghanistan, in non-combat roles. They support the EU and the UN

:37:11. > :37:16.peacekeeping missions in South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, in Mali,

:37:17. > :37:21.they are part of Nato's forces in Eastern Europe and they respond the

:37:22. > :37:26.continued threat as we heard earlier today posed by Daesh. At home, they

:37:27. > :37:29.support responses to terrorist incidents, protect aerospace and

:37:30. > :37:36.they are supported by the entire Armed Forces community of families,

:37:37. > :37:39.reservists, veterans and cadets. During this debate, to commemorate

:37:40. > :37:42.the sacrifices made in Passchendaele, we should also

:37:43. > :37:46.remember the sacrifices that have been made and are still being made

:37:47. > :37:54.every year since then by the brave men and women of the UK Armed

:37:55. > :38:02.Forces. The close, I turn to the words from a poem which means war. I

:38:03. > :38:08.will read it in Welsh and then youngish translation.

:38:09. > :38:22.The hearts to which we sang our hunger on willow boughs and their

:38:23. > :38:33.refrain drowned by the anguish of the young whose blood is mingled

:38:34. > :38:38.with the rain. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Can

:38:39. > :38:42.I begin by thanking the Minister for outlining the various commemorative

:38:43. > :38:45.ceremonies that are to take place over the next two, three months to

:38:46. > :38:50.commemorate the Battle of Passchendaele. And also, for the

:38:51. > :38:56.spokesman for the opposition in talking about the wider impact of

:38:57. > :39:01.the war that were also commemorating. It seems to me at

:39:02. > :39:06.times that this commemoration is a bit like the First World War, in

:39:07. > :39:12.that year by year, we remember another campaign, another battle. I

:39:13. > :39:18.wanted to speak for a number of reasons. I am so old that I

:39:19. > :39:25.interviewed dozens of First World War survivors in the 1970s for a

:39:26. > :39:30.writing project. I publish two or three box. So I have a deep

:39:31. > :39:35.connected memory of the First World War. Both my grandfather served in

:39:36. > :39:42.the First World War, but I am also conscious of the fact that as a

:39:43. > :39:46.member of the primers to's advisory panel that from the very beginning,

:39:47. > :39:50.and this was a point and intervention by a colleague of the

:39:51. > :39:56.Minister, about how would we get the balance right between commemoration

:39:57. > :40:01.and not glorifying war, and how do we bring it to young people? Because

:40:02. > :40:09.I have a personal connection. I can remember talking to survivors of

:40:10. > :40:12.Passchendaele. But from my son aged 26, the battle of Passchendaele is

:40:13. > :40:21.as far away from him as the Battle of Waterloo. Secondly, why are we

:40:22. > :40:24.remembering Passchendaele? Is it just because we have got into the

:40:25. > :40:31.habit of putting pox on our commemoration? In other words, it

:40:32. > :40:37.was obvious in 2014, it was going to be the battle of mums. In 2015, we

:40:38. > :40:41.did rather quiet through that. But there was of course glibly. Very

:40:42. > :40:48.important, crucially, the Australians and New Zealanders. But

:40:49. > :40:49.the great island -- irony is they played a far more important and

:40:50. > :41:06.significant part as part of the British armies in Belgium and

:41:07. > :41:08.France in 16, 17 and 18, now in 2017, we are largely, but not wholly

:41:09. > :41:12.commemorating Passchendaele. And next year, we will end up

:41:13. > :41:18.commemorating the great German offensives of spring. Which nearly

:41:19. > :41:21.broke the Allied line. What was called the Hundred days, the more

:41:22. > :41:27.mobile campaign, and the collapse of the Germans in October, November 90

:41:28. > :41:34.18. And that is it, at the end of the First World War. But of course,

:41:35. > :41:35.it wasn't. It wasn't because of the Minister pointed out, the

:41:36. > :41:45.Commonwealth War Graves Commission celebrates this year its own to

:41:46. > :41:50.worry. -- its centenary. The work of a remarkable man, Fabian Ware, too

:41:51. > :41:57.old to serve on the front line unit in 1914, he served with an ambulance

:41:58. > :41:59.unit, and he was then struck in 1914, 1915, by the extent of the

:42:00. > :42:05.casualties and what was going to happen to them. And through the

:42:06. > :42:10.adjutant general, the chief staff officer, one of the chief staff

:42:11. > :42:16.officers in the British Army, he began to collect bodies together.

:42:17. > :42:21.Some form of formalisation. And ultimately, in 1917, the Imperial

:42:22. > :42:27.walk Graves Commission was established and its work began after

:42:28. > :42:36.the Armistice in 1918. As the Minister pointed out, named after a

:42:37. > :42:42.reference on a map, outside Passchendaele, it it became the

:42:43. > :42:45.largest cemetery for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

:42:46. > :42:51.that they now look after. Nearly 50,000 men are commemorated there.

:42:52. > :42:56.The majority of whom have no grave. So that brings me on to my next

:42:57. > :43:03.point, that for younger people, it is the extent of the casualties of

:43:04. > :43:07.Passchendaele. It is also associated, I suspect, in their mind

:43:08. > :43:13.not only with poetry and literature, some of which we have heard, but

:43:14. > :43:17.film and photographs. The great thing about First World War if there

:43:18. > :43:24.is a great thing, we can actually see it. Cinematic film is more

:43:25. > :43:29.difficult. But we have a raft of photographs, many of which were

:43:30. > :43:33.taken on the front line. It was against the King's regulation. This

:43:34. > :43:36.meant to take cameras onto the front line, most of them ignored that and

:43:37. > :43:44.sent them back home. So we have a graphic display of that. But I find

:43:45. > :43:50.that in explaining and talking about this with young people and children,

:43:51. > :43:55.to try and get them to think about this, they say to me, another three

:43:56. > :44:02.or four years and I would have been old enough to fought in it. How did

:44:03. > :44:09.they endure that? What did the Government do to force them to fight

:44:10. > :44:12.in the British Army's -- British armies in the First World War? It

:44:13. > :44:18.comes as a surprise when you say there was no conscription until

:44:19. > :44:22.1916, 90 17. The majority of the servicemen were volunteers.

:44:23. > :44:29.Kitchener volunteers, or in the territorial Army. And whilst there

:44:30. > :44:35.was a pretty dramatic and drastic military discipline code, and we

:44:36. > :44:39.know that dozens of British servicemen were executed in the

:44:40. > :44:46.First World War, some for cowardice, some for murder, what I am struck

:44:47. > :44:50.goodbye talking all those years ago the veterans and reading their

:44:51. > :44:57.diaries and their letters, many of them were appalled by the death of

:44:58. > :45:03.their friends and the suffering. But they did it out of a combination of

:45:04. > :45:09.that local interest, many of them serving with their friends based

:45:10. > :45:15.upon volunteering to serve in Powells battalions or serving

:45:16. > :45:22.alongside men from the same village or from the same streets. A

:45:23. > :45:25.Victorian concept of duty. And of course, one of the most important

:45:26. > :45:32.stimulants and determinants in battle, which will I was always told

:45:33. > :45:36.teaching that sound Hirst by men who did this, small group loyalty. You

:45:37. > :45:39.were not even doing this for your battalion, but for the people in

:45:40. > :45:48.your section, half a dozen people doing that. And we have to remember

:45:49. > :45:52.that Passchendaele, as the ministers pointed out, was not a one-day

:45:53. > :45:59.battle. It was a series of campaigns from the end of July until November

:46:00. > :46:05.ten. And it was only one part of the work of the British Army in Belgium

:46:06. > :46:13.and France in 1917. The next point I want to touch upon is that one of

:46:14. > :46:18.the questions you get not just from young people but by people

:46:19. > :46:21.interested in the First World War is, why were the General so stupid?

:46:22. > :46:27.A point being made by the honourable member earlier on.

:46:28. > :46:37.I've never been in that camp, particularly. What I try to remember

:46:38. > :46:40.is I think that they did come from a limited background, they had a

:46:41. > :46:45.limited experience and perception of war. You also have to bear in mind

:46:46. > :46:57.that the British expeditionary Force of 1914, maybe regular, -- mainly

:46:58. > :47:05.regular was about a men. In 1917 the British Army at the front was

:47:06. > :47:10.roughly 1.3 million men. An enormous expansion in the war. Many of them

:47:11. > :47:15.are not soldiers, they were in the logistics or support side. They, to

:47:16. > :47:23.use the modern academic term, the learning curve required to recruit,

:47:24. > :47:27.train, deploy and fight these armies was enormous. It wasn't just the

:47:28. > :47:32.experience in Britain but the experience in Belgium, France,

:47:33. > :47:37.Germany and Russia. And I have to say, bear in mind the extent of the

:47:38. > :47:43.casualties at Passchendaele, we are talking about maybe 500 or 600,000

:47:44. > :47:47.men, give or take 10,000. That sounds appallingly inaccurate. Think

:47:48. > :47:53.in terms of the casualties of the Second World War. I mean, just one

:47:54. > :47:59.example is historians now tell us that the average British infantry

:48:00. > :48:06.battalion in Normandy had more casualties than its equivalent in

:48:07. > :48:12.France in 1917. Passchendaele was unique in one sense, but there's a

:48:13. > :48:17.commonality in major war on a vast scale.

:48:18. > :48:22.Then there's the question, and he was mentioned by the opposition

:48:23. > :48:27.spokesman, of the coalition Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. And

:48:28. > :48:35.what became the battle of the men was in for invoicing Lord George --

:48:36. > :48:40.Lloyd George, Churchill and the generals on the other, about who was

:48:41. > :48:44.responsible for the casualties and was there an alternative? Crudely

:48:45. > :48:52.speaking, Lloyd George wanted, for very good reasons, to avoid engaging

:48:53. > :48:56.the German enemy in the main theatre of operations. He was always looking

:48:57. > :49:01.for a way to knock the props out from under Germany. And on the

:49:02. > :49:06.whole, the generals were against that. As far as they were concerned,

:49:07. > :49:09.the main battle within Belgium and France. We were a subordinate and

:49:10. > :49:14.then an equal partner of the French. But there is no doubt in my mind

:49:15. > :49:23.that Lloyd George had, in theory, the power to have halted the

:49:24. > :49:27.campaign. After the first month when they ground to a hole in the foulest

:49:28. > :49:32.of weather, he had that power, except he didn't, because he felt

:49:33. > :49:36.weak up against Douglas Hague. Douglas Hague had the press on his

:49:37. > :49:39.side, and he had them on his side until the end.

:49:40. > :49:46.Madam Deputy Speaker, this debate is still going on today, amongst

:49:47. > :49:49.historians, about was there on alternative? There probably wasn't

:49:50. > :49:58.an alternative, but we didn't have in place the methods and the

:49:59. > :50:01.organisation to have proper debates about this in the First World War.

:50:02. > :50:09.That was the big lesson that Churchill learnt. Churchill, who

:50:10. > :50:12.had, of course, left the Government after Gallipoli, when and served in

:50:13. > :50:17.France and then Lloyd George reluctantly brought him back as

:50:18. > :50:20.Minister of munitions. When he became Prime Minister, the one thing

:50:21. > :50:26.he learned from the First World War was as Prime Minister he had to have

:50:27. > :50:29.pretty much total power. So he made himself Prime Minister and Minister

:50:30. > :50:36.of defence, but he also sought to have a continuous day by day debate

:50:37. > :50:39.with the chiefs of staff over a full range of strategy, and to use

:50:40. > :50:45.government committees to run the war. He was in many respects a

:50:46. > :50:51.dictator, Churchill, but it was almost without exception that he had

:50:52. > :50:55.overruled the Chiefs of staff. Lloyd George didn't have that ability. Not

:50:56. > :51:00.only did the Navy not talk to the Army, but Lloyd George had great

:51:01. > :51:04.difficulty pinning down the chief of the Imperial General staff, Wally

:51:05. > :51:11.Robertson, the only man to come from working class private to becoming

:51:12. > :51:16.the head of the Army and the Field Marshal, whose contempt for Lloyd

:51:17. > :51:20.George was such that at one meeting he just walked out, deciding not to

:51:21. > :51:24.continue with the debate. These are the kinds of things I try

:51:25. > :51:30.to engage young people with, about issues that are still alive today.

:51:31. > :51:36.My final point, Madam Deputy Speaker, is the sorrow and pity of

:51:37. > :51:39.War. The Battle of Passchendaele, as much as anything else, I think was

:51:40. > :51:44.defined, if you put aside the plans and the personalities of the senior

:51:45. > :51:49.officers, by two things. The sheer weight of artillery firepower was on

:51:50. > :51:54.such a scale that totally dwarfed anything that even had taken place

:51:55. > :51:59.at the Battle of the Somme. We are still talking about an ability to

:52:00. > :52:10.bring down boxed artillery firepower in very small areas. My honourable

:52:11. > :52:14.friend from new Forest showed, illegally, photographs of what

:52:15. > :52:22.Passchendaele looked like! And the second element was the two periods

:52:23. > :52:27.of atrocious weather. I mean absolute downpour of rain, which

:52:28. > :52:30.ground everything to a halt. And that's not a phenomenon that we are

:52:31. > :52:37.able to deal with today. And if you want to think about whether the

:52:38. > :52:46.impact of the weather, the impact of firepower, read to deduct our

:52:47. > :52:52.colleague, the member for Plymouth's book, based on his three tours of

:52:53. > :52:58.operation in Afghanistan, a Royal Artillery officer attached to the

:52:59. > :53:02.Royal Marines, and sees there. But all the technology we now have, the

:53:03. > :53:06.firepower, the helicopters, how difficult it is, and the

:53:07. > :53:12.overwhelming desire not to kill or injure civilians.

:53:13. > :53:16.So I very much welcome this commemorative debate. I know that my

:53:17. > :53:22.colleagues on all sides will make contributions. Madam Deputy Speaker,

:53:23. > :53:30.with your permission, I want to read out two short contemporary accounts

:53:31. > :53:38.that combines the shellfire and the strain on soldiers.

:53:39. > :53:45.The first is from Britain, from a private from the Fusiliers,

:53:46. > :53:48.describing an attack in October 1917, in other words, halfway

:53:49. > :53:54.through the Passchendaele campaign. Mr K, obviously a platoon officer,

:53:55. > :53:59.came up and said, come on lads, it's our turn, and we just walked round

:54:00. > :54:03.the corner of the pill box and up the hill. The Germans didn't have

:54:04. > :54:08.much to fear from me that morning, there was no fire in my belly, no

:54:09. > :54:14.nothing. I staggered up the hill and I froze and became very frightened

:54:15. > :54:18.because a big shell had just burst and blown up a group of our lads to

:54:19. > :54:24.bits. There were bits of men all over the place, a terrible sight,

:54:25. > :54:30.men just blown to nothing. I just stood there. It was still misty and

:54:31. > :54:35.I could taste the blood in the air. I couldn't move. I stood there,

:54:36. > :54:41.staring. Then an officer came across and shouted we were far too far to

:54:42. > :54:45.the left and had to go right. I probably would have been dead but

:54:46. > :54:48.for him jolting me out of it. These men had just been killed, and we

:54:49. > :54:56.just have to wait through them to get on. That's one thing I'll never

:54:57. > :55:01.forget, what I saw and what I smelt. The second short account is from the

:55:02. > :55:09.other side of the hill. A letter from an unknown German officer, 20th

:55:10. > :55:15.of September, 1917. "Dear Mother, on the morning of the

:55:16. > :55:20.18th, the dugout, containing 17 men, was shot to pieces over our heads. I

:55:21. > :55:24.am the one who withstood the maddening bombardment for three days

:55:25. > :55:29.and still survives. You cannot imagine the frightful mental

:55:30. > :55:32.torments that I have undergone in these few hours. After trawling out

:55:33. > :55:38.through the bleeding remnants of my comrades and the smoke and the

:55:39. > :55:42.debris, and wandering and fleeing in the midst of the raging artillery

:55:43. > :55:54.fire in search of refuge, I am now awaiting death at any moment. You do

:55:55. > :55:57.not know what flounders means. -- Flanders means. It means endurance,

:55:58. > :56:04.scraps of human bodies, Flanders means heroic courage and

:56:05. > :56:13.faithfulness, even to death." I do not know whether he survived.

:56:14. > :56:19.It is a pleasure to follow the gentleman. He made an incredibly

:56:20. > :56:24.forensic, heartfelt and vivid speech, particularly emotional in

:56:25. > :56:30.his two breed outs at the end. The better informed because of it. I

:56:31. > :56:34.thank sincerely. I thank the Minister also for bringing the

:56:35. > :56:39.debate to the House today, and in particular pay tribute to the Shadow

:56:40. > :56:41.Minister, who himself made a very fine speech.

:56:42. > :56:46.Madam Deputy Speaker, it was absolutely right that we commemorate

:56:47. > :56:52.Passchendaele, as the trigger of what it meant to go through

:56:53. > :56:57.industrial warfare. The sacrifice that was paid then of course must

:56:58. > :57:02.never be forgotten, and we pay tribute to all of the bodies

:57:03. > :57:07.mentioned by the Minister who will take part in the commemoration

:57:08. > :57:10.services this year. Commemoration is, of course, important. It is

:57:11. > :57:15.always important to commemorate the large-scale loss of human life, as

:57:16. > :57:21.we do this week, on the 22nd anniversary of the genocide. And we

:57:22. > :57:27.welcome the fact that the families of those who were lost in the Battle

:57:28. > :57:33.of Passchendaele will have the opportunity to take part in these

:57:34. > :57:38.commemorations. In Scotland, of course, there was no community,

:57:39. > :57:43.barely a family untouched by the courage of Passchendaele. What this

:57:44. > :57:50.tragedy highlights to us again, as many other tragedies do, is the

:57:51. > :57:56.importance of international and institutional peace building and

:57:57. > :58:00.cooperation, shared values, shared interests and working together to

:58:01. > :58:05.ensure that war doesn't become the norm of our time.

:58:06. > :58:08.Turning in particular, Madam Deputy Speaker, as I'm sure you'd expect me

:58:09. > :58:11.to do as a Glasgow member of Parliament, I understand there is

:58:12. > :58:19.another honourable friend from Glasgow North east who also may one

:58:20. > :58:28.to touch on this, I would like to mention something I came across on

:58:29. > :58:32.the Scottish football history Museum website, from Hampden Park in my

:58:33. > :58:35.constituency. What they have is fascinating, but there is one

:58:36. > :58:38.individual on that website that you can read more about. You can go to

:58:39. > :58:42.the museum and read more about, and I would like to tell the House of.

:58:43. > :58:49.That was the former Rangers player, Jimmy Spiers, one of the many men

:58:50. > :58:53.are, of course, who never returned. His face will front the

:58:54. > :58:56.Passchendaele centenary commemoration, remembering these

:58:57. > :59:00.Scots who did not make it back from Passchendaele. On the 19th of

:59:01. > :59:08.August, the unveiling of the life-size steel silhouette will

:59:09. > :59:13.feature Jimmy Spiers, one of the many Glaswegians who never made it

:59:14. > :59:17.back from Passchendaele. But in addition to the excellent archives

:59:18. > :59:24.at the Scottish football history Museum is a fantastic portal at

:59:25. > :59:29.Glasgow University. There are quite a number of very distinguished

:59:30. > :59:32.people I could read out their biographies on telly lots about, but

:59:33. > :59:40.there are just a small handful I would like to inform the House. The

:59:41. > :59:44.first of which is Lachlan senior grain. Born in Glasgow on the 19th

:59:45. > :59:51.of September 1882. His father Duncan was a well-known Glasgow leather

:59:52. > :59:55.manufacturer with an interest in politics and public life. He was one

:59:56. > :00:05.of the original founding members of the Glasgow Liberal club. A past

:00:06. > :00:10.president of the eighth... And of the agricultural Society, himself a

:00:11. > :00:14.keen cricketer and golfer. Seymour went up to the University of Glasgow

:00:15. > :00:19.in 1900 to begin his studies for an arts degree and took many subjects,

:00:20. > :00:24.including Latin, logic and moral philosophy. In his final years in

:00:25. > :00:31.Hearts he discovered his strong suit and did extremely well in political

:00:32. > :00:35.economy. In a class of Civil War law. Perhaps it was that success

:00:36. > :00:39.which encouraged him to take up law. After graduating in 1905, he

:00:40. > :00:48.matriculated against the Scots rock and over the next few years tragedy

:00:49. > :00:52.put together eight PL. -- in the next year put together a PL. It was

:00:53. > :00:56.lasting sporting his way in the legal profession that he decided to

:00:57. > :01:02.join up. Seymour took the commission as a secondary talent in the seventh

:01:03. > :01:08.Highland Light Infantry. It was at Passchendaele, the very name of

:01:09. > :01:11.which invokes so much loss, which other members have touched upon this

:01:12. > :01:20.afternoon. It was Passchendaele at which he was fatally wounded. He

:01:21. > :01:29.died in August, 1917. Turning again, Madam Deputy Speaker,

:01:30. > :01:36.to my own constituency, there is George Ernest Mayne. George was the

:01:37. > :01:42.second son of and Hillman. He was also educated at Glasgow in a gusty,

:01:43. > :01:49.starting in 1907, prior to that being educated at Glasgow Academy.

:01:50. > :01:54.Despite excelling in political economy, he wasn't able to pass his

:01:55. > :01:57.examinations in Latin, maths and constitutional law and actually left

:01:58. > :02:02.without completing his degree. By the time the war had broken out, he

:02:03. > :02:08.had begun to study for the ministry at the United free Church.

:02:09. > :02:19.And then there's also Walter Ramsey Scott, born in 1883 in Pollokshaws,

:02:20. > :02:25.at that point part of Renfrewshire as opposed to the city of Glasgow.

:02:26. > :02:33.He was the son of Robert Scott, a cashier, and Margaret Scott, who

:02:34. > :02:38.lived in Glasgow in Lanarkshire. Madam Deputy Speaker, it can

:02:39. > :02:45.sometimes be too easy when we discuss these types of events to

:02:46. > :02:49.remember numbers rather than people. I've selected a small number of

:02:50. > :02:54.extraordinary Glaswegians who took part in the battle of Passchendaele

:02:55. > :03:02.and paid the ultimate price at the Battle of Passchendaele. But behind

:03:03. > :03:06.all of those names are not just men, distinguished in education, in

:03:07. > :03:12.politics and public life and in military life. But there are also

:03:13. > :03:18.their families, there are their children, their wives, sisters and

:03:19. > :03:21.mothers who were left behind. And my honourable friend from West

:03:22. > :03:25.Dunbartonshire makes an important point. It's absolutely correct to

:03:26. > :03:32.remember the dead and the wounded, but what about those who supported

:03:33. > :03:38.our brave soldiers? What about the nurses? What about the doctors and

:03:39. > :03:42.those who were supporting people with mental health problems? Ve to

:03:43. > :03:47.have a rightful place in any commemoration that we have, not just

:03:48. > :03:54.on Passchendaele but on any other major conflict with an enormous loss

:03:55. > :04:00.of life. So I pay tribute to the Government 's efforts here on this

:04:01. > :04:05.commemoration. I'm very pleased that the first of the Government's First

:04:06. > :04:11.World War commemorative events was indeed in Glasgow Cathedral, not a

:04:12. > :04:20.fine cathedral to be found anywhere in the United Kingdom. I'm hearing

:04:21. > :04:24.other suggestions. But I am very proud as a Glaswegian that that was

:04:25. > :04:29.the place that that took place. So one day half of the people of

:04:30. > :04:33.Glasgow, I'm sure to be reinforced by the honourable member for Glasgow

:04:34. > :04:38.North East, we do indeed remember them, salute them and we thank their

:04:39. > :04:46.families for the sacrifice they made. Here here. Madam Deputy

:04:47. > :04:51.Speaker, we have a tradition in debates of this sort for fine

:04:52. > :04:55.oratory and thoughtful contributions. That certainly has

:04:56. > :04:59.been the case today. I was interested in the remarks by the

:05:00. > :05:04.honourable gentleman, the Member for Barrow in Furness in his

:05:05. > :05:08.intervention. He rightly raised the issue of Time, which of course was

:05:09. > :05:13.the first issue that was considered right at the very beginning of this

:05:14. > :05:18.commemorative period as the Government was drawing up its plans

:05:19. > :05:28.for the four-year centenary. Because on that really hinges all the rest,

:05:29. > :05:30.on tone. Commemoration and celebration are politically very

:05:31. > :05:37.similar but semantically they are very different indeed and throughout

:05:38. > :05:44.this period of the Government has rightly insisted that throughout

:05:45. > :05:48.this commemoration it may certainly is not celebration. Earlier in this

:05:49. > :05:53.commemorative period we had to adjust issues such as was this a

:05:54. > :05:59.just war in Augustinian terms? Was it the right thing to do and was it

:06:00. > :06:04.worth the price? And those are two very different things. In

:06:05. > :06:08.Augustinian terms, it was a just war. It satisfied all the

:06:09. > :06:14.preconditions for a just war and it was as well a war that was one. But

:06:15. > :06:20.who amongst us would have signed up to such a thing if we had known in

:06:21. > :06:28.advance what the cost would be? What the dreadful cost of this war would

:06:29. > :06:32.have been. We are reminded of that cost every day as we arrive here

:06:33. > :06:38.when we look at our own war memorial at the end of Westminster Hall. But

:06:39. > :06:43.that is replicated right across this country in our war memorials, which

:06:44. > :06:50.characterise every single settlement in the British Isles. It was a cost

:06:51. > :06:55.indeed and one I suspect that few of past today would be prepared to

:06:56. > :07:01.countenance. The third Battle of Ypres, Passchendaele, became known

:07:02. > :07:05.as Passchendaele because Passchendaele evokes such powerful

:07:06. > :07:12.sentiment despite the fact it was part of this campaign that was right

:07:13. > :07:17.at the tail end of the engagement. It began relatively well. It was

:07:18. > :07:24.preceded, of course, by the Battle of missing and we are reminded of

:07:25. > :07:30.that particularly since last week we commemorated in a modest way the

:07:31. > :07:39.death of a member of Parliament, Major Willie Redmond, who died at 56

:07:40. > :07:46.at that particular battle, in Messines. He was a truly great man

:07:47. > :07:49.and it reminds us of the great loss of life, the lost opportunity and

:07:50. > :07:52.the Minister quite rightly in his excellent opening speech mentioned

:07:53. > :08:01.Francis led witch, the so-called blow it -- poet of the blackbirds

:08:02. > :08:08.and the Bard of the black chair who died at pilgrim Bridge. It's right

:08:09. > :08:15.and I think the honourable gentleman from the opposite benches right to

:08:16. > :08:19.point out that it is in these cultural losses, these wonderful

:08:20. > :08:24.creative men, really brings it home what a wasteful period in our

:08:25. > :08:32.history this was. Just think of what the world might have been had those

:08:33. > :08:35.men left to become fathers and grandfathers and doctors and poets

:08:36. > :08:44.and artists and fulfilled their full potential. It is almost unimaginable

:08:45. > :08:52.and yet there we are. That is where we are left as a result of this

:08:53. > :08:58.terrible, terrible war. According to a JP Taylor, third Ypres was the

:08:59. > :09:02.blindest slaughter of a blind war and we've heard that between the

:09:03. > :09:08.31st of July and the 12th of November, close on 250,000 British

:09:09. > :09:15.and British Empire troops were either killed or injured and a

:09:16. > :09:21.similar number on the German side. Basil Liddell Hart was writing in

:09:22. > :09:24.the 1930s when he said that Passchendaele was synonymous with

:09:25. > :09:33.military failure and that it was black bordered in the annals of the

:09:34. > :09:38.British Army. And Basil Liddell Hart of course had some experience of

:09:39. > :09:47.serving in the trenches and he was writing between 1930, 1940, and in

:09:48. > :09:51.1934 his great works on the subject. I'm particularly moved by historians

:09:52. > :09:56.accounts of that time because of course they could remember it. They

:09:57. > :10:00.had it fresh in their memory and the difficulty, as Hillary Mantell has

:10:01. > :10:06.pointed out recently in her brief lectures with history is that it

:10:07. > :10:10.seems to change all the time. As generations go by, there seems to be

:10:11. > :10:15.reinterpretations all the time of history. Well, Liddell Hart was

:10:16. > :10:22.reporting a more or less in real-time with his own reflection

:10:23. > :10:28.and a collection of how this was. With historical record, we have to

:10:29. > :10:32.have a particular mind to those who were writing very close to the Great

:10:33. > :10:37.War. They were there, they had seen it with their own eyes. They were

:10:38. > :10:42.not seeing it through the fog of a century or so as we now are.

:10:43. > :10:46.According to Liddell Hart, a lieutenant was driving up from the

:10:47. > :10:52.front line in his staff car and was meant to have said, good God, did we

:10:53. > :10:57.really send men to fight in that? Well, Nick Lloyd in his more

:10:58. > :11:01.contemporary account published this year suggests that that was up until

:11:02. > :11:06.and that may be the case. It certainly served the narrative that

:11:07. > :11:13.this was a war is all about chateaux generals sending other men's sons to

:11:14. > :11:17.die in terrible circumstances. And narrative, of course, that prevailed

:11:18. > :11:21.in the 1960s when we were commemorating the 50th anniversary

:11:22. > :11:28.of this conflict and has only recently been corrected. Public

:11:29. > :11:31.appetite for this material appears to be pretty much insatiable and I

:11:32. > :11:36.think the Government has been surprised by the level of interest

:11:37. > :11:42.that this centenary has provoked. We've never done this sort of thing

:11:43. > :11:46.before. We had no real idea at the beginning how much interest there

:11:47. > :11:50.would actually be in this material and frankly how sustainable it was

:11:51. > :11:55.going to be. Well, I think the public has surpassed all of our

:11:56. > :12:01.expectations and they are proving to be incredibly receptive to this. The

:12:02. > :12:03.evidence we have suggests that one of the legacies of this centenary

:12:04. > :12:08.period will be greatly improved level of under standing of the

:12:09. > :12:15.seminal period in our recent history. All the evidence suggests

:12:16. > :12:19.that people understand better the circumstances that led up to the

:12:20. > :12:24.Great War, the conduct of that war and as we get further and further

:12:25. > :12:27.into this centenary, the right questions are being asked, questions

:12:28. > :12:33.around, what does this actually mean? How does it actually impact on

:12:34. > :12:37.how we live today? And the big question of course is, how on earth

:12:38. > :12:42.do we prevent it from ever happening again? And when we come to examine

:12:43. > :12:46.what it all means, what all this investment in time and effort has

:12:47. > :12:50.been over the four years, I think we can also look at the diplomatic

:12:51. > :12:54.deliverables that there have been. One of the things that has really

:12:55. > :12:59.struck me is the value of commemorating shared history. Some

:13:00. > :13:03.of this is actually quite uncomfortable and it can be

:13:04. > :13:08.uncomfortable in surprising places. Our relationship for example with

:13:09. > :13:13.what is now the Republic of Ireland, more than our relationship with

:13:14. > :13:17.Germany. That has been advanced, I think, quite significantly over this

:13:18. > :13:22.period and when you hear people in the Republic of Ireland talking

:13:23. > :13:29.about the service of their forebears in the uniform of George V, you know

:13:30. > :13:35.that something has changed, because they wouldn't have talked about that

:13:36. > :13:41.openly or displayed those campaign medals a generation ago. And that is

:13:42. > :13:48.a truly remarkable thing. Despite the fact that for many people, a lot

:13:49. > :13:52.of this history is painful. And it kind of underscores the importance

:13:53. > :13:56.of commemorating history, warts and all, and making sure that at no

:13:57. > :14:01.point you attempt to airbrush or finesse it. Throughout the four

:14:02. > :14:06.years, we've been very focused on young people for very obvious

:14:07. > :14:13.reasons. This is the generation who 100 years ago was right at the

:14:14. > :14:18.forefront of all this action. It is salutary to stand at a place like

:14:19. > :14:25.time cot and watch the reaction of those young people in bus tours to

:14:26. > :14:30.arrive, possibly cynical youth, but not when they are looking around a

:14:31. > :14:35.place like that. Look at their faces and you can see that the penny has

:14:36. > :14:41.dropped, because they are looking at row upon row of headstones above the

:14:42. > :14:44.remains of people bearing age. One of the most powerful things that we

:14:45. > :14:51.have done as part of the battlefield Tours is to make sure that there is

:14:52. > :14:56.a contemporary servicemen wherever we possibly can, so that connection

:14:57. > :15:01.can be made. And again, when we are looking at benefits from initiatives

:15:02. > :15:05.that sort, it is better understanding on the part of those

:15:06. > :15:07.young people who these days with the contraction of our armed services

:15:08. > :15:10.perhaps don't have that burst and connection with the Armed Forces

:15:11. > :15:22.that we might have done in generation. That in itself is an

:15:23. > :15:27.incredibly powerful thing and brings this to life for our young men and

:15:28. > :15:34.women. Thank you for giving way. May I begin, I am sure under half of the

:15:35. > :15:37.whole house, by paying tribute to the work he has done personally to

:15:38. > :15:41.help commemorate the First World War. He has put in a huge amount of

:15:42. > :15:50.time and effort and I begins right to acknowledge that today. He was

:15:51. > :15:55.talking about young people. I am sure he would agree that young

:15:56. > :16:02.people today are able to learn about the tremendous sacrifice made so

:16:03. > :16:12.that they are able to live in a free country. With that in mind, would he

:16:13. > :16:15.join with me in celebrating these goals in my constituency who have

:16:16. > :16:17.worked hard to ensure their students could go forward and learn about the

:16:18. > :16:26.sacrifices made on the battlefield? The thing that impresses all about

:16:27. > :16:30.this period is the extraordinary amount of work across the country,

:16:31. > :16:35.some of its sponsored, assisted by the Government, some of it not, some

:16:36. > :16:40.of it quite spontaneous in its evolution and that together form is

:16:41. > :16:43.a wonderful patchwork of commemoratives activity. It just

:16:44. > :16:50.shows the passion the public has for commemorating this period in our

:16:51. > :16:53.history and suggests to me there will indeed be a very rich legacy

:16:54. > :16:58.when we come towards the end of our four years.

:16:59. > :17:02.I thank him so much for giving way and I commend him for the

:17:03. > :17:06.extraordinary work is done to ensure this commemoration period is given

:17:07. > :17:11.as wide a voice that can be. He encouraged me last year to look to

:17:12. > :17:14.the Northumberland Fusiliers, the young men from my constituency, who

:17:15. > :17:18.had gone out to fight in the First World War. Boys and young men the

:17:19. > :17:26.same age as my son is now, which brings it home very bluntly to me. I

:17:27. > :17:32.went out to Italy to lay a wreath last year in northern Italy, and by

:17:33. > :17:35.chance a group of Italian students of 17 and 18 were visiting. They had

:17:36. > :17:44.never been inside the cemetery before and they saw a woman in a red

:17:45. > :17:48.coat with a wreath and was curious. They came in with their teacher and

:17:49. > :17:51.their teacher, who spoke perfect English, asked me why was there and

:17:52. > :17:55.why British soldiers were fighting for the country? They had had very

:17:56. > :18:03.little education of the First World War because the way history was

:18:04. > :18:05.taught in Italy a change. They were absolutely transfixed, are

:18:06. > :18:11.enormously appreciative, slightly overwhelmed by the fact young men

:18:12. > :18:14.had come from far, far away, in my case from Northumberland, to come

:18:15. > :18:20.and fight for freedom. And just to commend that the efforts the

:18:21. > :18:25.honourable gentleman has made, enabled us to share that with

:18:26. > :18:28.children across the water. She is absolutely right, my honourable

:18:29. > :18:32.friend. It is not just about the Western front, I'm very pleased she

:18:33. > :18:35.mentioned Italy. It's very important as part of this poor yet

:18:36. > :18:40.commemoratives period, that people appreciate the First World War was

:18:41. > :18:46.indeed a world war and the Italian campaign was an important part of

:18:47. > :18:50.that. Can I mention this centenary, whilst I'm talking about young

:18:51. > :18:58.people... Question on this project, I hope, will become an important

:18:59. > :19:02.part of our presence on what was the Western front. Important for people

:19:03. > :19:07.wishing to visit commemoratives sites. The Canadians have been doing

:19:08. > :19:13.this for a very long time. That is to say having young people guiding

:19:14. > :19:16.visitors from Canada around the sights of the Western front that are

:19:17. > :19:20.particularly important to them. It struck me, if the Canadians can do

:19:21. > :19:25.this so well from a distance of 3000 miles, we can probably do something

:19:26. > :19:30.rather similar from a distance of 200 miles. Right now we have

:19:31. > :19:34.interns who will be guiding people interns who will be guiding people

:19:35. > :19:45.around the principled sites for us, which will be initially. That under

:19:46. > :19:49.the supervision. I hope when people and colleagues visit the Western

:19:50. > :19:52.front and visit the sites of importance in northern France and

:19:53. > :19:58.Belgium, they will look out for the very obvious and orange T-shirt

:19:59. > :20:02.uniforms of our centenary interns. Those I met last week when I visited

:20:03. > :20:06.Tyne Cot were people of exceptional quality. I'm sure people will be

:20:07. > :20:16.very pleased to see them and to be guided, as they are tasked to do,

:20:17. > :20:23.around those particular sites. It is remarkable, of course, that

:20:24. > :20:28.not only was the third Battle of Ypres preceded by a victory that

:20:29. > :20:36.encouraged Douglas Haig in his dialogue with Lloyd George, but

:20:37. > :20:42.sixth-seeded bike camber I, which was remarkable for another reason,

:20:43. > :20:44.introducing mechanical warfare for the first time to the Western front.

:20:45. > :20:49.I think it was the gathering note for what became a far more kinetic

:20:50. > :20:53.stage to what my right honourable friend referred to, the last 100

:20:54. > :20:57.days of that particular war. But for most people in this country, what

:20:58. > :21:02.makes Passchendaele special, as it were, is the mud and blood. It was

:21:03. > :21:06.something quite different from the Somme, which resulted in far more

:21:07. > :21:10.casualties than Passchendaele did, but it is that mud and blood caused

:21:11. > :21:23.by rain, of course, but also the inundation of Flanders, the barrage

:21:24. > :21:28.of artillery that destroyed the fort that held back the sea from that

:21:29. > :21:32.part of the world. Francis pasture land, you can't grow crops there,

:21:33. > :21:38.it's far too wet. The reason is capable of being utilised

:21:39. > :21:41.agricultural purposes is it has an advanced system of water

:21:42. > :21:45.engineering. Bombardment means it is completely destroyed. It is not for

:21:46. > :21:50.the first time that the British Army knew the full consequences of the

:21:51. > :21:53.destruction of that system. The combination of heavy rainfall and

:21:54. > :21:57.the destruction of civil in that area made the thing a complete

:21:58. > :22:05.quagmire, which gave Passchendaele its particular awfulness.

:22:06. > :22:11.I would just like to finish on a contemporary note. In two weeks'

:22:12. > :22:18.time, many of us will be privileged to attend the commemorations in

:22:19. > :22:23.Ypres and Tyne Cot, and we will stand there among the row upon row

:22:24. > :22:28.of headstones and look at the naming gate with its names carved in stone,

:22:29. > :22:35.and we will be left with a sense of wonder. We're trying to work out

:22:36. > :22:41.what it all means. In the context of the debate we are having today about

:22:42. > :22:46.our future in Europe, one wonders perhaps what others think of us,

:22:47. > :22:54.too. There are those in Europe who say that this country is somehow

:22:55. > :23:02.less than European, that we are poor Europeans. I would just say this...

:23:03. > :23:06.This country always has been, is now and certainly 100 years ago was

:23:07. > :23:10.demonstrating full well that there is no country in Europe that is more

:23:11. > :23:18.engaged in Europe than the United Kingdom. That was the case 100 years

:23:19. > :23:22.ago, and just I would ask colleagues, as they look amongst

:23:23. > :23:26.those headstones and gaze up at those names carved in stone, just

:23:27. > :23:34.reflect on this country's contribution to European history,

:23:35. > :23:38.and whether we are Brexiteers or not, I'm completely signed up

:23:39. > :23:43.Brexiteer, we need to understand we are Europeans. That's where we have

:23:44. > :23:47.always been. That is where we will always be, and we should take

:23:48. > :23:52.absolutely no nonsense from those, who for their own purposes, try to

:23:53. > :23:57.suggest that we are in some way disengaged from Europe. I'm proud of

:23:58. > :24:02.our history. This country has always been there when Europe needs us,

:24:03. > :24:08.when we need to face down the general disturber of the peace. And

:24:09. > :24:14.I am confident that we will continue to do just that. In two weeks' time

:24:15. > :24:21.it will be a solemn time for our country. The media will be most

:24:22. > :24:27.certainly focused on Tyne Cot and Ypres. We will be among friends in

:24:28. > :24:30.Belgium, a country that is extraordinarily sympathetic to this

:24:31. > :24:35.country, and they are good friends of ours.

:24:36. > :24:42.I just think it's important that whenever we have the opportunity, we

:24:43. > :24:46.reinforce in their minds our solidarity and comradeship with our

:24:47. > :24:49.friends and neighbours in Europe. There can be no more enduring

:24:50. > :24:57.testament to that level of European engagement than the men engaged in

:24:58. > :25:04.Ypres and Tyne Cot. These debates get near wreck each

:25:05. > :25:10.time we have them to the reality of the First World War. My honourable

:25:11. > :25:29.friend for Newport, for Cardiff West, quoted the work in Wales and

:25:30. > :25:35.the touching symbol he used... Their blood mixed with the wind, with the

:25:36. > :25:44.rain. We could see that in the imagery presented in the two poems

:25:45. > :25:49.that were quoted. We must see the lesson of this terrible event of the

:25:50. > :25:55.First World War and learn from it. I speak with dug up as there has been

:25:56. > :26:05.one visual aid this afternoon, this is my father, a machine gunner James

:26:06. > :26:11.Ferrin. Not a distinguished soldier but one who went, who volunteered

:26:12. > :26:15.because he was a great compatriot and soaks up the propaganda at the

:26:16. > :26:19.time, and went out there to sort out the hunger. He went as a volunteer

:26:20. > :26:24.at the age of 15, he lied about his age. He went through the Somme,

:26:25. > :26:30.Passchendaele and eventually he was captured by the Germans, to his

:26:31. > :26:38.great relief, because he was dying after being hit by a mortar and was

:26:39. > :26:42.in a shell hole and couldn't get out of it, and the Germans, to whom he

:26:43. > :26:48.was eternally grateful for the rest of his life, he lived to 43, because

:26:49. > :26:56.of the care they gave him. They carried him across no man's land

:26:57. > :27:02.after the breakthrough by the Germans in 1918 and saved his life.

:27:03. > :27:07.He went there to kill Germans, and went back as a great admirer of the

:27:08. > :27:14.Germans who saved his life. I was struck, I believe, by the poem

:27:15. > :27:17.quoted by the member of broad lands in a previous debate, because I

:27:18. > :27:24.think it illustrates the truth of the First World War. It is one brief

:27:25. > :27:30.stanza by ready at Kipling, who was a great cheerleader for the war and

:27:31. > :27:33.all patriotic causes, so much so that he managed to pull a few

:27:34. > :27:39.strings, to make sure that his son, who had defective eyesight, could

:27:40. > :27:47.pass the test are getting to become a soldier, and then lost his life.

:27:48. > :27:51.Kipling had a picture of what happened when he died and went to

:27:52. > :27:58.heaven and was forced to cede those people that he'd encouraged to go to

:27:59. > :28:04.war and lose their lives. He said," I could not did, I do not rob,

:28:05. > :28:10.therefore I lied to police the mob. Now all my lies have proved untrue,

:28:11. > :28:21.I must face the men ice blue. What tale should serve me among my angry

:28:22. > :28:29.and defrauded young?" . The use of that

:28:30. > :28:38.. They were not wicked people, they had all kinds of heroic delusions,

:28:39. > :28:49.but we mustn't see Passchendaele through a fog of a belief of a false

:28:50. > :28:54.idea of heroism. It wasn't like that. It rapidly became a terrible

:28:55. > :29:01.scene of slaughter, where men died like cattle, where lives were

:29:02. > :29:07.counted, 16 million deaths from there. What is our lesson? Have we

:29:08. > :29:15.learned it yet? I doubt if we have, because we have heard the word"

:29:16. > :29:20.wonderful" used this afternoon about that battle. What it can mean I've

:29:21. > :29:23.no idea. There is no way anyone can describe the whole of the First

:29:24. > :29:29.World War as a terrible, terrible mistake and a series of tragedies.

:29:30. > :29:33.The use of the word wonderful in this context is about the issue of

:29:34. > :29:39.admiration for the heroism and the courage. The honourable member for

:29:40. > :29:42.Wiltshire North or South used the word wonder. When you look at what

:29:43. > :29:54.happened. Today happens to be the anniversary of my own father's death

:29:55. > :29:58.in the battle an July the 13th 1944. I have personal experience of it. I

:29:59. > :30:02.know the honourable gentleman has referred to his, but the word

:30:03. > :30:08.wonderful in this context is an admiration for the heroism and

:30:09. > :30:12.courage and I will not apologise for that.

:30:13. > :30:17.I think it is entirely true to say there is a nobility in the soldiers'

:30:18. > :30:28.craft and sacrifice. We are grateful to it to this day, and we see acts

:30:29. > :30:35.in Kosovo and Sierra Leone, the humanitarian work done there, which

:30:36. > :30:38.are absolutely defensible and in matters we can take great pride. We

:30:39. > :30:44.have had a wonderful military history and once you've been shown

:30:45. > :30:49.the best of human nature, I would not disagree with the honourable

:30:50. > :30:55.gentleman with that. But what are we learning today? If we look at what

:30:56. > :31:02.happened in this chamber in 2006, where a decision was made to send

:31:03. > :31:09.troops into Helmand at a time when only half of dozen of our soldiers

:31:10. > :31:14.had been killed at that time, we had already been there for six years

:31:15. > :31:20.since 2001. We went there in the belief that not a short would be

:31:21. > :31:28.fired. The result of it was 450 of our soldiers died. We've yet to face

:31:29. > :31:32.up to the reality... Was that a mistake by us? We know the Chilcot

:31:33. > :31:38.Report has come out. Lord Chilcott has had to a year later, repeat some

:31:39. > :31:42.of the lessons that he drew from it because those lessons have been lost

:31:43. > :31:48.over. There's been a spinning of reality, of his own conclusions, and

:31:49. > :31:56.I believe part of it is because so many people in this chamber at that

:31:57. > :31:59.time were part of a mistake in our joining the Iraq war, we couldn't

:32:00. > :32:02.stop the War happening but we could have stopped Britain's involvement

:32:03. > :32:07.in it, which would have avoided the depths of our soldiers.

:32:08. > :32:13.I'd just like to slightly pursue this point because I don't think

:32:14. > :32:19.there's much difference between us in terms of the reasons behind what

:32:20. > :32:23.are different arguments. I simply make the argument that although the

:32:24. > :32:27.pity of War, as it was so aptly put it, is a terrible thing, the fact is

:32:28. > :32:31.that we have to reflect on the simple fact that sometimes it is

:32:32. > :32:36.necessary with unprovoked aggression, as we experienced in the

:32:37. > :32:40.Second World War, does lead to us having to fight back that doesn't

:32:41. > :32:44.necessarily involve the cost of peoples lives, like my father and

:32:45. > :32:49.others, and I would simply say that we have to be very careful when

:32:50. > :32:53.defining the boundaries of this matter to ensure we don't go

:32:54. > :32:57.overboard in suggesting that somehow rather the whole of war is in itself

:32:58. > :33:02.is unacceptable because unfortunately it is the fact of life

:33:03. > :33:06.and we do have to fight for it and respect and admire the heroism of

:33:07. > :33:10.those who take part. There really isn't any difference and I never

:33:11. > :33:16.suggested it was a justification for war. I gave examples of what I

:33:17. > :33:21.thought were entirely justifiable wars. What we should be recalling

:33:22. > :33:24.what lessons we learned from Passchendaele and the First World

:33:25. > :33:29.War in the decisions we take now in this House. I once had a five-week

:33:30. > :33:34.enforced absence from this House for saying what I'm about to say, but I

:33:35. > :33:42.will say it in a more delicate way, and that was, I did say that

:33:43. > :33:50.ministers on all sides were mistaken and were by the claim they were

:33:51. > :33:54.making to potential soldiers that they could go to Afghanistan and

:33:55. > :33:58.reduce the threat of terrorism in this country. I think that was an

:33:59. > :34:03.untruth because whatever the reason was that our soldiers were being

:34:04. > :34:10.killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan was because they were there. There

:34:11. > :34:15.was no interest from the Taliban in terrorism and that particular call

:34:16. > :34:21.to soldiers to do that for that purpose was not true, though I still

:34:22. > :34:25.believe we are in a position where politicians lie and soldiers die and

:34:26. > :34:30.unless we can be frank with them, I think we're going to find a

:34:31. > :34:33.generation who will reject war. It was interesting when general Dunnett

:34:34. > :34:38.said recently that he didn't want people to believe what Chilcott was

:34:39. > :34:45.saying, this was only a matter of days ago, because it would suggest

:34:46. > :34:49.to those who have lost their loved ones in Iraq that they died in vain.

:34:50. > :34:56.But sadly, that's probably the truth because we had nothing to gain,

:34:57. > :35:00.unlike the First World War, whose main result was the Second World

:35:01. > :35:08.War. It led to the Second World War. It was a terrible error. We have a

:35:09. > :35:11.duty, I think, to look at the opinions of those soldiers who

:35:12. > :35:16.fought at the time. None of them are alive now and the loss when he died

:35:17. > :35:21.left us a message when he said that he thought war was legalised murder.

:35:22. > :35:26.And there are many other soldiers whose lives were destroyed by that

:35:27. > :35:31.war, lives were shortened, and I feel particular pain that in the

:35:32. > :35:36.case of my own father, though his life was ruined by the war, he could

:35:37. > :35:41.never do what he called a proper man's job again, but in 1935 his

:35:42. > :35:48.pension was reduced by a Government that changed the pension and said

:35:49. > :35:55.that his health problems, he went in the perfectly fit 15-year-old,

:35:56. > :36:01.health problems went attributed to his wall wins, they were worsened by

:36:02. > :36:07.his wall wins, a cheat by the Government and he died shortly

:36:08. > :36:13.afterwards. We don't have a history of treating owl veterans with the --

:36:14. > :36:22.our veterans with the respect they deserve. From the Great War, we must

:36:23. > :36:28.learn that we never again repeat the lie that it is sweet and decorous to

:36:29. > :36:33.die for the country. It is not true and it is an old lie, sadly, that

:36:34. > :36:41.people would like to give new credence to. Well, thank you, Madam

:36:42. > :36:50.Deputy Speaker. I really want to talk about the situation 100 years

:36:51. > :36:56.ago. We have to remember that at the time, this time 100 years ago, a

:36:57. > :37:01.quarter of the vessels crossing the Atlantic were being sunk and they

:37:02. > :37:09.were being sunk by U-boats and those U-boats were coming from the Belgian

:37:10. > :37:13.coast. And the Navy had warned the Government that unless something was

:37:14. > :37:24.done about it, we might collapse in 1918. The United States had entered

:37:25. > :37:31.the war on the 6th of April. That was really great from our point of

:37:32. > :37:37.view. But in May and June, the French army had been massively

:37:38. > :37:44.defeated by the Germans, with the result of a huge mutiny among all

:37:45. > :37:51.its ranks. At the same time, the British generals wanted to break out

:37:52. > :37:55.of the Ypres salient is. So the Germans had a very good reason to

:37:56. > :38:01.believe that they could win the war at that time. They flout the

:38:02. > :38:08.Americans wouldn't get into it in time -- they felt the Americans

:38:09. > :38:14.wouldn't get into it in time. And that is understandable, because the

:38:15. > :38:22.American army was very small, a bit obsolete and they didn't have very

:38:23. > :38:26.many weapons. Field Marshall and hide, the person in charge of the

:38:27. > :38:31.expeditionary force desperately wanted to break out of the Ypres

:38:32. > :38:37.salient. They had been stuck there for years. But he also wanted to get

:38:38. > :38:43.to the coast, because this strategic aim was to get to those U-boat pens

:38:44. > :38:49.and stop us being throttled by being attacked by torpedoes from such

:38:50. > :38:54.U-boats. The plan was quite simple. There was a preliminary operation

:38:55. > :39:04.which other friends have mentioned to secure the Salman -- southern

:39:05. > :39:16.flank of the British position. First phase, take out the railway junction

:39:17. > :39:24.at Roulay and then swing round to the coast. That went very wrong,

:39:25. > :39:30.despite being the plan. I want to speak about the soldiers. By 1917,

:39:31. > :39:35.machine gunners had become what were called the Queens of the

:39:36. > :39:40.battlefield. They were devastating. The rifle was, by comparison with a

:39:41. > :39:45.machine gun, absolutely useless. The 1st Battalion of the Cheshire

:39:46. > :39:50.Regiment, the battalion I was to command 74 years later, had been

:39:51. > :39:56.equipped the year before with 16 Lewis machine guns. Now, these

:39:57. > :40:02.machine guns were pretty heavy. They were ?28 in weight. That's not

:40:03. > :40:09.including the ammunition. Now, our soldiers had to carry that. Nobody

:40:10. > :40:17.really wanted to take a machine gun as they crossed the front line for

:40:18. > :40:25.two reasons. One, they were an easy target and two, the weight they had

:40:26. > :40:30.to carry. As space carried across no man's land, going as fast as they

:40:31. > :40:39.could, but it was difficult to go faster in those conditions. At the

:40:40. > :40:42.same time, by the start of the third Battle of Passchendaele, our

:40:43. > :40:54.soldiers had been issued with that awful helmet. They called them tin

:40:55. > :41:00.hats. I wore one when I first joined the Army. I'm that old. And they

:41:01. > :41:09.were acutely uncomfortable and very heavy. And, again, that made it

:41:10. > :41:13.difficult for our soldiers when they scrambled out of their front line

:41:14. > :41:22.positions to go and because they'd had one hell of a winter. 1916 to

:41:23. > :41:26.1917 had been incredibly cold. The soldiers only received one hot meal

:41:27. > :41:33.a day and that was brought forward normally by the quartermaster in

:41:34. > :41:36.boxes that were lined with straw. Fatigue -- 40, they brewed it up

:41:37. > :41:43.themselves. They normally used old Jan tins which they filled up with

:41:44. > :41:52.Greece and put a week in their two sort of make a flame on which they

:41:53. > :41:56.could put some pot to heat up water. At the same time every day, the

:41:57. > :42:03.quartermaster tried to bring up to the front line positions clean

:42:04. > :42:10.socks, because trench but was appalling and it was so wet and the

:42:11. > :42:15.men needed to actually try to keep their feet dry and that was almost

:42:16. > :42:21.impossible in the conditions of the time. It was good that in my

:42:22. > :42:26.battalion some of the soldiers had been allowed leave. They'd gone home

:42:27. > :42:31.and come back. But they knew down well what they were coming back to.

:42:32. > :42:36.And that's why they're heroes, because they came back. They came

:42:37. > :42:44.back from home, where they saw normality. War is not normality. War

:42:45. > :42:52.is disgusting and horrid. And war is something to be avoided. Heroism is

:42:53. > :42:57.going back to that because, as the honourable member for Broadlands has

:42:58. > :43:08.outlined, they didn't want to let their friends down. Even then, in

:43:09. > :43:12.the middle of the war, when reinforcements were coming, the

:43:13. > :43:16.reinforcements that were coming to my battalion, the 1st Battalion of

:43:17. > :43:24.the Cheshire 's, where being divided -- diverted. You would think before

:43:25. > :43:29.the battle that they would be fully manned. They weren't. They didn't

:43:30. > :43:34.even have enough troops to go along the front. They had to do little

:43:35. > :43:40.posts along the front line, hoping that they could cover the area in

:43:41. > :43:53.front of the battalion position. They knew down well -- damn well

:43:54. > :44:00.what would happen when the signal for advance was given. They had been

:44:01. > :44:09.there long enough. On the 31st of July, very early in the morning,

:44:10. > :44:15.3:50am, just as Dawn was breaking, the battalion 's offices blew the

:44:16. > :44:27.whistle is. Can you imagine how absolutely terrified our soldiers

:44:28. > :44:32.were. They must have had a hell of a night to that time. They were laden

:44:33. > :44:38.with ammunition, they were laden with kit, they were laden with Lewis

:44:39. > :44:46.machine guns. And some of the soldiers, as the start time was

:44:47. > :44:51.declared, some soldiers were being delivered by train ride to the front

:44:52. > :44:55.line. They disembarked and went straight in across the start line

:44:56. > :45:04.into the battle. When they went into no man's land, it wasn't a run. It

:45:05. > :45:09.wasn't even a walk. It was more like a crawl, I would think. No man's

:45:10. > :45:15.land was full of wire obstacles which sometimes get worse by

:45:16. > :45:25.artillery fire. And of course, within hours, that rain came. The

:45:26. > :45:29.worst rain for 30 years. The men couldn't even get into the shallow

:45:30. > :45:38.holes because they were full of water. So they are absolute sitting

:45:39. > :45:50.ducks, covered in filth, trying to go forward, absolutely exhausted.

:45:51. > :45:55.And yet, they did. Some of them sank to their waists in the mud, right

:45:56. > :46:01.down to their waists. It took six soldiers for them to be pulled out.

:46:02. > :46:08.Stretcher bearers couldn't move. There was no chance of stretcher

:46:09. > :46:14.bearers moving in that mud at all. Our soldiers weren't brave, of

:46:15. > :46:23.course they were brave, but what they really experienced was terror.

:46:24. > :46:32.They thought within minutes, within seconds, they would be dead. Perhaps

:46:33. > :46:38.they prayed it would be a headshot. The soldiers prayer is a headshot,

:46:39. > :46:44.straight out. Not a wound in the stomach or a wound in the abdomen

:46:45. > :46:52.which no one gets to them and they lie there in agony for hours. Days.

:46:53. > :46:57.And sometimes, just slip under the mud and drown while they're at it.

:46:58. > :47:07.I think I've got some idea of what they felt, because I have advanced

:47:08. > :47:14.when someone beside me has been shot. I knew I had to go, because I

:47:15. > :47:22.had to go and get some civilians, and I'm talking about Bosnia. But I

:47:23. > :47:32.wasn't a hero. I wasn't brave, I was bloody terrified. I was so

:47:33. > :47:39.terrified, I wet myself. That's not bravery. What mattered is that we

:47:40. > :47:47.went forward and did our duty. Now, our soldiers did that. They didn't

:47:48. > :47:55.want to die. That's the last thing they wanted to do. They wanted to

:47:56. > :48:06.survive. Passchendaele was a stalemate for four months, while our

:48:07. > :48:15.men were sitting ducks. It was a disgusting, exhausting, traumatic

:48:16. > :48:21.experience for anyone that was there, and it cost both sides

:48:22. > :48:29.dearly. I don't think we know exactly what the figures are, but

:48:30. > :48:37.say the British were around 310,000, and the Germans were 260,000, dead,

:48:38. > :48:44.dead. Three times as many casualties who survived. The ratio is one dead,

:48:45. > :48:51.three wounded, that's what the ratio was then. Douglas Haig later

:48:52. > :48:54.justified what happened, by saying it was necessary because we could

:48:55. > :48:58.take more casualties than the Germans because we had more

:48:59. > :49:05.resources on that made it worthwhile. If a general tried that

:49:06. > :49:08.today, can you imagine that? That justification, for the mass

:49:09. > :49:13.slaughter that occurred at Passchendaele? I thought it was OK,

:49:14. > :49:20.because actually we could take more casualties than they could, so in

:49:21. > :49:25.the end, we'd win. I think we remember them all, British, German,

:49:26. > :49:40.Commonwealth, today. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for

:49:41. > :49:51.allowing me to make my maiden speech in this very important debate.

:49:52. > :49:56.It seems fitting to have this debate about Passchendaele. Many did not

:49:57. > :50:05.come back home. It is not lost on me today that the sacrifices they made

:50:06. > :50:08.those 100 years ago, have led to the freedoms, rights and opportunities

:50:09. > :50:16.that I'm proudly expressing today. I am deeply honoured, not only to

:50:17. > :50:20.have been chosen by the people in my constituency to represent them as a

:50:21. > :50:24.member of Parliament, but also to be the first ethnic minority candidate

:50:25. > :50:31.to do so. I made the journey from Kashmir to

:50:32. > :50:38.Bradford in 1992. Soon I was married and working in a factory. Later I

:50:39. > :50:43.became a taxi driver, which I continued to do up until my

:50:44. > :50:50.elections to the parliament. I can honestly say the moment I arrived to

:50:51. > :50:56.Bradford, I made it my home, but ever since it is Bedford that has

:50:57. > :51:03.paid me and I am very grateful for that. I wanted to do more for the

:51:04. > :51:09.community that had welcomed me, and so I became a councillor for Queens

:51:10. > :51:15.Park Road in 2006. Earlier this year I took the next step and was

:51:16. > :51:20.selected to set down for my party as a labour candidate. Many people said

:51:21. > :51:30.that I stood no chance, that Labour could not possibly win back in

:51:31. > :51:33.Bedford, but they proved them wrong. With the report of my friends and

:51:34. > :51:40.fellow councillors, my wonderful family, I'm so thankful to my wife,

:51:41. > :51:47.my mother and my four children and my new grandson who fought the

:51:48. > :51:53.campaign that delivered the constituency back to radar. I'm

:51:54. > :51:57.immensely proud to be part of the Labour bench, whose Shadow Cabinet

:51:58. > :52:03.has the highest number of ethnic minority MPs ever, because it means

:52:04. > :52:07.the population is more fairly represented than it ever has been

:52:08. > :52:16.before. I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor Richard Fuller,

:52:17. > :52:20.who has worked so hard over the last seven years for the community. The

:52:21. > :52:28.Bedford business School, set up by Richard, has been a great success

:52:29. > :52:35.and is a legacy that he is rightly very proud of. I would like to thank

:52:36. > :52:40.Bedford's previous MP, Patrick, for his years of dedicated service.

:52:41. > :52:48.There are people from more than 50 countries already living and settled

:52:49. > :52:52.in Bedford and Kempston, which has made the area the most ethnically

:52:53. > :52:58.diverse town in the United Kingdom, in proportion to its size. All kinds

:52:59. > :53:01.of people have settled here, Madam Deputy Speaker, from the eastern

:53:02. > :53:06.Europeans and Italians who arrived after the Second World War, who have

:53:07. > :53:13.remained in Britain, to others like myself, arriving home recently. It

:53:14. > :53:21.is this which makes my constituency so very special. Bedford is warmer,

:53:22. > :53:26.it is welcoming, it is neighbourly and it is compassionate. Differences

:53:27. > :53:33.and diversity of faith, colour and creed is not just tolerated but

:53:34. > :53:36.celebrated in this town. Churches, mosques, gurdwaras, faith groups,

:53:37. > :53:41.charitable organisations throughout my constituency work together to

:53:42. > :53:47.build upon the diversity and to support those who have been affected

:53:48. > :53:55.by so many years of austerity and damaging cuts. Bedford has strong

:53:56. > :53:58.art scenes. Our cultural heritage is celebrated in Bedford with many

:53:59. > :54:02.festivals, not least the biannual river festival that attracts a

:54:03. > :54:11.quarter of a million people to the beautiful riverside. We are a tonne

:54:12. > :54:14.of sports people, Bedford blues, Bedford eagles, Queens Park and

:54:15. > :54:24.Kempston cricket clubs, we have rowing clubs, sailing clubs and our

:54:25. > :54:33.international athletics track. We have proud Olympians and

:54:34. > :54:36.Paralympians, and then there is someone still running the London

:54:37. > :54:39.Marathon at the age of 88. People talk to me a lot during the

:54:40. > :54:46.election, they talk about their concerns, about schooling, about

:54:47. > :54:51.cuts to policing, but above all that, they talk about the NHS. At

:54:52. > :54:54.the very heart of our town is Bedford Hospital. My children and

:54:55. > :55:03.grandson were born there. I want to make sure that the hospital stays at

:55:04. > :55:07.the heart of my constituency. Two years ago, Bedford Hospital saved my

:55:08. > :55:11.wife's life when she suffered a heart attack. I could never repay

:55:12. > :55:16.the staff for all they did for us. So let me say this now, the future

:55:17. > :55:22.of our hospital and its services have been in doubt for far too long,

:55:23. > :55:28.since 2011, under the Government, under this government and the last.

:55:29. > :55:32.A string of expensive and inconclusive reviews have cast a

:55:33. > :55:43.shadow over the hospital, lining the pockets of many wild front work

:55:44. > :55:46.staff go without pay rises. It is hard to recruit and retain staff and

:55:47. > :55:53.has caused many concerns for the community. As the MP for Bedford and

:55:54. > :55:58.Kempston I will fight every day to keep the services we need in our

:55:59. > :56:03.grand town, so many constituents don't have to travel 20 miles or 50

:56:04. > :56:12.miles to access life-saving services, or to travel 60 miles to

:56:13. > :56:16.access justice if plans to close Bedford courts go ahead. I want

:56:17. > :56:21.babies to continue to be born in Bedford and Kempston, where they can

:56:22. > :56:26.grow up in a fairer society, where they can access equal opportunities

:56:27. > :56:30.and realise there are true potential in families that feel proud and part

:56:31. > :56:35.of their community. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

:56:36. > :56:42.Thank you, Madam Deputy is bigger. A pleasure to follow the honourable

:56:43. > :56:48.member of Bedford and I can rate him on his speech and I am sure it is

:56:49. > :56:53.the first of many. Madam Deputy Speaker, the debate today has

:56:54. > :56:56.focused on the third Battle of Passchendaele, and has been

:56:57. > :57:02.described as a long campaign, which took place over several months.

:57:03. > :57:05.Indeed, it is an honour to hear my honourable friend in the chamber to

:57:06. > :57:11.describe the fear he knows first-hand, of what it's like to be

:57:12. > :57:14.in combat. I think it was a very powerful speech, anti-has the

:57:15. > :57:19.respect of all of us for what he said. I want to focus on a

:57:20. > :57:24.particular area of the battle. -- and he has the respect of all of us.

:57:25. > :57:34.At the end of August 1917, Field Marshal Haig replaced the general.

:57:35. > :57:38.Apparently he was an efficient and methodical commander and assembled a

:57:39. > :57:50.competent staff who are demonstrated their abilities as a team in a

:57:51. > :57:54.previous operation in Messine. At the end of August 1917 he was

:57:55. > :57:58.thought to lead the next big attack and took three weeks to prepare and

:57:59. > :58:05.plan, then there was a lull in fighting Rusty gathered his

:58:06. > :58:12.resources. -- whilst he carried his resources.

:58:13. > :58:18.The weather turned to the advantage of the British. The continuous rain

:58:19. > :58:23.turned the battle and that quagmire letter to ten whole days. In the

:58:24. > :58:29.relatively dry ground, they dug trenches and repaired the roads. The

:58:30. > :58:32.skills and techniques of the artillery were refined over the

:58:33. > :58:39.preceding three years and they made use of this. When the artillery

:58:40. > :58:42.opened fire on September 20, they did so in planet formation. Guns

:58:43. > :58:48.were concentrated to provide one for every 5.2 yards of ground to be

:58:49. > :58:52.attacked and infantry advanced behind the shelter of the creeping

:58:53. > :58:53.barrage, one of the great innovations of the law. -- of the

:58:54. > :59:05.war. We are today rightly discussing and

:59:06. > :59:09.commemorating the people who sacrificed their lives on the

:59:10. > :59:15.battlefield in this battle, but equally, in my city of Leeds, where

:59:16. > :59:19.I am proud to represent, we have bombed Brower armouries and in the

:59:20. > :59:23.First World War we had something called the Leeds Canaries, which

:59:24. > :59:28.were the women in Leeds who worked making the munitions that would have

:59:29. > :59:32.been used in this battle, so-called Canaries because the TNT turned

:59:33. > :59:40.their skin yellow. They knew they were being poisoned. They knew they

:59:41. > :59:44.were likely to become sterile and on Tuesday the 5th of December 1916,

:59:45. > :59:51.there was an explosion and 35 women were killed instantly in that

:59:52. > :59:54.explosion. I want to take the opportunity to commemorate them

:59:55. > :59:58.again today, and they have been commemorated before, because when

:59:59. > :00:02.that explosion happened, the War office so they couldn't release the

:00:03. > :00:06.names of those women in their obituaries at the time, because they

:00:07. > :00:10.did on the enemies to know where the munitions were being made. And so

:00:11. > :00:15.over the next year, one woman a week had their own obituary in the

:00:16. > :00:22.Yorkshire Post, and very much crossed over what they were actually

:00:23. > :00:27.doing. So there were many casualties back home, directly involved in

:00:28. > :00:34.these battles as there were people dying on the front line. I will...

:00:35. > :00:40.Thank you. Richard Pinkett, a constituent in my

:00:41. > :00:46.constituency posts regularly on Facebook the people who died in the

:00:47. > :00:57.many different battles during World War I. Ypres is much bigger than it

:00:58. > :01:00.was and it doesn't show it was just the people killed over there but the

:01:01. > :01:05.families affected in the local region, and so many families, in so

:01:06. > :01:10.many communities, who were affected by the deaths of their sons. My

:01:11. > :01:16.honourable friend mentions the women, who very bravely helped with

:01:17. > :01:22.that. I think we have to remember the people back home, as well as

:01:23. > :01:27.those on the front line. There is a flag in the memorial garden that is

:01:28. > :01:31.lowered to half-mast every time we commemorate the 100 years since one

:01:32. > :01:33.of those young men died. I think it is a testament to local people that

:01:34. > :01:40.we don't forget those people. I am most grateful for my honourable

:01:41. > :01:46.friend making that point as powerfully as she has and I think

:01:47. > :01:53.that all of us have, or certainly all of us will have, examples in our

:01:54. > :01:58.own constituencies from all of these wars and I'm sure that everyone of

:01:59. > :02:03.us is their own Remembrance Sunday to pay our respects, no matter how

:02:04. > :02:07.long ago their death was. Madam Deputy Speaker, on the 20th of

:02:08. > :02:13.September, there was a early-morning mist and the temperature was about

:02:14. > :02:25.66 Fahrenheit. The main thrust of the advance was on the Menin Road

:02:26. > :02:29.and towards the town of Menin. The advance was successful but Tower

:02:30. > :02:38.Hamlets remained in German hands. Remarkable advances were made on

:02:39. > :02:43.Menin Road itself. Inverness cops was taken, a long target of British

:02:44. > :02:51.attacks. The Germans held the strongly fortified Eagle farm and

:02:52. > :02:55.evil trench. The 11th grade -- 11th and 12th rifle brigades and the

:02:56. > :03:02.Buckinghamshire Light Infantry were in charge of trying to take those.

:03:03. > :03:08.They took Eagle farm and tried for Eagle trench. They secured a section

:03:09. > :03:15.of Eagle trench and for three days it was divided between the Germans

:03:16. > :03:26.and the British. I want to focus on the birthday of the battle, for when

:03:27. > :03:35.I was a our family visited the Tynecot Cemetery and on the back is

:03:36. > :03:40.the name of my great-grandfather. He was killed on the first day of the

:03:41. > :03:50.battle. He was born on Christmas eve and managed -- married in 1915. His

:03:51. > :03:55.son, my grandfather, was born and he used to walk through the Blackwall

:03:56. > :04:01.Tunnel to court to my great-grandmother. His father, my

:04:02. > :04:09.great great grandfather was killed at a gas explosion in Poplar

:04:10. > :04:14.gasworks in 1841. Ted joined up in April 1916 because he had white

:04:15. > :04:18.feathered in Greenwich and it had played on his mind. He was not

:04:19. > :04:24.liable to be called up as he was a married man. That all changed in

:04:25. > :04:28.June 1916 when the second act was passed and married men were

:04:29. > :04:34.included, but he signed up before then. His wife pleaded with him not

:04:35. > :04:39.to do it and to think of the baby but he was determined to serve his

:04:40. > :04:44.king, his country and, more importantly, because he understood

:04:45. > :04:48.the consequences of us sitting and not doing anything. He joined the

:04:49. > :04:52.King's Royal Rifle Corps who were stationed at Winchester and that's

:04:53. > :04:56.where he did his original training. My family don't have his military

:04:57. > :05:07.records so I don't know when he embarked to France but my aunt has a

:05:08. > :05:14.postcode -- pass -- postcard dated July 20 17. His younger

:05:15. > :05:42.brother-in-law joined up with him in...

:05:43. > :05:49.No one knows whether they were blown to pieces fell into one of the

:05:50. > :05:54.flooded shell holes and drowned. His body was never found and that is why

:05:55. > :06:05.he's on the wall the back of the Tynecot search -- Tynecot Cemetery

:06:06. > :06:10.along with thousands of other men. My great-grandmother could not

:06:11. > :06:19.accept that he had died and his body was not found. That also relates to

:06:20. > :06:27.the lasting effects of the war mentioned in this House today. For

:06:28. > :06:35.three years, may shell court wrote for three years to see if he had

:06:36. > :06:39.been taken prisoner. When she was sent the famous war penny, she threw

:06:40. > :06:44.it across the room and said I don't want a penny, I want my husband. She

:06:45. > :06:50.had to work to support her son and got a job in the Charlton glassworks

:06:51. > :06:54.and stayed there until she retired. Her son George became a precious

:06:55. > :07:00.member of the family and proved to be a bright child but his

:07:01. > :07:07.grandmother was a strict matriarch and wanted him to leave school as

:07:08. > :07:10.soon as possible and work in a shop. Again, the ongoing consequences of

:07:11. > :07:15.this terrible war, because as the only son of a widowed mother, the

:07:16. > :07:21.family was saying, I'm sorry, you have to go out and provide for our

:07:22. > :07:26.family, you have to do work. But for those who sort of know me, it will

:07:27. > :07:32.come as no surprise that there is a streak in my family of rebellion.

:07:33. > :07:37.And George rebelled at this. George rebelled at this and when he left

:07:38. > :07:41.school at 14 he found a job as a laboratory technician at an old

:07:42. > :07:46.company on the Isle of dogs. He went to Woolwich Polytechnic in the

:07:47. > :07:51.evenings, eventually running his own department researching electrical

:07:52. > :07:58.installation oils. In September 1940, George married lady father had

:07:59. > :08:04.also fought a Passchendaele. He was born on the 15th of November 1885 in

:08:05. > :08:08.India. His father was in the Royal Horse Artillery in India. He was

:08:09. > :08:12.educated at the Duke of York's Royal military school and the Royal

:08:13. > :08:18.Hyperion military school. He enlisted into the Royal The Dale

:08:19. > :08:25.Artillery and transferred to the Army reserve on the 29th of February

:08:26. > :08:31.19 12. He reverted on the 29th of July 1913 and mobilised at Glasgow

:08:32. > :08:36.on the 6th of August 19 14. Transferred to the Royal Engineers

:08:37. > :08:39.signals and April 1916, he was awarded the military medal in July

:08:40. > :08:48.1917 for gallant contact and devotion to duty. Now, we don't have

:08:49. > :08:52.the medal citation but we understand that he was repairing telephone

:08:53. > :08:56.cables in no man's land under fire and again, I think the experience as

:08:57. > :09:01.outlined by my honourable friend for backing them must tell us all the

:09:02. > :09:07.fear that he was going through, sat like a sitting duck in the middle of

:09:08. > :09:11.no man's land repairing vital communications. He was gassed on the

:09:12. > :09:15.4th of November 1917 a Passchendaele, two days before the

:09:16. > :09:24.battle ended and was discharged on the 15th of March 19 19. He died in

:09:25. > :09:29.1952. But the trauma of the First World War was still at the front of

:09:30. > :09:34.people's minds but only just after a couple of decades later, this

:09:35. > :09:42.country was again at war. To the relief of George's mother, May, his

:09:43. > :09:45.rebellion in becoming a scientist placed him on the reserved

:09:46. > :09:49.occupations list at the beginning of the Second World War and he became

:09:50. > :09:57.an air raid Warren and fire watcher the Blitz. He explained to my

:09:58. > :10:01.father, who I am proud to say is in the gallery today, how he used to

:10:02. > :10:08.stand on the top of the oil tanks during a raid, armed with just a

:10:09. > :10:12.broom he would sweep the incendiary bombs of two men below who would

:10:13. > :10:16.throw them in the Thames. I think that is something we can barely

:10:17. > :10:22.imagine along with what happened. The danger and the threats and the

:10:23. > :10:28.loss of life were as great at home, especially in the Second World War,

:10:29. > :10:31.as they were at the front. He was eventually caught up in January 1944

:10:32. > :10:35.into the Irish Guards and after training he volunteered for the Ant

:10:36. > :10:41.division. He was very proud of his service in the guards and he sadly

:10:42. > :10:46.died in 1985 at the young age of 69. The impact on families after the

:10:47. > :10:50.Great War lasted decades longer than the war itself. My grandfather never

:10:51. > :10:54.knew his father and the trauma his mother must have felt must I been

:10:55. > :10:58.overwhelming when the Second World War started and her only sound was

:10:59. > :11:02.either put in danger as a fire warden and then eventually called up

:11:03. > :11:08.and sent to war. That sacrifice that we make our young make is through

:11:09. > :11:11.the failure of politicians like ourselves and it must never be

:11:12. > :11:23.forgotten. There is much I don't agree with my honourable colleague,

:11:24. > :11:28.but this I agree with. At our heart, I believe that every legal person in

:11:29. > :11:31.this chamber is fundamentally pacifist but we understand that war

:11:32. > :11:37.is a necessity at times and that there is a consequence to not taking

:11:38. > :11:42.action. If we do not take action, the loss of life can be greater. We

:11:43. > :11:48.are right to commemorate now, at this time, at this chronologically

:11:49. > :11:53.correct time, the sacrifice made and we do learn those lessons and we

:11:54. > :11:56.lived through those lessons and that's what we should do. My

:11:57. > :12:00.honourable friend for South West Wiltshire has done an incredible job

:12:01. > :12:04.and I've paid tribute to him over the last few years in making sure

:12:05. > :12:08.the centenary anniversary is used not just to remember what happened

:12:09. > :12:20.but to understand what happened and to educate new generations;

:12:21. > :12:24.generations who, as my honourable point -- honourable friend for

:12:25. > :12:29.Broadbent said, the Battle of Passchendaele is as distant for

:12:30. > :12:35.someone today as the Battle of Waterloo, but we have to understand

:12:36. > :12:39.why it happened and how we move a mountain. Once more, on the 20th of

:12:40. > :12:43.September this year, my family will once again visit Tynecot and see my

:12:44. > :12:49.great-grandfather's name on that will and take part in the

:12:50. > :12:54.commemoration to our countrymen and his comrades and those on opposing

:12:55. > :13:03.sides as well, as we remember the sacrifice made in that terrible war.

:13:04. > :13:11.It is a privilege to follow the honourable member with his poignant

:13:12. > :13:14.account of the Canaries and in particular his family history. As

:13:15. > :13:21.someone who grew up in south-east London as well, I appreciate many of

:13:22. > :13:30.the stories. My grandfather, Oliver Burke Frederik noise, and listed and

:13:31. > :13:35.saw service in the third Battle of Ypres. There have been Sony

:13:36. > :13:42.references already today to the people of Wales, all the people

:13:43. > :13:47.affected by this conflict and also particularly to headwind, who I

:13:48. > :13:56.would like to turn to now. Ellis Humphrey Evans, we have heard of the

:13:57. > :14:02.hundreds of thousands of casualties in the third Battle of Ypres, one

:14:03. > :14:09.described by David Lloyd George at the time is one of the greatest

:14:10. > :14:13.disasters of the war, and to his superior officers in the 15th

:14:14. > :14:17.battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, 30-year-old Ellis

:14:18. > :14:24.Humphrey Evans was just another recruit, can strip it -- conscripted

:14:25. > :14:30.into the army because of a service of Sun is working on a family farm.

:14:31. > :14:34.He died on the 31st of July. We have heard of the soldiers prayer. He was

:14:35. > :14:39.shot in the stomach and that's one of the most agonising things people

:14:40. > :14:46.can suffer from, shot in the very first day of the battle. There is a

:14:47. > :14:51.war memorial in the centre of his town which commemorates his death

:14:52. > :14:55.and the loss of 30 other men from his community and the nearby army

:14:56. > :15:00.camps. This, of course, is where the story changes key. Ellis Evans could

:15:01. > :15:04.just be the smudged portrait in a dog-eared photograph forgotten by

:15:05. > :15:09.the third generation, save for the fact that we don't remember him as

:15:10. > :15:16.Ellis Evans, save for the fact that we don't remember him as Alice Evans

:15:17. > :15:33.or Private 117, but as a very important poet. Ellis Evans, whose

:15:34. > :15:40.literary name was Heth Wyn, where men, and it must be said they were

:15:41. > :15:46.almost exclusively man, good win accolades in little cult poetry

:15:47. > :15:51.which can be traced over a millennium or more. 16 days before

:15:52. > :15:56.his death, Private Evans had posted his entry of the 1917 Eisteddfod of

:15:57. > :16:00.Wales to the adjudicators. He had come second in the previous year's

:16:01. > :16:05.Eisteddfod and he was never to know that this time he would be

:16:06. > :16:12.victorious. The winner of the Eisteddfod is awarded the chair. The

:16:13. > :16:17.winner's chair at the 1917 but then head Eisteddfod was straight in a

:16:18. > :16:20.black cloth, a black chair crafted by a Belgian refugee became, of

:16:21. > :16:25.course, the symbol of mourning for every Welsh speaking farmhouse,

:16:26. > :16:29.manse and workers cottage. The bond of tragedy to unite mothers bringing

:16:30. > :16:39.telegrams to the chapel minister to Our stories are are a common

:16:40. > :16:48.heritage and what we choose to remember becomes our history. Some

:16:49. > :16:51.stories are more retold than others. The Snowdonia National Park

:16:52. > :16:56.authority are to be commended for taking the initiative to bring

:16:57. > :16:59.together a national investment worth ?4 million with support also from

:17:00. > :17:03.National Heritage Memorial fund, Heritage lottery fund and Welsh

:17:04. > :17:10.Government. This money has enabled the purchase and renovation of Hedd

:17:11. > :17:14.Wyn's family farm. It has just reopened this year as a publicly

:17:15. > :17:19.owned treasure for the nation, perhaps the Minister might

:17:20. > :17:25.appreciate visiting. It is an impressive place. Before that,

:17:26. > :17:29.before this initiative was taken, Hedd Wyn's nephew, Geraint Williams

:17:30. > :17:34.made sure that the door was open to visitors. I remember taking my

:17:35. > :17:38.daughter, Lisa, there are years ago. Only the ground-floor could be

:17:39. > :17:42.visited. Kitchen to the left, parlour to the right. Kitchen, hooks

:17:43. > :17:48.in the rafters, fire is always in the range and it made an impression

:17:49. > :17:53.on me that this has pound family, layer upon layer of wallpaper to

:17:54. > :17:59.keep the place smart. To the right, the parlour. This is where you keep

:18:00. > :18:03.your Eisteddfod chair. And there it was, newspaper cuttings. Visitors

:18:04. > :18:09.could pour over it, you could put your hand on it. Brittle with

:18:10. > :18:14.Celtic, romantic Celtic ornamentation, the period and you

:18:15. > :18:19.could see, repaired with dark wax to reflect the colour of the dark wood.

:18:20. > :18:24.But this was of course history at its most vulnerable. There is a

:18:25. > :18:30.pathos in the solitary guardian, Geraint Williams, but it took almost

:18:31. > :18:34.a century for the authorities of Wales to committee their way to

:18:35. > :18:39.safeguarding the symbols of Wales's National War poet. The film Hedd Wyn

:18:40. > :18:43.was released in 2005 and became the first Welsh language film to be

:18:44. > :18:47.nominated for an Oscar. It is to the credit of the director, Paul Turner,

:18:48. > :18:53.and the scriptwriter that this film has been shown to generations of

:18:54. > :19:01.school students. To close, here it is Hedd Wyn's ending to his friend

:19:02. > :19:05.David Owen Evans, and you will find this on gravestones across Wales and

:19:06. > :19:06.also on the memorial to him. David Owen Evans was killed in the

:19:07. > :19:23.trenches. I would like to mention very

:19:24. > :19:28.closely, there has been some discussion about Pat assists'

:19:29. > :19:32.attitudes about celebrating the war. One thing that it would be

:19:33. > :19:36.beneficial if we could do in this place would be to put the energy and

:19:37. > :19:41.the time and the emotion and imagination and funding into

:19:42. > :19:49.building peace as vigorously as we do into dealing with water. Thank

:19:50. > :19:54.you Madam Deputy Speaker. There have been a remarkable series of speeches

:19:55. > :20:00.in this debate so far, not least the one we've just heard from the

:20:01. > :20:05.honourable lady, and I will not usurp the role of the Minister in

:20:06. > :20:10.singling any of them out for special mention other than to say in respect

:20:11. > :20:14.of the maiden's speech that we heard that the pride that the honourable

:20:15. > :20:20.member for Bedford 's takes in his town will no doubt incentivise him

:20:21. > :20:28.to be sure that Bedford will be proud of him by the way he conducts

:20:29. > :20:32.himself in this place. As other more knowledgeable speakers have already

:20:33. > :20:40.explained, a century after the appalling losses on the Western

:20:41. > :20:44.front, historians still debate whether any alternatives existed.

:20:45. > :20:51.Some blame political intrigue and poor generalship, others emphasise

:20:52. > :20:56.technology with a battlefield dominated by interlocking fields of

:20:57. > :21:03.fire. This ensured that slowly advancing troops would be mown down

:21:04. > :21:08.by machine guns before making any worthwhile inroads into the enemies'

:21:09. > :21:14.trenches. Minor advances, occasionally achieved, were usually

:21:15. > :21:21.reversed by counterattacks or simply absorbed into a static confrontation

:21:22. > :21:25.a short distance from the original one. Now, there's a book called

:21:26. > :21:30.Forgotten Victor Beat and it is a study of the Western front battles

:21:31. > :21:37.which rightly draws attention to the 100 days campaign in which the

:21:38. > :21:44.allied coalition won a sequence of decisive victories between mid-July

:21:45. > :21:49.and early November 1918. Its author, Professor Gary Sheffield, regrets

:21:50. > :21:55.the extent to which the British success in those battles at the end

:21:56. > :22:00.of the First World War has been disregarded. He says, for example,

:22:01. > :22:05.the burden of fighting the German army fell mainly to the French and

:22:06. > :22:10.the Russians in the first two and a half years of the war, but in 1918,

:22:11. > :22:14.it was the turn of the PEF, the British expeditionary Force. Between

:22:15. > :22:24.them, the French, Americans and Belgians took 196,700 prisoners and

:22:25. > :22:32.3775 guns between 18 July and the end of the war. With a smaller army

:22:33. > :22:39.than the French, Hague's forces captured 188,700 prisoners and 2840

:22:40. > :22:46.guns in the same period. This was by far the greatest military victory in

:22:47. > :22:50.British history. So it absolutely right, Madam Deputy Speaker, that as

:22:51. > :22:54.well as commemorating all the disasters of World War I, one of

:22:55. > :23:02.which we are commemorating today, we will next year be recognising the

:23:03. > :23:06.triumph of the Battle of Anya in August 1918 and like others who have

:23:07. > :23:10.spoken in the debates, I pay the warmest tribute to my honourable and

:23:11. > :23:16.gallant friend for South West Wiltshire for all the great work he

:23:17. > :23:21.has done in this rolling series of commemorations of events, failures

:23:22. > :23:28.and successes, of the First World War. Now, Professor Sheffield, who I

:23:29. > :23:36.refer to a moment ago, takes his thesis a bit further down I feel

:23:37. > :23:42.able to go because he suggests that the catastrophic offensives prior to

:23:43. > :23:47.1918 were in some way needed to enable the Allied generals to learn

:23:48. > :23:53.the lessons they eventually applied to be successful campaign at the end

:23:54. > :23:59.of the war. But I feel that one should not have two waste the lives

:24:00. > :24:06.of regions of soldiers in relentless repetition of unsuccessful tactics

:24:07. > :24:11.time and again, those tactics failed to break the stalemate or failed to

:24:12. > :24:16.be exploited when occasionally the actually managed to achieve

:24:17. > :24:21.surprise. After the catastrophe on the Somme in 1916, there was really

:24:22. > :24:26.no reason to believe that a breakthrough could be made and

:24:27. > :24:34.exploited with the available technology of the day. Yet this was

:24:35. > :24:40.a attempted not once but twice in 1917 because first came the Battle

:24:41. > :24:46.of harassed which was the second of the three huge attritional offences

:24:47. > :24:52.waged by the British Army in 1916-17. On the first day of the

:24:53. > :24:58.attack, 9th of April 1917, the British third Army took 5600

:24:59. > :25:03.prisoners and the Canadians, who had captured most of Vimy Ridge, a

:25:04. > :25:07.further 3400. This has been called the greatest success of the British

:25:08. > :25:13.expeditionary Force since the beginning of trench warfare. Yet the

:25:14. > :25:16.British advance soon ran out of steam as German reinforcements

:25:17. > :25:21.arrived and the British fifth Army had little to show for the heavy

:25:22. > :25:27.losses it had sustained. Further major effort on the 23rd of April

:25:28. > :25:30.and the 3rd of May 1917 partly intended to tie down forces which

:25:31. > :25:37.might other wives have been used against the French simply added to

:25:38. > :25:43.the butchery on both sides. Now, in the spring of 1917, Russia was in

:25:44. > :25:48.revolution, albeit not yet a Bolshevik one. Whilst unrestricted

:25:49. > :25:52.submarine warfare, as we have heard, and the diplomatic disaster from the

:25:53. > :25:57.German point of view of the Zimmerman telegram had goaded the

:25:58. > :26:03.United States into entering the war on the 6th of April 19 17. So, did

:26:04. > :26:11.Britain and France really have to squander so many lives so

:26:12. > :26:16.fruitlessly after this date? Why risk the colossal price of failure

:26:17. > :26:22.when the balance of forces at the strategic level were shifting so

:26:23. > :26:27.dramatically? The German leadership fully understood the significance of

:26:28. > :26:33.American belligerency. They therefore gambled everything in the

:26:34. > :26:37.spring of 1918 to exploit the collapse of Russia before the United

:26:38. > :26:43.States could make a real difference. So, it was folly for the British and

:26:44. > :26:49.French to wear themselves out in 1917, given that the balance of

:26:50. > :26:52.forces would change in their favour once the Americans arrived. Claiming

:26:53. > :26:58.that the Germans could stand the rate of attrition less than the

:26:59. > :27:04.British was no justification at the time, as we've heard already in this

:27:05. > :27:10.debate, and it is equal eight indefensible now. After the Arras

:27:11. > :27:15.offensives of April and May came the unprecedented use of giant

:27:16. > :27:19.subterranean mines in a successful attempt to break the deadlock. 19 of

:27:20. > :27:25.these mines were exploded under messy ridge on the 7th of June with

:27:26. > :27:30.a force that could be felt on the far side of the English Channel.

:27:31. > :27:36.Though surprise was achieved, strategic gain was once again

:27:37. > :27:43.lacking. Nevertheless, on the last day of July 1917, the crowning

:27:44. > :27:46.effort of the PEF was made. The third Battle of Ypres would injure

:27:47. > :27:52.and the 10th of November and imprinted itself on the British

:27:53. > :27:58.psyche to an extent matched only by the Somme disaster of the previous

:27:59. > :28:02.year. The focus was on the Passchendaele stared in Ridge and

:28:03. > :28:07.the main thrust was delivered by General Sir Hubert Gough's fifth

:28:08. > :28:11.Army along a 7.5 mile front. The flanks were defended by the British

:28:12. > :28:16.second Army on the right and the French first army on the left.

:28:17. > :28:21.Having overrun some of the outer German defences on the first day,

:28:22. > :28:25.the British commander-in-chief, Sir Douglas Haig, then discovered that

:28:26. > :28:32.the weather was an even more formidable opponent than the enemy.

:28:33. > :28:40.The official history of the interwar called Hague's dispatch as follows,

:28:41. > :28:46.the low-lying clay soil pawn by shells and sodden with rain turned

:28:47. > :28:51.to a succession of vast muddy pools. The values of the shocked and

:28:52. > :28:57.overflowing streams were speedily transformed into long stretches of

:28:58. > :29:01.Balk, in passable apart from a few well-defined tracks which became

:29:02. > :29:07.marks for the enemy's artillery. To leave these tracks was to risk death

:29:08. > :29:13.by drowning. In these conditions, operations of any magnitude became

:29:14. > :29:17.impossible and the result shown of our offensive was necessarily

:29:18. > :29:23.postponed until a period of fine weather should allow the ground to

:29:24. > :29:28.recover. Thus it was that the second phase of the attack, known as the

:29:29. > :29:35.Battle of longer mark, lasting from the 16th-18th of August lacked any

:29:36. > :29:41.element of surprise. The Germans showed no sign of giving way. Then

:29:42. > :29:47.next came the Battle of the men in road rage beginning on the 20th of

:29:48. > :29:54.September and lasting for five days. Its aim was to capture objectives as

:29:55. > :30:00.a distance of between 1000 yards and one whole mile. And this was largely

:30:01. > :30:05.achieved. The pattern was then the same in the fourth phase known as

:30:06. > :30:11.the Battle of polygon would taking place from the 26th of September

:30:12. > :30:16.till the 3rd of October 1917 with the objective of securing a jumping

:30:17. > :30:21.off place from which to attack the main Passchendaele Ridge. I will

:30:22. > :30:26.give way. I thank him for giving way because I hope to speak in this

:30:27. > :30:30.debate was unfortunately off set. You mentioned the Battle of polygon

:30:31. > :30:33.would and I would like to mention that at that battle, my own

:30:34. > :30:38.great-grandfather, who had been there in France since August 1914,

:30:39. > :30:42.was wounded on the 30th of September and won the military medal. Of

:30:43. > :30:47.course, I wanted to mention that because I am very proud but also it

:30:48. > :30:50.demonstrates how this war was fought by ordinary folk who has come from

:30:51. > :30:58.really normal backgrounds who then went back to their ordinary lives.

:30:59. > :31:01.In the case of my great grandfather, a postman in East Yorkshire and that

:31:02. > :31:04.is what was behind much of this conflict. I am delighted that my

:31:05. > :31:08.mentioning of this phase of this terrible series of battles gave my

:31:09. > :31:16.honourable friend the opportunity to pay that well-deserved tribute to

:31:17. > :31:20.his brave ancestor. Whose name I wanted to get into Hansard. It was

:31:21. > :31:30.John William fees eat, so thank you again for giving way. I think the

:31:31. > :31:36.award of the medal to John William Vesey is now justifiably recorded.

:31:37. > :31:41.So, the next assault was planned for the 4th of October and persevered

:31:42. > :31:52.with despite a great deterioration in the weather. wood, It was hoped

:31:53. > :31:57.success at Ypres would drive the Germans from the channel ports and

:31:58. > :32:04.an amphibious force has been assembled. The reality in the words

:32:05. > :32:13.of the official history was very, very different and I quote... Of

:32:14. > :32:19.course I will. Most grateful. My honourable friend's describing the

:32:20. > :32:24.sea battle and what was happening at sea. So would he agree when people

:32:25. > :32:29.ask did we have to go into the war, is it not the reality that we could

:32:30. > :32:34.have well be starved out if we had not been trying to take those

:32:35. > :32:42.actions? The answer is yes and no. The answer is we certainly had to

:32:43. > :32:48.resist German aggression. But that didn't mean that there was any

:32:49. > :32:54.justification when faced with a stalemate to keep repeating tactics

:32:55. > :32:59.and strategies that were wholly unsuccessful and counter productive.

:33:00. > :33:04.And if one could have said, OK, the concept of the big push might have

:33:05. > :33:07.had something to recommend it, despite the obvious imbalance

:33:08. > :33:12.between the technology of machine gun and the lack of armoured

:33:13. > :33:18.vehicles to override it on the other, in the earlier phaser of the

:33:19. > :33:24.war that, might have justified a big push in 1916, it did not justify

:33:25. > :33:29.doing the same sort of lethal strategic nonsense all over again a

:33:30. > :33:35.year later. So this what is the official history had to say after

:33:36. > :33:42.that outbreak of terrible weather. The British Lion had now been

:33:43. > :33:47.advanced along the main ridge for 9,000 yards. The year was already

:33:48. > :33:55.far spent and the prospect of driving the enemy from the Belgian

:33:56. > :33:59.coast had long since disappeared. The delays as a result of the

:34:00. > :34:07.weather and the effect on the state of ground had given the enemy time

:34:08. > :34:13.to bring up reinforcements and to reorganise his defences. Although

:34:14. > :34:17.general head quarters now recognised that the major objectives of

:34:18. > :34:21.Flanders operation were impossible to attain, they were appsing to

:34:22. > :34:26.continue with the view to the capture of the remainder of the

:34:27. > :34:32.Passchendaele ridge before winter set in. The weather was

:34:33. > :34:36.unfavourable, but there were hopes it would improved, based on the

:34:37. > :34:43.foundation that the abnormal rain fall of the summer pressaged a

:34:44. > :34:49.normal, even a dry autumn. That is the end of quotation. Instead of

:34:50. > :35:05.meaning a means to -- remaining a means to the end, the offensive had

:35:06. > :35:09.become an end in its own. Douglas Hague decided Passchendaele must be

:35:10. > :35:20.captured and the cycle was repeated in October in the hope of preventing

:35:21. > :35:27.German forces being switch to meet the French offensive. Some land was

:35:28. > :35:32.gained on 22nd October, fighter pilots doing everything they could

:35:33. > :35:42.to attack German infantry on the roads and in villages. So it went on

:35:43. > :35:50.and on. A little progress here and the final taking of Passchendaele

:35:51. > :35:56.village on 6th November by the Canadians who extended their gains

:35:57. > :36:02.four days later. Passchendaele was according to the official historian,

:36:03. > :36:06.the most sombre and bloodiest of all the battlefields of war. One of the

:36:07. > :36:16.pilots who lived through it and later reached the highest rank in

:36:17. > :36:20.the RAF was Lord Douglas, who commanded 84 squadron's fighters

:36:21. > :36:26.when he returned to the western front in September 1917. He too

:36:27. > :36:32.regarded third Ypres as the most terrible of all the battles of

:36:33. > :36:37.war and he road, the Somme of the year before had been bad enough and

:36:38. > :36:43.after that it was felt that the lesson of mass attacks must have

:36:44. > :36:49.been learned. But it was not learned and less than a year later our army

:36:50. > :36:56.was called upon to embark on an offensive that was even more

:36:57. > :37:02.terrible than the Somme. Passchendaele was the beginning of

:37:03. > :37:07.was to become a long misery. Eventually the whole area became

:37:08. > :37:12.clogged with mud. Over this devastated area which had been

:37:13. > :37:17.reduced to state of a quagmire, attack after attack was launched.

:37:18. > :37:23.For communication there was only the rough tracks that wound their way

:37:24. > :37:27.across the mire and wander off them led to drowning. The Germans

:37:28. > :37:39.welcomed the rain as our strongest ally. Many of the pilots in the

:37:40. > :37:44.third battle of Ypres were were asked to carry out operations on the

:37:45. > :37:53.ground. There was little fighting in the air and since we were at only

:37:54. > :37:58.200 or 300 feet, we were up supposed to see what was going on. What I saw

:37:59. > :38:04.was nothing less than horrifying. The ground over which our infantry

:38:05. > :38:11.were fighting was one vast sea of churned up muck and mud and every

:38:12. > :38:17.where there were shell holes full of water. These attacks that we had to

:38:18. > :38:22.make for which most of my pilots were untrained were a wretched and

:38:23. > :38:25.dangerous business and pretty useless, it was difficult to pick

:38:26. > :38:30.out our that gets, because everything on the ground, including

:38:31. > :38:35.the troops, was the same colour as that dreadful mud. It was quite

:38:36. > :38:41.obvious to anyone viewing from the air this dreadful bat Peel ground --

:38:42. > :38:46.battleground that any chance of a major break through was quite out of

:38:47. > :38:54.the question. We can see from Douglas's memoirs that it was not

:38:55. > :39:02.just fashionable post-war opinion that came to davm the strategy --

:39:03. > :39:07.damn the strategy. The ordering of more attack was seen by him as the

:39:08. > :39:11.grossest of blunders and they recognised the need the relieve

:39:12. > :39:17.pressure on the French by keeping the Germans stretched. But, he says,

:39:18. > :39:19.as I watched from the air what was happening on the ground, there were

:39:20. > :39:28.presented to me some terrible questions - why did we have to press

:39:29. > :39:36.on so blindly in is in one desolate area and under such dreadful

:39:37. > :39:40.conditions? Why was there not some variety in strategy? The questions I

:39:41. > :39:44.asked then are the ones that have been asked since and the answers

:39:45. > :39:52.have never seized to be painful ones. As I said at the outset, I

:39:53. > :39:57.remain completely unconvinced by the argument which some people deploy

:39:58. > :40:03.even to this day that it was necessary to undergo the

:40:04. > :40:07.catastrophic failures of Somme and the Passchendaele offences to learn

:40:08. > :40:12.the lessons necessary for victory in 1918. There is testimony enough from

:40:13. > :40:17.senior military figures in the Second World War writing of their

:40:18. > :40:24.experiences in the first, spelling out the futility of relentlessly

:40:25. > :40:31.sacrificing huge numbers of British troops in fighting Unwinnable

:40:32. > :40:35.battles. One does haven't to explain every military cul-de-sac to stumble

:40:36. > :40:41.across a strategy that might actually succeed. But let us not

:40:42. > :40:48.forget that each one of these tragedies was an individual and I

:40:49. > :40:53.close with a quote from a young Welshman, Glynne Morgan, who wrote

:40:54. > :40:58.to his father at the start of the Passchendaele offensive. You I know

:40:59. > :41:05.my dear dad will bear the shock as bravely as you have always borne the

:41:06. > :41:11.strain of my being Ute here, but I should like to help you to carry on,

:41:12. > :41:18.because this was a letter only going to be sent in the event of his

:41:19. > :41:23.death, with a stout heart, I regret the opportunity has been denied to

:41:24. > :41:28.me to repay you for the lavish kindness and devotedness which you

:41:29. > :41:33.have always shown me. However it may be that I have done so in the

:41:34. > :41:37.struggle between life and death between England and Germany, liberty

:41:38. > :41:48.and slavery, in any case, I shall have done my duty in my little way.

:41:49. > :41:54.Your affectionate son and brother. Glynne Morgan was killed on 1st

:41:55. > :42:03.August 1917. He was recommended for a VC and he was 21 when he died. To

:42:04. > :42:20.make his maiden speech, Paul Sweeney. Thank you. I'm grateful for

:42:21. > :42:30.this turnt opportunity to deliver my maiden speech. I would like to say

:42:31. > :42:37.it is a great privilege to deliver my maiden speech on a debate about

:42:38. > :42:48.this event. I would like to congratulate the member for New

:42:49. > :42:57.Forest for re-election. It is customary for a new member to make a

:42:58. > :43:02.reference to his predecessor and I noted that Iain Buchanan said if it

:43:03. > :43:09.was in my power to introduce a new tradition, it would be that members

:43:10. > :43:13.should do so from the dispatch so they melee their trembling hands

:43:14. > :43:18.upon it and give support to their quaking knees. I can attest to my

:43:19. > :43:24.sympathy for those sentiments, but I won't have long to wait for relief,

:43:25. > :43:28.will have the first opportunity to address the House from next week as

:43:29. > :43:38.shadow Secretary of State for Scotland. I hope can I provide more

:43:39. > :43:43.support for my trembling limbs. Mr Buchanan was a proud railway worker,

:43:44. > :43:50.socialist and trade unionist and it was not unknown for him to turn up

:43:51. > :43:54.at the city chambers in his boiler suit. He also left a legacy to

:43:55. > :44:00.future members of the House as chairman of House of Commons library

:44:01. > :44:06.committee during its transition from an old style gentleman's club to the

:44:07. > :44:11.research facility today, which has been appreciated by new members

:44:12. > :44:16.preparing their maiden speeches. The area of Glasgow they represent has a

:44:17. > :44:20.remarkable and diverse history that is reflected in the diversity of the

:44:21. > :44:26.people who live there today. From its early origins at the frontier of

:44:27. > :44:31.the northern Roman Empire it has been vital to Glasgow's development,

:44:32. > :44:39.although it was only incorporated into the city in 1891. The river on

:44:40. > :44:44.which the banks the founder of Glasgow established the cathedral

:44:45. > :44:49.and the town flows from waters which nourished the longest established

:44:50. > :44:56.business in Glasgow, Tennents brewery, founded in the 1550s, and

:44:57. > :45:06.has slaked the thirst of many a Glaswegian over the centuries. When

:45:07. > :45:12.I attempt to visualise the evolution of Glasgow the opening of the

:45:13. > :45:22.Olympics springs to mind, what was once a landscape of farms was swept

:45:23. > :45:29.away at the start of the industrial revolution. By coincidence of the

:45:30. > :45:34.position on the approach to Glasgow from Edinburgh, Springburn found

:45:35. > :45:39.itself at the centre of this growth as railway and industries grew to

:45:40. > :45:45.form the largest centre of locomotive manufacture in the

:45:46. > :45:51.British Empire, employing 8,000 people.

:45:52. > :45:58.Other engineering innovations pioneered there, most notably the

:45:59. > :46:02.first motor car built in Britain right George Johnson in Bobby Hill.

:46:03. > :46:05.The first rule trials took place in the dead of night with Johnston

:46:06. > :46:09.driving the car as a reckless 12 miles an hour on a 20 mile journey

:46:10. > :46:13.around Glasgow. For this apparently reckless behaviour, he was charged

:46:14. > :46:19.with contravening the locomotives axed by driving his horse treats

:46:20. > :46:23.carriage during prohibited hours on Buchanan Street, then as now the

:46:24. > :46:29.main shopping thoroughfare in Glasgow. This fine automotive

:46:30. > :46:33.engineering pedigree is retained in the largest manufacturer of taxis

:46:34. > :46:38.and mobility vehicles employing skilled people in Postle Park. The

:46:39. > :46:40.Taimani manufacturer is also ingrained in the community,

:46:41. > :46:46.supporting many excellent projects which support disabled people in the

:46:47. > :46:51.area as well as the highly successful Glasgow Tigers speedway.

:46:52. > :46:54.As my friend, the mentioned earlier, our engineering prowess was also

:46:55. > :46:58.critical for supporting Britain's war effort during the first of war.

:46:59. > :47:01.Springburn's railway works give themselves over for the production

:47:02. > :47:04.of the missions during the war. During this period, they were

:47:05. > :47:09.responsible for producing the first tanks and aircraft. The works also

:47:10. > :47:13.produced the first modern artificial limbs forwarded servicemen.

:47:14. > :47:17.Directors of the locomotive Company offered their headquarters to the

:47:18. > :47:21.Red Cross as existing hospitals were unable to cope with the war wounded.

:47:22. > :47:24.It opened on Christmas Eve 1914. Wounded troops would be transported

:47:25. > :47:28.directly from the southern Channel ports to the hospital on specially

:47:29. > :47:34.converted ambulance trains. By the end of the war, a total of 8211

:47:35. > :47:37.servicemen had been treated. Nearby stop Hill Hospital, the place where

:47:38. > :47:42.I first entered a more peaceful world some 75 years later, was also

:47:43. > :47:53.requisitioned by the medical corps in 1915 and over 1000 patients were

:47:54. > :47:56.cared for their at any given time until the return of the hospital to

:47:57. > :47:58.civilian use in 1920. As an Army reservist, the sacrifice my city

:47:59. > :48:00.made during the First World War has been impressed upon me every year in

:48:01. > :48:03.the remembrance service in George Square. The stark enormity of the

:48:04. > :48:08.statement on the city's cenotaph at Glasgow raised over troops, one

:48:09. > :48:14.third of its population with 8000 of those member losing their lives

:48:15. > :48:19.never fails to move me for the sheer scale of the carnage that afflicted

:48:20. > :48:23.working people a century ago. My constituency of Glasgow North East

:48:24. > :48:26.was created at the 2005 general election in an amalgamation of the

:48:27. > :48:31.Glasgow Springburn and Glasgow Maryhill seats. Both areas have

:48:32. > :48:33.previously enjoyed excellent reputation from exemplary

:48:34. > :48:36.parliamentarians. Although my seat was once described as a labourer

:48:37. > :48:39.citadel, there was even too conservative members of the interwar

:48:40. > :48:46.period, though thankfully it was a brief dalliance. The metaphorical

:48:47. > :48:49.and physically towering legacy of my antecedents was brought into sharp

:48:50. > :48:56.focus when I'd had the opportunity to venture into the Speaker's has. I

:48:57. > :49:03.was met by a oil painting of a member for Springburn and Dundas.

:49:04. > :49:06.His successor skills that was easily inspired and inadequate. Michael

:49:07. > :49:12.Martin succeeded Buchanan as the MP for Springburn from 1979-2009. Of

:49:13. > :49:17.course, commentating on his election as Speaker of the House of Commons

:49:18. > :49:20.from 2000 onwards. His parliamentary career spanning seven consecutive

:49:21. > :49:23.general elections was selflessly committed to the service of others

:49:24. > :49:26.and epitomises that opportunity that the labour movement has offered to

:49:27. > :49:32.the advancement of working-class people over the last century, rising

:49:33. > :49:36.from a fish sheet metal worker and shop steward to become the Speaker

:49:37. > :49:40.of the House. I was gratified to meet Lord Martin just last week and

:49:41. > :49:44.he was delighted that his seat was now back in safe hands, as he put

:49:45. > :49:48.it. My first ever experience of party Glasgow campaigning was in the

:49:49. > :49:51.Glasgow North East by-election of 2009. After a telephone call from

:49:52. > :49:56.Gordon Brown's wife Sarah drew me from my exam revision to help retain

:49:57. > :50:05.the seat for Labour. As someone who was also born and raised in the

:50:06. > :50:10.local area and the first in his family to have a university

:50:11. > :50:13.education, he was a committed chavvy adversity, speaking the civilian

:50:14. > :50:16.opposition to the coalition Government's vicious and

:50:17. > :50:20.self-defeating austerity policies during his tenure as Shadow Scotland

:50:21. > :50:23.Office minister. Before I had the opportunity to meet my immediate

:50:24. > :50:26.predecessor and McLauchlan, I have watched her maiden speech with great

:50:27. > :50:32.interest which he delivered it almost two years ago today in July

:50:33. > :50:35.20 15. Was particularly impressed by her yearning passion to improve the

:50:36. > :50:39.lives of her constituents and restoring civic pride our

:50:40. > :50:43.communities, a passion that I shared equally. And cited the project to

:50:44. > :50:47.restore the historic Springburn Winter Gardens, the largest

:50:48. > :50:53.glasshouse and Scotland, as it'll tenet 's system it symbol of our

:50:54. > :50:59.need to continue renewing our society. As one of the directors of

:51:00. > :51:02.the project, I was very glad that Anne made such a generous versions

:51:03. > :51:06.of our efforts in her maiden speech. I would also like to thank for the

:51:07. > :51:08.election campaign we conducted in June and I look forward to working

:51:09. > :51:12.together in areas of mutual interest in the future. All the maiden

:51:13. > :51:15.speeches of my predecessors reflect common challenges facing our

:51:16. > :51:18.constituents over the years. Whilst much progress has been made in

:51:19. > :51:27.certain areas, unfortunately many of the issues they identified decades

:51:28. > :51:29.ago remain all too stubbornly apparent today. Michael Martin

:51:30. > :51:30.referred to the urgent need to strengthen Government intervention

:51:31. > :51:33.to develop new industries that would revitalise the local economy and

:51:34. > :51:37.alleviate the unemployment and despair caused by the collapse of

:51:38. > :51:39.locomotive manufacturing. This is a legacy of decline that my

:51:40. > :51:43.constituency has never fully recovered from and it is something

:51:44. > :51:46.that I felt keenly from an early age as I learned about Springburn's past

:51:47. > :51:50.industrial glories from my grandparents. It is what inspired me

:51:51. > :51:53.to follow my grandfather and father into the Clyde shipbuilding industry

:51:54. > :51:58.and later at Scottish enterprise, burning with a zeal to rejuvenate

:51:59. > :52:02.the Clyde built industries that once brought prosperity is our city.

:52:03. > :52:05.Having recently been involved with Labour's new industrial strategy for

:52:06. > :52:10.Scotland, I'm excited by the opportunity we have before us now to

:52:11. > :52:12.other new era of prosperity with the application of coherent, long-term

:52:13. > :52:15.thinking about the development of more high-value industries in our

:52:16. > :52:19.country and I look forward to pursuing that vision with vigorous

:52:20. > :52:23.enthusiasm in this place. Housing is another recurring matter that is

:52:24. > :52:26.referred to by my predecessors, particularly exploitation by private

:52:27. > :52:30.landlords and the mass clearance of housing areas like Swinburn. All

:52:31. > :52:34.Glasgow Labour MPs have stood firmly in the tradition of John Wheatley

:52:35. > :52:38.and his famous Housing act of 1944 that provided state subsidies for

:52:39. > :52:42.house building to build the land fit for heroes. It led directly to the

:52:43. > :52:46.creation of Glasgow's means about housing system and start large-scale

:52:47. > :52:50.building of some 57,000 new homes in new districts like Rhodri and

:52:51. > :52:55.Carntyne in my constituency during the interwar period. Heroines like

:52:56. > :52:59.maybe Barber also led the struggle against rapacious landlords during

:53:00. > :53:03.the First World War, leading the rent strike that slowly forced this

:53:04. > :53:08.House to legislate to control rents for the duration of the war. I am

:53:09. > :53:11.delighted that my predecessor, Maria Fyfe, who represented Glasgow

:53:12. > :53:14.Maryhill in this House for so many years successfully campaigned for a

:53:15. > :53:18.statue of Mary Barbour and the Glasgow rent strikers, only the

:53:19. > :53:22.fourth statue of a woman to be erected in the city of Glasgow. Due

:53:23. > :53:25.to the efforts of my predecessor Michael and others, Glasgow became a

:53:26. > :53:28.pioneer in the modern housing association movement that if many of

:53:29. > :53:32.the traditional Victorian tenements in areas like Denison and Springburn

:53:33. > :53:35.and by writing off the city's ?1 billion housing debt, the last

:53:36. > :53:39.Labour Government enabled an unprecedented renewal of the city's

:53:40. > :53:43.housing stock led by organisations like nanograms homes with over 100

:53:44. > :53:47.million invested to improve housing standards in my constituency. These

:53:48. > :53:50.physical improvements are not just about the sandstorm, glass and

:53:51. > :53:54.slate. It is also about reinvigorating the very soul and

:53:55. > :53:58.character of our city, what it means and feels like to be a Glaswegian

:53:59. > :54:02.from one generation to the next. These efforts have, however, been

:54:03. > :54:06.frustrated by policies from the party opposite by continue to

:54:07. > :54:09.undermine living standards in my constituency despite efforts to

:54:10. > :54:12.regenerate our communities, my constituents are still subject to

:54:13. > :54:16.the indignity of benefit sanctions, tax-cut cuts and frozen wages. With

:54:17. > :54:20.unemployment and benefit claimant rates in my constituency double the

:54:21. > :54:25.national average, and the child poverty level as a disgrace 36%,

:54:26. > :54:29.they Izeta might be continued onslaught to their living standards

:54:30. > :54:33.is too much to bear for many. When it is iterative approach is me in

:54:34. > :54:36.the street to discuss how she was forced to financially support her

:54:37. > :54:39.son and his partner who were suffering from a terminal brain

:54:40. > :54:43.tumour for nine months before his death as they had been found fit to

:54:44. > :54:46.work and had his benefits cut, it is clear to me that we have seen the

:54:47. > :54:50.creation of a new national minimum definition of dignity were anything

:54:51. > :54:53.short of starvation and anything above destitution is now seemingly

:54:54. > :54:57.acceptable and is apparently blind to any appeal to human compassion.

:54:58. > :55:06.It was a view that was only galvanised as I watched the benches

:55:07. > :55:09.opposite cheer with perverse triumph as our effort to remove the public

:55:10. > :55:11.sector pay cap was defeated last month, quite oblivious to be

:55:12. > :55:13.harmless causes to millions of people. My duty as a member of

:55:14. > :55:15.Parliament has been crystallised by those observations. The people of

:55:16. > :55:19.Glasgow North East sent me here because they despair at the Tories

:55:20. > :55:23.and yearn for the vision of hope and prosperity that labour under Jeremy

:55:24. > :55:27.Corbyn's leadership has offered to them. In 1948, this House, having

:55:28. > :55:30.witnessed the disastrous effects of too terrible war awards was told

:55:31. > :55:35.that they welfare state was established to remove the shame from

:55:36. > :55:43.needs and to create a society with solidarity at its foundation. Today,

:55:44. > :55:46.it is our solemn responsibility to do everything at our power to defeat

:55:47. > :55:48.this Government and restore that abiding principle in our society.

:55:49. > :55:51.That is why the people of Glasgow North East sent me here and I will

:55:52. > :55:54.do my utmost to repay their faith in me by how I put myself in the

:55:55. > :56:01.pursuit of that endeavour in this House. Thank you very much. Thank

:56:02. > :56:05.you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It falls to me to congratulate Mike and

:56:06. > :56:10.Patriot, the member for Glasgow North East on his maiden speech and

:56:11. > :56:14.there can be little doubt that he will bring passion and commitment

:56:15. > :56:20.and conviction to the proceedings of this House and I look forward to it

:56:21. > :56:24.over the coming months and hopefully yours too many just across the floor

:56:25. > :56:30.of the House. I was delighted to hear, by the way, him it

:56:31. > :56:36.representing it recognising previous occupants of his seat viewing

:56:37. > :56:39.conservative. Look forward to further success down the years. I

:56:40. > :56:43.congratulate him on his new position. Which he mentioned during

:56:44. > :56:50.his speech, and I look forward to seeing him appear at the dispatch

:56:51. > :56:56.box as soon as next week. I rise with, I have to say, a degree of

:56:57. > :57:01.humility to make a small contribution of my own and paid

:57:02. > :57:07.tribute to those who fought and died during Passchendaele, the third

:57:08. > :57:12.Battle of Ypres, the biggest British offensive of 1917. And I say with

:57:13. > :57:17.humility because of the calibre of the speeches that we have heard in

:57:18. > :57:21.this debate. Where I have both been informed and I have to say deeply

:57:22. > :57:28.moved by the things that I have heard. I think particularly I would

:57:29. > :57:33.like to say how moved I have been by the contributions from members who

:57:34. > :57:38.have spoken in Welsh. Something that has been passed to me from my great

:57:39. > :57:44.grandmother, Mary and Owen Blakemore, that thrills at the sound

:57:45. > :57:54.of the Welsh language. Her son, my great uncle, Harry Blakemore, served

:57:55. > :57:59.in the Great War and died in the early months of 1918. Harry

:58:00. > :58:07.Blakemore plays an important part in our family history, even though his

:58:08. > :58:12.life was short and I think it was the member for South West Wiltshire

:58:13. > :58:18.that spoke about the impact that these First World War cemeteries and

:58:19. > :58:27.sites have on young people. My wife and I have made it a matter of

:58:28. > :58:34.course to take our children to these very, I think, sacred places and the

:58:35. > :58:40.effect that he described that those places have on young people, I have

:58:41. > :58:45.witnessed in my own children. There is, and I think you said, a dawning

:58:46. > :58:53.realisation of the sacrifice, the slaughter of the Great War and it

:58:54. > :58:57.does have massive impression on their young minds. It reminds them

:58:58. > :59:05.and it reminds all of us of the cost, the price of our freedom. I

:59:06. > :59:11.have stood several times, I'm grateful to say, and witnessed the

:59:12. > :59:16.last post ceremony at the men in gate and again, it is an incredibly

:59:17. > :59:20.moving experience. -- Menin Gate. I almost wish that every school child

:59:21. > :59:23.in this country could have the privilege of standing there and

:59:24. > :59:30.visiting those sites because of the impact that it has upon our minds.

:59:31. > :59:33.Yes, I will give way. I am most grateful to my honourable friend

:59:34. > :59:36.giving way and he makes a very powerful point about the education

:59:37. > :59:41.of young people and what can happen. Just on a slight tangent to this

:59:42. > :59:46.point, but I think an important one, I urge my honourable friend to be in

:59:47. > :59:49.context with the Holocaust educational trust who do massively

:59:50. > :59:53.important work in taking young people to our switch which shows

:59:54. > :59:58.what an bridal powder can do as well and I urge to look into that. I

:59:59. > :00:07.thank you for your intervention and that point of information and I will

:00:08. > :00:11.follow up on his invitation. My constituency, I should also mention

:00:12. > :00:15.before I proceed that I was particularly deeply moved by my

:00:16. > :00:18.honourable friend the member for Brecon and his accounts which I hope

:00:19. > :00:23.that those of us were not in the chamber will have the opportunity to

:00:24. > :00:32.view and read because I felt it was very uplifting, thank you very much.

:00:33. > :00:34.My constituency of sterling has a long-standing connection with the

:00:35. > :00:40.Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who fought on the front line at

:00:41. > :00:45.Passchendaele and these things are all well documented. And our many

:00:46. > :00:49.warm ordeals throughout my constituency are filled with the

:00:50. > :00:53.names of local men who went off to fight, briefly and in the country's

:00:54. > :00:58.call. Behind each of those names engraved upon those memorials, there

:00:59. > :01:04.is a family also left behind and brokenhearted. Madam Deputy Speaker,

:01:05. > :01:08.its importance, I think, also to note in this debate that the men

:01:09. > :01:12.that fought at Passchendaele and throughout the Great War were

:01:13. > :01:19.gathered from across the British Empire. The cemeteries of the

:01:20. > :01:22.Western front is artful of gravestones for Australians, New

:01:23. > :01:27.Zealanders, whose worst casualty figures actually came from

:01:28. > :01:32.Passchendaele. South Africans, Indians, both Hindus and Muslims

:01:33. > :01:34.alike. Canadians and Newfoundland is. Men are from all over the

:01:35. > :01:46.imperial from every diverse face and

:01:47. > :01:49.background and culture came to fight for the mother country in its hour

:01:50. > :01:54.of need and in doing so came together in a common cause.

:01:55. > :02:01.It has become fashionable to consider the men who went to fight

:02:02. > :02:10.for the British Empire were victims whose blood was spent wastefully by

:02:11. > :02:17.British officers who had no concern for men of colonies, my friend from

:02:18. > :02:21.the University of Glasgow and the centre for battlefield archaeology

:02:22. > :02:27.counters this idea and calls it a false idea. Because the men coming

:02:28. > :02:33.from the colonies were not unwilling victims being sent to die. Certainly

:02:34. > :02:41.the men of the AIF who arrived on the western front in 1915 were not

:02:42. > :02:48.sack official lambs. According to the research these men were

:02:49. > :02:56.confident and eager for the fight and they came to sort out the mess

:02:57. > :03:02.that the old country has v had made. -- had made. The Scottish memorial

:03:03. > :03:07.in Flanders is a reminder of the contribution that Scotland made to

:03:08. > :03:14.the British action at Ypres. This memorial is the only one on the

:03:15. > :03:24.western front dedicated to all Scots and all those of Scottish descent

:03:25. > :03:29.who fought during the 1914-18 war. Scottish soldiers made a major

:03:30. > :03:39.contribution to the efforts of British army in the battle of

:03:40. > :03:43.Passchendaele and their sacrifice was proportionally greater. Between

:03:44. > :03:49.July and November 1917 all three Scottish divisions were on the

:03:50. > :03:54.western front. They were included in the 9th and 15th divisions and the

:03:55. > :04:02.51st Highland division. They came from all over Scotland, representing

:04:03. > :04:14.famous Scottish regiments such as the black Watch. Our famous local

:04:15. > :04:19.regiment in my constituency in Stirling, the Argyll and southern

:04:20. > :04:25.Highlanders was in the thick of fighting, with representatives in

:04:26. > :04:32.all three divisions and took casualties in every significant

:04:33. > :04:37.phase of the action. Yes. Thank you, I very much thank very good

:04:38. > :04:45.honourable friend for giving way. Can I remind the House that a lot of

:04:46. > :04:50.Scottish soldiers in reinforcement units were actually diverted to

:04:51. > :05:02.English regiments or Welsh or Irish regiments. It is aPoe site that

:05:03. > :05:07.there is a Scottish memorial to all Scottish soldiers no matter what

:05:08. > :05:14.regiment they were served in. After all some of us go abroad and command

:05:15. > :05:17.units. Thank you. I should mention that is a tribute to the fighting

:05:18. > :05:22.qualities of Scottish soldiers that they can be relevant assigned as you

:05:23. > :05:29.have, and deployed as you have suggested. There were not only

:05:30. > :05:39.Scots, there were not only Scots involved as the Ca Nadians and --

:05:40. > :05:43.Canadians and Newfoundlands and sons of immigrants were also committed to

:05:44. > :05:48.the battle. The Scottish memorial project reports of nine Canadian VC

:05:49. > :05:54.awarding in the last week of October and the first week of November

:05:55. > :06:02.alone, the majority were awarded to Scottish-born or the sons of Scots

:06:03. > :06:13.immigrants. Those who came back lived with the legacy of what they

:06:14. > :06:17.experienced and we have heard some very good comments about that. Of

:06:18. > :06:24.those who did not return, we will remember them. We must not make the

:06:25. > :06:27.mistake of thinking that these soldiers were passive victims of a

:06:28. > :06:33.war they didn't understand or support. That is a view that is

:06:34. > :06:37.often expressed in certain quarters. Especially when people say that we

:06:38. > :06:43.have not learned the lessons of past wars. Whether they understood the

:06:44. > :06:49.war in the way that we might want them to understand it, they fought

:06:50. > :06:54.because they wanted to do their bit. Because they had been conscripted

:06:55. > :06:59.and it was their duty to go. Because they were with men who had become

:07:00. > :07:07.their mates and they weren't going to let them down. We do our fallen

:07:08. > :07:13.no justice when we strip them of the dignity that comes with the

:07:14. > :07:17.recognition of their agency, they joined up, they answered their

:07:18. > :07:24.nation's call, and they reported to the conscription hall. We can argue

:07:25. > :07:30.about the conduct of the war, but never let us down play the sacrifice

:07:31. > :07:38.of the men who went to war and laid down their lives. When a person

:07:39. > :07:44.loses their life in the service of their country, in a vast battle, in

:07:45. > :07:51.a global war such as the one we are talking about in is in debate, or

:07:52. > :07:57.whether one person loses their life individually without record or

:07:58. > :08:03.attention paid, such sacrifice is most worthy of remembrance. This is

:08:04. > :08:08.partly the inspiration behind the unknown warrior, who rests

:08:09. > :08:15.anonymously in the place of highest honour in our nation. And while the

:08:16. > :08:20.war memorials, the remembrance services, the cemeteries and debates

:08:21. > :08:24.like these are of vital and an essential reminder of that

:08:25. > :08:29.sacrifice, the true honour and respect we must give to their memory

:08:30. > :08:36.is the kind of country and the kind of world we are building. The

:08:37. > :08:41.approach we take towards one another, the way we work together as

:08:42. > :08:49.a country within our borders and across borders. Must always honour

:08:50. > :08:55.their sacrifice. Those who died would no doubt have held a wide

:08:56. > :09:00.variety of opinions and views, such as we do. They would have the same

:09:01. > :09:07.broad diversity of opinion that the population of the country had at

:09:08. > :09:13.that time. Socialists, liberals and Conservatives all fought and died

:09:14. > :09:19.together. They would have had their differences and disagreements, as I

:09:20. > :09:25.said, just as indeed we do, but madam Deputy Speaker, demonstrating

:09:26. > :09:30.courtesy and respect to those whose opinions and beliefs differ from

:09:31. > :09:37.ourselves is one vital aspect to the way we honour the sacrifice of the

:09:38. > :09:43.fallen. As is enlisting ousts in the pursuit of peace and justice for all

:09:44. > :09:50.and the advancement of the civil society and democracy that I believe

:09:51. > :09:57.we all believe in. These aims are indeed a fit and proper memorial

:09:58. > :10:04.worthy to the memory of the sacrifice of so many souls. Just

:10:05. > :10:09.before I call the next speaker is, may I thank the last two speakers,

:10:10. > :10:13.the honourable gentleman made the excellent maiden speech from Glasgow

:10:14. > :10:17.North East and the gentleman from Stirling, what they have said about

:10:18. > :10:22.the Highland light infantry, because my grandfather served with them. And

:10:23. > :10:29.he was injured at Passchendaele. I'm not able to make a tribute from the

:10:30. > :10:38.chair, so I thank these honourable gentlemen for doing it for me. Liz

:10:39. > :10:43.McInness. It is a pleasure to make a short contribution to this important

:10:44. > :10:47.debate and to follow so many interesting, thoughtful and very

:10:48. > :10:53.informative speeches and it is a particular pleasure to listen to two

:10:54. > :10:58.wonderful maiden speeches this afternoon from my honourable friend

:10:59. > :11:03.the member for Bedford, who talked about making his life in that place,

:11:04. > :11:10.having moved here from Kashmir and also my honourable friend the member

:11:11. > :11:17.for Glasgow North East and I wish him well at the dispatch debut next

:11:18. > :11:24.week. I just would like to talk about how we are celebrating,

:11:25. > :11:29.commemorating the battle of Passchendaele in my constituency of

:11:30. > :11:35.Haywood and Middleton, we like many other towns and cities will be

:11:36. > :11:39.commemorating that battle on July 30th and we will meet as part of

:11:40. > :11:45.programme of World War one commemorative events. And I would

:11:46. > :11:48.like here to pay tribute to rch dale council for the -- Rochdale council

:11:49. > :11:56.for the work they have done and the commitment they have shown in

:11:57. > :11:59.organising these events, which have been well attended and they have

:12:00. > :12:04.been observed with huge respect for those who gave their lives for our

:12:05. > :12:13.country and those who fought and survived and for all their families

:12:14. > :12:24.and I would like to give a special intention to councillor Alan McArty

:12:25. > :12:28.for his work in this report and as the chair of Haywood township. The

:12:29. > :12:32.councillors after consultation with the veterans, decided that

:12:33. > :12:37.commemorations of the World War one centenary should not be in

:12:38. > :12:43.celebration, but rather in solemn reflection and remembrance of all

:12:44. > :12:49.those who have died and have served in our armed forces since the start

:12:50. > :12:54.of the great war. It is important to remember that almost everyone in the

:12:55. > :12:59.UK had an ancestor directly affected by the First World War and that

:13:00. > :13:08.nearly one million men and women gave their lives in service. My

:13:09. > :13:14.constituent Lynne Coxal, whose second cousin William died in the

:13:15. > :13:17.First World War will be among the many attending the memorial service

:13:18. > :13:25.at Ypres to remember their sacrifice. And Lynne has donated

:13:26. > :13:33.William's pocket watch and other artefacts to the Passchendaele

:13:34. > :13:38.museum in his memory. The Haywood war memorial has its own special

:13:39. > :13:44.link to the battle of Passchendaele. The war memorial was unveiled in

:13:45. > :13:52.1925, a statue representing peace stands in front of Cenotaph with

:13:53. > :14:01.bowed head and bearing a laurel leaf remitting victory -- representing

:14:02. > :14:11.victory. The statue was made by Walter Marsden, an English artist.

:14:12. > :14:17.He was born in 1882. In 1902 he was an apprentice at the brick and tile

:14:18. > :14:26.company, where the owners reck Northern Islesed -- recognised his

:14:27. > :14:32.talent and encouraged him to study at the Manchester College of Art and

:14:33. > :14:38.he in 1911 he gave his occupation as a clay modeller. He himself saw

:14:39. > :14:44.active service in the First World War, serving as an officer in the

:14:45. > :14:48.loyal North Lancashire regiment. He himself fought in the third battle

:14:49. > :14:53.of Ypres, the battle of Passchendaele, for which he was

:14:54. > :14:58.awarded the Military Cross. He was later taken prisoner in France and

:14:59. > :15:03.sent to a prisoner of war camp. After the war, he continued his

:15:04. > :15:08.studies and he attended the Royal College of Art and later worked on

:15:09. > :15:16.many war memorials, many of which are in Lancashire as well as the

:15:17. > :15:24.memorial in Haywood, he made them in Church, Bolton, in Bury and at St

:15:25. > :15:31.Ann's on Sea. And his sculptures reflects his experience of active

:15:32. > :15:37.service. The memorial at St Ann's on Sea depicts walking wounded

:15:38. > :15:43.returning, blinded by gas. A gaunt, exhausted helmetless soldier is

:15:44. > :15:50.seated at its base. And Walter Marsden had wanted he said to

:15:51. > :15:54.capture, the constant nervous rain of trench warfare and the ever

:15:55. > :16:02.present feeling of danger that was the cause of so much mental agony.

:16:03. > :16:08.I'd like to pay tribute to the honourable member for back in

:16:09. > :16:12.Hamburg is acting he gave us the ick honest experience of that by sharing

:16:13. > :16:16.his story. He also detected a husband going off to war, his wife

:16:17. > :16:21.clutching at him with a small, sad child looking up helplessly. His

:16:22. > :16:26.memorials tread a delicate line between portraying the human cost of

:16:27. > :16:33.war whilst also paying proper tribute to bravery and sacrifice.

:16:34. > :16:38.The War memorial in Heywood is inscribed "To the men of Heywood who

:16:39. > :16:44.gave their lives for us during the Great War 1914-1918." And it is

:16:45. > :16:51.commemorated by name the 300 men who died in service. And I'd like to

:16:52. > :16:55.finish by quoting the words on the Walter Marsden War Memorial in his

:16:56. > :17:01.hometown of church, Lancashire. Which I think is a fitting point on

:17:02. > :17:07.which to end. His memorial is inscribed, let those who come after

:17:08. > :17:17.siege to it that their names be not forgotten. Thank you. To make is

:17:18. > :17:20.maiden speech, Ben Lake. Thank you for affording me the opportunity to

:17:21. > :17:26.make my maiden speech this afternoon. It is a pleasure to

:17:27. > :17:29.follow the honourable lady and in particular the honourable members

:17:30. > :17:34.for Glasgow North East and Bedford who both made excellent maiden

:17:35. > :17:37.speeches. Indeed, they said an exacting standard with their

:17:38. > :17:42.speeches. They spoke from the heart and I have no doubt that they will

:17:43. > :17:46.be a credit to their party, their constituencies and this House. I

:17:47. > :17:49.welcome the opportunity to remember the third bottle of Ypres in this

:17:50. > :17:55.House and to commemorate the First World War. As the years go by, it

:17:56. > :17:57.becomes increasingly important that we remember the conflict and

:17:58. > :18:04.especially the sacrifice of all those who lost their lives. We must

:18:05. > :18:09.ensure that we learn the lessons of the past and strive to never again

:18:10. > :18:14.subject people to such suffering and horror. Whilst visiting one of the

:18:15. > :18:20.many Commonwealth War cemeteries that pepper the Belgian countryside,

:18:21. > :18:23.it was heartbreaking to stumble across seemingly never ending rows

:18:24. > :18:27.of young lives cut short by the conflict. As has already been

:18:28. > :18:32.mentioned and referred to in this debate this afternoon, perhaps the

:18:33. > :18:37.most famous of these casualties from Wales was Ellis Humphrey Evans or

:18:38. > :18:43.Hedd Wyn. A son of the neighbouring constituency of my honourable

:18:44. > :18:48.friend, Hedd Wyn was a talented poet who was tragically killed before

:18:49. > :18:53.learning of his greatest literary trout. Just a few weeks before

:18:54. > :18:58.winning the most prestigious prize for forgery at the National

:18:59. > :19:01.Eisteddfod, the Bardic chair, he was killed at the Battle of

:19:02. > :19:05.Passchendaele at the young age of 13. -- prestigious pride for poetry.

:19:06. > :19:18.In his the sentinel of our nation's

:19:19. > :19:24.Heritage is perched on Penrice hill overlooking card Bay, a jewel of the

:19:25. > :19:28.Welsh coast which I now have the privilege of representing as the

:19:29. > :19:32.member for Ceredigion. I am truly humbled that the people of this

:19:33. > :19:37.great constituency have put their faith in me to speak for them in

:19:38. > :19:41.this place. I am looking forward to working hard on their behalf,

:19:42. > :19:47.serving them well and to strive to be worthy of this trust. My

:19:48. > :19:53.immediate predecessor, Mark Williams, was elected in 2005. He

:19:54. > :19:56.gained the respect of this House and the affection of the its truancy

:19:57. > :20:04.thanks to over 12 years of tireless service. Thousands of people from

:20:05. > :20:07.across the county have benefited from his advice and assistance and I

:20:08. > :20:14.hope to continue with this good work. I wish him and his family the

:20:15. > :20:21.very best for the future. Madam Deputy Speaker, Qera is my home.

:20:22. > :20:25.From the peak to the tranquillity of the TV estuary, its hills and

:20:26. > :20:33.valleys rarely failed to speak to its sons and daughters. It is no

:20:34. > :20:36.surprise that there should be a common affliction for people who

:20:37. > :20:42.find themselves absent from the county for too long. The second was

:20:43. > :20:46.sparsely populated county in Wales, Ceredigion is a rural area.

:20:47. > :20:49.Agriculture is the backbone of many of our communities. Farming is only

:20:50. > :20:52.supporting significant number of the workforce, but also sustains a range

:20:53. > :20:57.of social activities and events that are the lifeblood of the county.

:20:58. > :21:04.Ceredigion stretches from the banks of the dead and in the north to

:21:05. > :21:08.Cardigan Island in the south. It is bounded in the east by Mike Gibson

:21:09. > :21:19.tells of flank to the west by spectacular coastline. In fact, this

:21:20. > :21:23.year, lower flags proudly fly above the pristine beaches. Terrorism

:21:24. > :21:31.serves a vital economic role in the area which is unsurprising --

:21:32. > :21:34.Tourism serves a vital economic role in the area which is unsurprising

:21:35. > :21:43.since Ceredigion is widely accepted to be the most beautiful area of

:21:44. > :21:46.Wales. Its natural beauty is aided with the beautiful settlements,

:21:47. > :21:49.Georgia towns to historic mustering points of the drovers which

:21:50. > :21:54.continues to hold a thriving livestock market to today's.

:21:55. > :21:58.Although primarily a rule constituency, we boast a university

:21:59. > :22:04.towns. The University at Aberystwyth was established in 1872 thanks to

:22:05. > :22:10.the pennies of the people. Thousands of individual donations from across

:22:11. > :22:12.Wales. And Lampeter, which is home to the oldest degree awarding

:22:13. > :22:20.institution in Wales, founded in 1822. Now, we can also justifiably

:22:21. > :22:25.claim to be the capital of Welsh culture. In addition to hosting the

:22:26. > :22:29.National library and universities, Ceredigion has two thriving

:22:30. > :22:36.publishing houses and a recently restored castle at Cardigan which

:22:37. > :22:40.plays host to the first National Eisteddfod in 1126. The most famous

:22:41. > :22:45.of Welsh buyers, Davitt love William was born there and my home town of

:22:46. > :22:52.Lampeter is the birthplace of Welsh rugby with a first recorded match

:22:53. > :22:58.being played there in 1866. This is a rich mix of rural and urban

:22:59. > :23:03.defines Ceredigion, a tapestry of communities woven tightly by the

:23:04. > :23:07.emphatic lamb steak and the famous quick-witted humour of the people.

:23:08. > :23:14.-- the emphatic landscape. Although we speak to our strengths, we can be

:23:15. > :23:18.blind to the reality surrounding our departure from the European Union

:23:19. > :23:21.which is a challenge to the very fabric of our community. During my

:23:22. > :23:25.time in this place, I will strive to ensure that the best interest of the

:23:26. > :23:28.real economy and higher education are at the forefront of the minds of

:23:29. > :23:34.Government ministers as they conduct Brexit negotiations. Madam Deputy

:23:35. > :23:41.Speaker, we cannot allow ourselves to be forgotten. Decisions taken in

:23:42. > :23:45.London have long overlooked the real economy, public investment, too

:23:46. > :23:50.often bypassing the hinterland. For too long, amenities considered

:23:51. > :23:54.essential to the urban economy are dismissed as mere luxuries for more

:23:55. > :23:59.rural areas. Several of my predecessors in this House have

:24:00. > :24:02.pointed to the tragic irony that Ceredigion bestows upon its use an

:24:03. > :24:09.unrivalled education but offers them a poor array of job opportunities

:24:10. > :24:15.and affordable housing. For decades, our county has lost the potential

:24:16. > :24:18.and the vitality of her youth. Around half young people leave the

:24:19. > :24:24.county by the time they reach 25 years of age. Many of the young who

:24:25. > :24:28.have left our Welsh speakers, which has meant that in my lifetime, which

:24:29. > :24:31.I'm sure honourable and right Honourable members will agree is

:24:32. > :24:36.particularly long, the percentage of people living in Ceredigion that can

:24:37. > :24:43.speak the language has declined from around 60% to just 47%. This steady

:24:44. > :24:47.silent haemorrhage saps the lifeblood of nearly every town and

:24:48. > :24:50.village the length and breadth of the county. During my time in this

:24:51. > :24:54.place, I look forward to working with those across the political

:24:55. > :24:59.divide to refocus the attention of governments to the challenges facing

:25:00. > :25:06.rural areas and encouraging greater efforts at developing an economy.

:25:07. > :25:10.Madam Deputy Speaker, we are a proud people in Ceredigion and possess an

:25:11. > :25:15.historic resolve to buck a national trends. We are also of independent

:25:16. > :25:19.spirit. Over the years, we have seen fit to elect members to this House

:25:20. > :25:24.from across the political spectrum. I am particularly proud to follow in

:25:25. > :25:27.the footsteps of my distinguished Plaid Cymru predecessors Simon

:25:28. > :25:32.Thomas and cannot divest. They worked tirelessly for Ceredigion and

:25:33. > :25:37.were passionate about guarding rural areas from the negligence of a

:25:38. > :25:42.remote Government. 25 years after the election of the first Plaid

:25:43. > :25:46.Cymru MP for Ceredigion, I am committed to building on this

:25:47. > :25:49.legacy. It is the greatest of honours to have been entrusted by

:25:50. > :25:55.the people of our county during this critical time. As we come together

:25:56. > :26:00.today to remember the sacrifice of those who gave their lives during

:26:01. > :26:06.the First World War, we can all be inspired by the deep sense of duty.

:26:07. > :26:12.It is the sense of duty and service that I will seek to embrace. Madam

:26:13. > :26:16.Deputy Speaker, I would like to finish by quoting one of

:26:17. > :26:28.Ceredigion's greatest sons and a founding member of Plaid Cymru when

:26:29. > :26:31.he said,... Whether faced with opportunities or obstacles, the best

:26:32. > :26:40.interests of my county and my constituents will be at the very

:26:41. > :26:44.heart of all my endeavours. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Can I

:26:45. > :26:49.commend the honourable member for Ceredigion for an impressive first

:26:50. > :26:55.speech. I particularly thought it was appropriate for his mention of

:26:56. > :26:59.Ceredigion and his death at age 30 as Passchendaele and it reminds as

:27:00. > :27:04.all of what talent was lost, what futures were lost, what artistic

:27:05. > :27:11.flourishes couldn't have taken place in this country but for that first

:27:12. > :27:14.war. There is also pleased that he acknowledged his predecessor, Mark

:27:15. > :27:17.Williams, by saying he had affection throughout this House. He most

:27:18. > :27:22.certainly did. He was one of those members who had friends across the

:27:23. > :27:26.political spectrum and people who would support him just because he

:27:27. > :27:32.was Mark. And the political differences dissolved. I take

:27:33. > :27:37.exception a little bit to his suggestion that Ceredigion is the

:27:38. > :27:41.finest place in Wales to go on holiday a little bit. Porthcawl is

:27:42. > :27:46.obviously a great seaside town, but what I would say is that I hope his

:27:47. > :27:51.speech has inspired those who are listening to think of Wales as their

:27:52. > :27:58.holiday destinations because we certainly have so many beautiful

:27:59. > :28:02.places. And he must certainly keep a welcome in our hillsides, no matter

:28:03. > :28:09.in the north or the South. Madam Deputy Speaker, one thing is

:28:10. > :28:14.certain, there is not a family in the UK that is not over the coming

:28:15. > :28:22.months going to be remembering the First World War. And the members of

:28:23. > :28:30.their families who were lost. The future that were lost as a result of

:28:31. > :28:38.that war. I have a very tiny little pocket diary that my grandfather

:28:39. > :28:45.took with him to the front. And in it, he makes a few comments every

:28:46. > :28:49.day about what he saw. And I spent a lot of time actually tracking what

:28:50. > :28:59.he was talking about and looking at the experiences that he was just

:29:00. > :29:07.making a note of. He left for war on August 30, 1914 and he notes, we

:29:08. > :29:13.left Limerick by train for Queenstown, embarked on the S S

:29:14. > :29:22.Mascherano of steamers, Liverpool. He arrived in Belgium and that new

:29:23. > :29:28.idea of moving soldiers to the front quickly was in play. Off he went on

:29:29. > :29:33.a train journey. He spent many hours, indeed days, on that strain,

:29:34. > :29:36.moving into sidings as they tried to get all of the trains with all of

:29:37. > :29:49.the troops moved to the front very quickly. On August 20th, 1914, he

:29:50. > :29:56.finally arrived in a field. They were disembarked. They had no tents,

:29:57. > :30:01.nowhere to sleep. They had no blankets, they had nothing. They

:30:02. > :30:08.laid down in that field exhausted by their journeys which had taken place

:30:09. > :30:12.from the 30th-20th and slept. But before they got a chance to sleep,

:30:13. > :30:21.they were addressed by Sir John French who said, our cause is just,

:30:22. > :30:25.we are called upon to fight beside our gallant allies in France and

:30:26. > :30:32.Belgium in the war of arrogance, but to uphold our national honour,

:30:33. > :30:37.independence and freedom. We have violated no neutrality, nor have we

:30:38. > :30:41.been false to any treaties. We enter upon this conflict with the clearest

:30:42. > :30:48.conscience that we are fighting for right and honour. Having burned this

:30:49. > :30:51.trust in the registers of our cause, and pride in the glory of our

:30:52. > :30:57.military traditions and belief in the efficiencies of our army, we go

:30:58. > :31:03.forward together to do or die. We are still faced, Madam Deputy

:31:04. > :31:11.Speaker, with that dilemma. What do we do as a nation when others

:31:12. > :31:19.violate neutrality? And when they are false to the treaties that have

:31:20. > :31:22.been entered into? Do we then prove false to treaties that we have

:31:23. > :31:30.entered into, to come to the support and aid of others? That is the

:31:31. > :31:36.dilemma that this House faces every time we have a debate about whether

:31:37. > :31:40.we go to war. And it is, and in my time in this House I have taken part

:31:41. > :31:47.in a three debates where we have had to decide, do we commit our

:31:48. > :31:52.personnel? Do we take that decision? And each time, it has been that

:31:53. > :31:59.issue of neutrality, the treaty commitments that we have is that we

:32:00. > :32:00.listen to and we consider and it is the thing that helps make our

:32:01. > :32:17.decision. My grandfather's diary recounts days

:32:18. > :32:25.of heavy shell fire, near escapes from death, exhaustion and the

:32:26. > :32:36.retreat from Mons and Marne until he took part in the first battle of

:32:37. > :32:41.Ypres. In the first battle, the British Expeditionary Force lost

:32:42. > :32:49.thousands of men. The British regular army virtually ly

:32:50. > :32:59.disappeared. The German army lost 130,000 men. The French 50,000. The

:33:00. > :33:05.Belgians 32,000. Sometimes when I read the diary, I ask myself what

:33:06. > :33:12.have we learned and what do I need to learn? As hopefully soon to be

:33:13. > :33:18.again a member of the defence select committee. In the select committee

:33:19. > :33:22.we have many times looked at reports about equipment, it is one of the

:33:23. > :33:33.things that as a committee I believe is one of our major priorities. On

:33:34. > :33:38.October 17th, 1914, my grandfather notes, a very fine morning, all of

:33:39. > :33:43.my chums congratulated me on my birthday. We got a blanket served

:33:44. > :33:56.out to us. We have had nothing to cover us since we came here. Severe

:33:57. > :34:02.fighting all along the canal. From August to October no blanket.

:34:03. > :34:10.Nothing to cover them. Despite the battles that they had fought through

:34:11. > :34:14.and survived. There was hardly a man of the original force who possessed

:34:15. > :34:23.more than the clothing they stood up in and that was often woefully

:34:24. > :34:28.inadequate. It is no wonder the Defence Select Committee even today

:34:29. > :34:39.is concerned about equipment. Is concerned about logistics.

:34:40. > :34:44.Preparation and planning for war. On October 29th, 1914, my grandfather

:34:45. > :34:49.noted, terrific firing all day and night. The Indian troops came here

:34:50. > :35:03.to relieve us. They look a fine lot of men. Gurkhas, Sikhs and Punjabis.

:35:04. > :35:09.It reminds us that even then alliances and coalitions were the

:35:10. > :35:18.way that wars are fought. We rearly stabbed -- rarely stand alone. In

:35:19. > :35:22.that war, 90 thousand Indian soldiers and 50,000 labourers served

:35:23. > :35:28.in two infantry and cavalry divisions. On November 1st, 1914, he

:35:29. > :35:34.notes, it was a damp morning and we had to clean our saddles and

:35:35. > :35:41.harness, my grandfather was a signalman, and often rode out to

:35:42. > :35:47.make sure that communications between the trenches and the senior

:35:48. > :35:57.military command were clear. It was a quiet day, and it was the 23rd day

:35:58. > :36:03.of the first battle of Ypres. It Wurz also a time of great

:36:04. > :36:09.destruction and horror for the civilian population living in that

:36:10. > :36:19.area. We talked a great deal about the impact of the war on our

:36:20. > :36:23.personnel. But it was also a time of great horror for civilian

:36:24. > :36:30.populations who had no idea of where to flee to. For security. They had

:36:31. > :36:34.no idea where there was safety, where a bombardment wouldn't lead to

:36:35. > :36:41.death and destruction. Forced out of their homes. My town of Porthcawl

:36:42. > :36:47.took in many refugees from Belgium, as did many across the United

:36:48. > :36:55.Kingdom. It also is a lesson that today we still carry with us. The

:36:56. > :37:02.importance of refuge, the importance of offering support to refugees and

:37:03. > :37:06.support for civilians. Who more often than our military personnel

:37:07. > :37:18.are the ones who are slaughtered during warfare. One of the things

:37:19. > :37:24.that happened as a result of the First World War, was we had a

:37:25. > :37:33.recognition that we needed to take responsibility for how we dealt with

:37:34. > :37:40.war. Because in the second battle of Ypres, using poison gas for the

:37:41. > :37:54.first time, the Germans create alarm in the stricken British and French

:37:55. > :38:01.defenders. It also led us to look at later developing a law of armed

:38:02. > :38:08.conflict. It led us to look at international humanitarian law. And

:38:09. > :38:13.what was going to be acceptable and what was not going to be acceptable.

:38:14. > :38:22.And it is with horror that we still look at the use of gas in Syria,

:38:23. > :38:29.something we thought we had stopped and which everyone in this House, no

:38:30. > :38:33.matter what political party, roundly condemns and views with the horror

:38:34. > :38:46.that we view its first use back in 1915. We also read with horror the

:38:47. > :38:52.stories of the impact of that relentless pounding on the mental

:38:53. > :38:57.health of the people who fought and on the refugees who traipsed back

:38:58. > :39:03.and forth across the countryside, trying to find safety. I will tell

:39:04. > :39:07.you this much, I might not have been wounded in the body, but I was

:39:08. > :39:12.wounded in my mind. I don't know if you can imagine it, but obviously

:39:13. > :39:16.when the shell fire you get down to get cover, only an idiot wouldn't

:39:17. > :39:19.get down, you get down and you can't get your nails into the ground and

:39:20. > :39:23.you can't get your head under the ground and you can't go any further.

:39:24. > :39:28.You're on the the ground and your nails are dug in the ground and the

:39:29. > :39:34.shells are bursting around you and they're not just bits of metal,

:39:35. > :39:40.they're hot metal and guns going and pandemonium, how do you get out of

:39:41. > :39:49.this unscathed in it is a miracle if there is such a thing as a miracle.

:39:50. > :39:54.Was was written by sergeant Bill Bill Hay. It is a graphic

:39:55. > :40:06.description of what it must have been like to be in that hell. Sunday

:40:07. > :40:12.May 2nd, 1915, my grandfather noted it was a dull day and we rested and

:40:13. > :40:17.a lot of troops wept past suffering from the gas A terrific bombardment

:40:18. > :40:22.commenced and the noise was terrible. This is the heaviest

:40:23. > :40:27.bombardment I have heard. I had to go somewhere at 9 o'clock, it was

:40:28. > :40:32.dark and shells were bursting over my Med. It was a terrible experience

:40:33. > :40:40.in the black darkness. The roads are full of our chaps suffering from gas

:40:41. > :40:47.poisoning. The diary ends on Wednesday July 14th, 1915. Went to

:40:48. > :40:52.lay a line to the head quarters and finished at dinner time. There was

:40:53. > :41:04.heavy bombardment last night, in front of trenches between the area.

:41:05. > :41:11.I left for England, arriving at Boulogne at 9. That is the last we

:41:12. > :41:24.know of my grandfather on his day-to-day experiences. He died at

:41:25. > :41:35.the third battle of Ypres. I know the driver Albert Ironside, 1875,

:41:36. > :41:43.died on 22nd July in 197. -- 197. He is -- 1917. He buried in Belgium. In

:41:44. > :41:50.the area of the dressing stations were named by the troops with comic

:41:51. > :41:56.names. They cemeteries continue their names. We don't know when he

:41:57. > :42:04.was injured or how he died. We were told he was poise sonned by gas.

:42:05. > :42:11.From the 10th July 1917, mustard gas was used every night against the

:42:12. > :42:19.British positions. The Glamorgan journal has an article which has

:42:20. > :42:22.been over the whole period run amazing exhibitions about the First

:42:23. > :42:27.World War and explaining to people the local contacts and the local

:42:28. > :42:34.people, the service that they gave and the impact on the town. In the

:42:35. > :42:38.article it is suggested that German tactics had changed and allowed the

:42:39. > :42:44.British to cover an increasing amount of game in the hope they

:42:45. > :42:48.would lose momentum. Forward signalling parties would become

:42:49. > :42:54.involved in the fight and Albert may have been trapped and died fighting.

:42:55. > :42:59.So what are the lessons we learn? What are the knowledge one man's

:43:00. > :43:04.experience can give us? Never again should we send people to war without

:43:05. > :43:10.full preparation and the kit and the equipment that they need. We have

:43:11. > :43:14.done that recently. Member of this House did not want to send anyone

:43:15. > :43:19.into Afghanistan with the wrong equipment. But we did. It is

:43:20. > :43:25.something that we must always, always question before we make the

:43:26. > :43:33.decision. We have learned there are few short wars. And all wars have

:43:34. > :43:39.long-term consequences. Those who came back and their families and

:43:40. > :43:46.their communities had to live with their experiences. And that war

:43:47. > :43:54.still resonates here with us, with their families even today.

:43:55. > :43:57.Accountability of generals has increased, the Defence Select

:43:58. > :44:03.Committee, this House, demands to know why mistakes were made, why

:44:04. > :44:09.things happened. I think we are better at doing that. I think it is

:44:10. > :44:22.a most honourable role that we play here. All working men and married

:44:23. > :44:28.women achieved the vote. As a government frightened that those men

:44:29. > :44:31.returning from the horrors, armed and experienced, would revolt

:44:32. > :44:36.against a government that didn't give them the vote. They had the

:44:37. > :44:45.vote, but they still faced the horrors of the great depression. If

:44:46. > :44:51.I may end on a positive note, in the first election following the

:44:52. > :44:55.conflict Labour tripled its vote and five years later, formed a

:44:56. > :45:06.Government for the first time. Thank you. Kevin Brown. With the leave of

:45:07. > :45:11.the house I will reply on behalf of the opposition. We have had I think

:45:12. > :45:17.an excellent debate with some extremely good contributions across

:45:18. > :45:22.the House. We had the member for Broadland who gave us a

:45:23. > :45:26.knowledgeable and thoughtful contribution that enlightened us. A

:45:27. > :45:31.contribution from the honourable gentleman resuming his place on

:45:32. > :45:37.behalf of the SNP for Glasgow South who spoke e-Quently on behalf of his

:45:38. > :45:43.party. We should thank the member for South West Wiltshire for all

:45:44. > :45:46.that he has done to help organise the commemorations with regard to

:45:47. > :45:51.the First World War and also he posed I think the important

:45:52. > :45:54.question, would he pay the price if we knew it in advance? It is

:45:55. > :46:00.question I think we can never know the answer to for obvious reasons,

:46:01. > :46:03.but one we should always consider when these kind of decisions are

:46:04. > :46:12.before us. My honourable friend who is not in his place, the member for

:46:13. > :46:15.Newport West, told us of his own father's participation in the

:46:16. > :46:20.battles at Passchendaele and rightly I think reminded the House that

:46:21. > :46:25.although we say we must learn lessons, often we don't learn from

:46:26. > :46:29.these conflicts and he rightly referred to the famous will Fred

:46:30. > :46:39.Owen poem, in his remarks. I think we were all moved hugely by

:46:40. > :46:44.the contrary should form the Honourable member from backing them.

:46:45. > :46:47.He had the House transfixed with his own compelling account of the

:46:48. > :46:51.reality of being in conflict and we thank him for his service to our

:46:52. > :46:56.country as well as his contribution today. Then we were fortunate to

:46:57. > :46:59.have some wonderful maiden speeches during the course of the debate and

:47:00. > :47:04.I want to pay tribute to the Honourable member for Bedford for

:47:05. > :47:10.his maiden speech. Eat holders of his personal journey from Kashmir to

:47:11. > :47:13.Bedford and he also paid quite tribute to his predecessor who is

:47:14. > :47:16.someone I knew from my days in university and was a very fine

:47:17. > :47:20.member of this House and I was pleased that he did that and he is

:47:21. > :47:24.obviously very proud of his constituency and I think his

:47:25. > :47:30.constituents have every right to be proud of him to for his contribution

:47:31. > :47:35.to the debate today. The Honourable member for Elmet and Rothwell who I

:47:36. > :47:38.know is starring later in our proceedings again today, I think he

:47:39. > :47:42.also called as a very moving personal story from his own family

:47:43. > :47:45.and reminded us of the consequences of the aftermath of war which I

:47:46. > :47:48.think we should all remember and paid tribute to his own father who

:47:49. > :47:57.was watching our proceedings today. The Honourable member for diver

:47:58. > :48:01.Merioneth spoke about the Welsh poet who was killed at the Battle of

:48:02. > :48:06.Passchendaele and then we have a typically knowledgeable contribution

:48:07. > :48:11.from the Honourable member for New Forest East, the defence committee

:48:12. > :48:16.chair, who he was a very detailed and vivid portrayal of the futility

:48:17. > :48:22.and horror of the battle which certainly brought great wisdom and

:48:23. > :48:27.knowledge to our proceedings. Can I congratulate also the Honourable

:48:28. > :48:32.member for Glasgow North East on his excellent maiden speech. I think it

:48:33. > :48:36.is customary to express the view when a member makes a maiden speech

:48:37. > :48:41.that that's member has a bright future possibly at the dispatch box.

:48:42. > :48:45.It took me six years to get to the dispatch box, Madam Deputy Speaker.

:48:46. > :48:48.He has rather beaten that records as he told us he will be making his

:48:49. > :48:54.debut at the dispatch box just next week I think and we wish him well in

:48:55. > :49:01.that role. I'm sure he will do very well indeed in that role and he also

:49:02. > :49:05.mentions, Madam Deputy Speaker, Michael Martin, the previous

:49:06. > :49:11.speaker. When I was a young new MP, I had the temerity to ask a question

:49:12. > :49:16.in this House without wearing a tie, Madam Deputy Speaker, in 2002 and I

:49:17. > :49:22.was quite rightly admonished by the Speaker at that time. But times have

:49:23. > :49:25.changed, as we know, but I have never quite got over that so I am

:49:26. > :49:31.still wearing my tie despite the new dispensation that there still is in

:49:32. > :49:39.the House. The Honourable member, a new member for Stirling, who did not

:49:40. > :49:45.make a maiden speech otherwise altered was, told us personally that

:49:46. > :49:50.he visited the Menin Gate and experience of the ceremony there and

:49:51. > :49:53.said that all schoolchildren to do that and we would agree with that.

:49:54. > :49:57.He is referred to the war memorials in his own constituency and quite

:49:58. > :50:01.rightly reminded us of the cognition of the Commonwealth troops in the

:50:02. > :50:05.First World War, including those from India and we should remember

:50:06. > :50:09.there were 1.3 million people volunteered for the British Indian

:50:10. > :50:12.Army during the First World War. 70,000 of them lost their lives

:50:13. > :50:17.during that war and he was quite right to remind the House of that

:50:18. > :50:19.fact. My honourable friend the member for Heywood and Middleton

:50:20. > :50:22.that holders of the events being organised in her constituency to

:50:23. > :50:27.commemorate Passchendaele and told us the fascinating story of Walter

:50:28. > :50:32.Marsden who won the military Cross as the battle and who also sculpted

:50:33. > :50:35.the figure of peace on the war memorial in her own constituency and

:50:36. > :50:41.it was a pleasure to hear the fine maiden speech from the new member

:50:42. > :50:45.for Ceredigion who, I think, made it very appropriate tribute also to his

:50:46. > :50:49.predecessor, Mark Williams, who was genuinely liked across the House by

:50:50. > :50:55.different parties. He introduced yet another Welsh word into the debate

:50:56. > :50:58.during his speech which, Madam Deputy Speaker, means a deep longing

:50:59. > :51:01.for home. He clearly loves his constituency. He described as the

:51:02. > :51:06.most beautiful in Wales. I should remind him that it is in fact the

:51:07. > :51:11.murder capital of Wales because for those of us who occasionally watch

:51:12. > :51:16.Hinterland, the television series which is made in his constituency,

:51:17. > :51:19.although he has invited us all to visit it, we are all a bit nervous

:51:20. > :51:24.because the murder rate seems particularly high. Almost as high as

:51:25. > :51:27.Oxford in Inspector Morse on the other channel. But he made his

:51:28. > :51:30.constituency sounds like the Garden of Eden and I hope Honourable

:51:31. > :51:36.members, I'm not suggesting that original sin was invented here, but

:51:37. > :51:39.we should visit. It is a very, very peaceful poisoning is a very bright

:51:40. > :51:44.future in this place so long as he never achieved his ambition of Wales

:51:45. > :51:47.leaving the United Kingdom in which case I think you will have to give

:51:48. > :51:51.up his seat in this place and this House would be poorer if that were

:51:52. > :51:55.ever to happen. Can I also congratulate my honourable friend

:51:56. > :52:00.the mentor for Bridgend who told us that very poignant story of the

:52:01. > :52:04.diary of her grandfather from the front and how will she uses its

:52:05. > :52:09.contents as inspiration for the fine work she does on the Defence Select

:52:10. > :52:14.Committee in this House and we were all, I think, moved immensely by

:52:15. > :52:19.what she told us. It falls to me really to pay tribute to all those

:52:20. > :52:23.who gave their lives, as I did at the beginning and is the minister

:52:24. > :52:26.did, in the First World War and particularly in the Battle of

:52:27. > :52:29.Passchendaele which we are discussing today and for those who

:52:30. > :52:34.still give service to us in our Armed Forces. I think today's debate

:52:35. > :52:38.is a hugely appropriate tribute to them. The greatest tribute, as

:52:39. > :52:43.others have said, I think that we can all give is to do all we can to

:52:44. > :52:52.promote peace and let us all pledged today to do just that. Mr John

:52:53. > :52:57.Glenn. With the leave of the House, I would like to respond also to what

:52:58. > :53:02.has been I think an excellent debate which I hope that this House in good

:53:03. > :53:07.standing for those that are watching today. We have had 13 backbench

:53:08. > :53:12.contributions and three excellent maiden speeches and I won't repeat

:53:13. > :53:15.excellent words of the Honourable gentleman who speaks for the front

:53:16. > :53:21.bench in going through all of them, but I would just like to, I think,

:53:22. > :53:28.mention the three maiden speeches, so firstly the Honourable member for

:53:29. > :53:32.Bedford who would just like to pay tribute to his words today and the

:53:33. > :53:39.way that he spoke about his predecessor does him great credit. I

:53:40. > :53:42.think the whole house would be very aware of his commitment to Bedford

:53:43. > :53:53.and we wish him well in his future in the House. Then we come to the

:53:54. > :53:58.member for Glasgow North East. I don't want to sound too much about

:53:59. > :54:02.quaking knees and trembling at the dispatch box, but it took me seven

:54:03. > :54:06.years to get here and I'm very pleased for him that it is only

:54:07. > :54:12.going to take him a few weeks. But I wish him well in his career in the

:54:13. > :54:18.House. And then thirdly I was like to turn to the young member for

:54:19. > :54:25.Ceredigion. I would like to applaud him for his composed and measured

:54:26. > :54:31.contribution for his first time in the House. He described his

:54:32. > :54:35.constituency very fully, but also as the capital of Welsh culture. I

:54:36. > :54:39.think that'll be a contested title from what I've heard from other

:54:40. > :54:44.contributions today. But I wish him well in the House too. So, I'm very

:54:45. > :54:49.grateful for all the contrary should we have had and I will refer to a

:54:50. > :54:56.few of my honourable friends as I make a few reflections. As we've

:54:57. > :54:58.heard, this battle, the Battle of Passchendaele, which touts

:54:59. > :55:07.communities across Britain and Ireland and across the world was a

:55:08. > :55:11.very, very grim event. A series of events. And it is right that we take

:55:12. > :55:16.this opportunity to reflect on the bravery, insurance, service and

:55:17. > :55:18.sacrifice of those involved in particularly remember that

:55:19. > :55:25.conditions in casualties were horrific for soldiers on both sides

:55:26. > :55:29.of the line. In the spirit of the personal reflections that I think so

:55:30. > :55:33.many colleagues from across the House have shared, I would like to

:55:34. > :55:40.read a first-hand account of Passchendaele given to me by a

:55:41. > :55:44.constituent of mine who is a distinguished battle tours veteran.

:55:45. > :55:53.And I would just like to read this out. While I and others were taking

:55:54. > :55:59.supplies into the line at Ypres, we waded through mud all the way. It

:56:00. > :56:06.was very necessary to keep following the leader strictly in line, for one

:56:07. > :56:10.false step to the right or left sometimes meant plunging into

:56:11. > :56:13.dangerous and deep mud pools. One of our men was unfortunate enough to

:56:14. > :56:19.step out of line and fall into one of these models. Knowing from past

:56:20. > :56:23.experience that quick action was needed if we were to save him from

:56:24. > :56:29.quickly sinking, we got hold of his arms and try to pull him out. This

:56:30. > :56:34.did not produce much result and we had to be careful ourselves not to

:56:35. > :56:40.slip in with him. We finally procured a rope and managed to rip

:56:41. > :56:44.it securely under his armpits. He was now gradually sinking until the

:56:45. > :56:51.mud and water reached almost to his shoulders. We tugged at that rope

:56:52. > :56:58.with the strength of desperation in an effort to save him. But it was

:56:59. > :57:03.useless. He was fast in the mud and beyond

:57:04. > :57:10.human aid. Reluctantly, the party had to leave him to his fate and

:57:11. > :57:16.that fate was gradually sinking inch by inch and finally dying

:57:17. > :57:21.ossification. -- of suffocation. The neat personnel now knew he was

:57:22. > :57:26.beyond all aid and begged me to shoot him rather than leave him to

:57:27. > :57:31.die a miserable death by suffocation. I did not want to do

:57:32. > :57:38.this, but thinking of the agonies he would injure, if I left him to this

:57:39. > :57:44.horrible death, I decided a quick death would be a merciful ending. I

:57:45. > :57:50.am not afraid to say therefore that I shot this man at his own most

:57:51. > :57:59.urgent request, thus releasing him from a far more agonising end. Madam

:58:00. > :58:05.Deputy Speaker, this is the reality of the human misery that we are

:58:06. > :58:12.commemorating today. It is a human misery that my honourable and

:58:13. > :58:19.gallant friend, the member for Beckenham spoke of with such

:58:20. > :58:25.personal authority when he said war is disgusting and horrid. But it is

:58:26. > :58:32.important that we, as a nation, commemorate what happened. And I

:58:33. > :58:38.would like to remind the House that these events on the 30th and 31st of

:58:39. > :58:44.July, when they are done, we will focus to the centenary of the

:58:45. > :58:49.Armistice in November 20 18. And I would urge Honourable members from

:58:50. > :58:52.across the House to consider the resources available to ensure local

:58:53. > :58:58.constituencies engage in the commemoratives programme. There are

:58:59. > :59:03.many Heritage lottery funding projects taking place up and down

:59:04. > :59:09.the country where local communities are exploring and learning about

:59:10. > :59:14.their First World War heritage. And since April 2010, the Heritage

:59:15. > :59:23.lottery fund has awarded over ?86 million to more than 1700 project

:59:24. > :59:30.across the UK to mark the centenary. 7 million people have engaged in

:59:31. > :59:35.First World War heritage and as the Honourable member for Cardiff West

:59:36. > :59:40.said, poetry, songs and arts keep us going. He is so right. Secondary

:59:41. > :59:45.school students continue to join the battlefield tours with nearly 1500

:59:46. > :59:48.schools taking part so far and the Government was to ensure a lasting

:59:49. > :59:55.legacy of First World War and remembrance and education. After

:59:56. > :59:59.all, we only to those who briefly fought 100 years ago on our behalf.

:00:00. > :00:04.So whether attending events in Belgium or within the UK or watching

:00:05. > :00:10.on television, we will remember all those affected by this dreadful

:00:11. > :00:17.battle 100 years ago and ensure that they shall never be forgotten. It is

:00:18. > :00:19.right that this House remembers all those who made the ultimate

:00:20. > :00:29.sacrifice in service of their country. The question is that this

:00:30. > :00:40.House has considered commemoration of Passchendaele, the third Battle

:00:41. > :00:47.of Ypres. As many of opinions say I. IMac. I am not going to put the

:00:48. > :00:56.question for no. The ayes have it, the ayes have it. The question is

:00:57. > :01:08.that this House doing now adjourn. Mr Alec Schalk Brits. Thank you,

:01:09. > :01:17.Madam Deputy Speaker. Madam Deputy Speaker, on the 9th of August 2013,

:01:18. > :01:23.a terrible tragic and preventable accident took place on a swivel

:01:24. > :01:26.and's farm in my constituency and 11-year-olds have a Whitlam died

:01:27. > :01:27.from injuries he sustained after being struck by a reversing farm

:01:28. > :01:38.vehicle. But the Crown Prosecution Service

:01:39. > :01:44.did not bring a prosecution as the accident was deemed to have occurred

:01:45. > :01:49.on private and not public land. Harry and his mum Pamela actually

:01:50. > :01:53.live in my honourable friend's constituency, she very much regrets

:01:54. > :02:02.she is not able to be here, but she is on maternity leave. Pamela worked

:02:03. > :02:12.in the cafe kitchen at this working farm that like many have

:02:13. > :02:17.diversified. Areas are designated as private and public, but the boundary

:02:18. > :02:21.was not clearly defined. The police investigation was clear as to the

:02:22. > :02:27.lack of separation between public and private areas. They reported

:02:28. > :02:33.that, upon approaching the scene from Swithin's lane there was no

:02:34. > :02:38.signage or other barrier that would restrict public access or inform a

:02:39. > :02:49.person entering they're in a nonpublic area of the farm. Harry

:02:50. > :02:55.was a regular visitor to the farm, especially in the holidays. He

:02:56. > :03:00.assisted in the farm work. He was a familiar face and well known to the

:03:01. > :03:04.farm staff and there was another young boy who helped in the same

:03:05. > :03:08.way. On the morning of the accident, Harry arrived first thing at the

:03:09. > :03:12.farm with his mum. He was keen to meet up with his friend and lend a

:03:13. > :03:17.hand with building a new wall that was going to house some Meerkats. He

:03:18. > :03:23.went off for a short while, returning to the cafe, accompanied

:03:24. > :03:28.by one of his farm hand friends and ordered breakfast from him mum.

:03:29. > :03:35.Approximately 15 minutes later accident occurred. Harry was in the

:03:36. > :03:42.farm yard when he was hit by a slurry trailer being reversed by a

:03:43. > :03:49.trobgtor. -- tractor. He was badly crushed. The air ambulance flew him

:03:50. > :03:53.to Leeds General Infirmary, but Harry died from his injuries. The

:03:54. > :03:56.investigation revealed that Harry had been walking across the back of

:03:57. > :04:02.the slurry trailer from right to left when he was struck. He had

:04:03. > :04:12.gained access to to this working area by a route that was not in I --

:04:13. > :04:20.in any way cordoned off. There is no evidence that Harry was running. And

:04:21. > :04:25.evidence presented by PC Martin Ward confirmed the view from the cab was

:04:26. > :04:29.good and that Harry was there to be seen. He concluded that Harry would

:04:30. > :04:40.have been in the sight of the driver for quite a long time. And that it

:04:41. > :04:44.was a very low impact speed. Due to the anomaly in the law that this

:04:45. > :04:50.debate seeks to address, the driver, Mr Gary Green, despite being

:04:51. > :04:55.overdouble the drink drive Liverpool was only prosecuted -- drink drive

:04:56. > :05:00.limit was only prosecuted under the health and safety at work act and

:05:01. > :05:06.the family had to 17 months before the Health and Safety Executive

:05:07. > :05:13.should prosecute for for failing to ensure the safe of people. This

:05:14. > :05:20.makes it sound like it was nothing more than a tragic accident. The

:05:21. > :05:26.truth is Gary Green was drunk and having drunk such a huge quantity of

:05:27. > :05:30.alcohol, he knowingly and willingly took control of heavy machinery and

:05:31. > :05:40.killed a young boy when all investigations show that if he had

:05:41. > :05:48.been alert he would have stopped his vehicle as Harry was in plain sight.

:05:49. > :05:53.Due this is to being an health and safety prosecution he was sentenced

:05:54. > :05:59.to six months imprisonment. If he had been charged with causing death

:06:00. > :06:11.by careless driving, the maximum would have been 14 years

:06:12. > :06:14.imprisonment and there is scope for unlimited fine and the Crown

:06:15. > :06:20.Prosecution Service advise it is probably that had Green been

:06:21. > :06:24.prosecuted under the road traffic act he would probably have received

:06:25. > :06:28.a sentence of around six years. The disparity between the sentencing of