Armed Forces Bill

I do not want to be trapped into trying to define the point at which an action is legal or illegal, or the tariff system that should follow a refusal to serve in specific circumstances. I believe that we must step back and provide that it is wrong to have a carte blanche presumption that the upper limit of the sentencing range should be life imprisonment. Those who are killed in modern wars are primarily not other soldiers. The second world war was probably the turning point in that regard. In modern wars, there is much more collateral damage—that is the modern phrase; it really means civilian casualties—than killing of combatants. It is therefore perfectly legitimate that our serving personnel should have a right and a duty to exercise their judgment about the point at which the threshold is crossed. That does not meant that they should walk away from their decisions with no consequences, but we need to define different parameters. I would like to tell the Committee about the parameters that exist elsewhere. In Austria, the maximum sentence for desertion is one year; in practice, it is usually between two and six months. In France, desertion in peacetime is punishable by up to three years imprisonment—