9 November 2007
West Worcestershire Conservatives enjoyed a visit from Shadow Defence Minister, Dr. Liam Fox last week.

Dr. Fox made a speech to local members at the Association Annual Dinner on November 3rd at Abberley Hall School.

Speaking on a wide range of topics, Dr. Fox made the following key points about defence issues:

"We must remind people that the first duty of the government is defence of the realm. While the media sometimes seems to focus on Big Brother and what footballers' wives are wearing, we need to remember that we face many and varied threats to our security. The spread of nuclear weapons, the danger of terrorist fundamentalism and the threat to our energy security all demonstrate that we need Armed Forces that are big enough to face these challenges.

Yet in his conference speech, Gordon Brown dedicated only six lines in a speech of 67 minutes to the armed forces. This year we will spend only 2.3% of our national income on our Armed Forces, the lowest share since the 1930s."

Dr. Fox was introduced by Sir Michael Spicer MP.