Today (21 September) the Liberal Democrat Conference 2009 at Bournemouth will be debating a policy motion about reaffirming the military covenant. The motion will be moved by Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary Nick Harvey MP.

• Text of the motion: Reaffirming the Military Covenant

Author Patrick Bishop, writing in The Daily Telegraph, argues that apart from the debate about equipment, the defence review is about people – the remarkable men and women who make up the three Services, with whom the public has a warm but ambivalent relationship.

A Conservative Shadow Minister asked the Government if it will review the prohibition on insulin-dependent diabetics joining the armed forces. The Minister's reply indicated that there were no plans to review the policy whereby the services do not recruit or commission personnel with existing medical conditions which require regular access to medication, such as diabetes. The single services do, however manage individuals who develop diabetes during their service careers "according to their specific operational requirements" and "each case will be considered on an individual basis":

There may well be questions to be considered in light of the ruling which was issued by the Appeal Court on 18 May 2009: for example, to what extent there are implications for decisions about the equipping and management of bases, or whether in fact the ruling does not alter the existing military requirement to consider force protection.

BAFF Executive Chairman Douglas Young was concerned that rather than the ruling itself, it was "ill-informed" criticism of the ruling which could lead to "dangerous confusion" amongst junior commanders required to make split-second decisions.

(19 May 2009) Even before the decision in Secretary of State v R (Smith) had been issued by the Court of Appeal, commentators were explaining how "damaging" it would be to apply human rights "on the battlefield" or "in the heat of battle". This line appealed to some of the media:

16 Sep 2010 - 100 days to go to Christmas Day! The Ministry of Defence is urging people not to send unsolicited gifts and packages in the pre-Christmas period, becauses it increases pressure on the in-theatre postal system and can delay mail from family and friends.

Peter Oborne writes in The Daily Mail (20 March 2010) that:

In fact, only a relatively small percentage of the Armed Forces voted in the 2005 General Election.

Now, with a General Election barely seven weeks away, the same thing seems likely to happen again.

Disgracefully, Labour ministers were warned that the law discriminated against servicemen and women. Douglas Young, of the British Armed Forces Federation, published a brilliant document called Silence in the Ranks, which revealed the scale of the problem.

According to a report in The Guardian newspaper, a spokeswoman for the English Defence League (EDL) has claimed majority support amongst the armed forces:

The Daily Telegraph reports (05 May 2011) that the presumed remains of Flight Lieutenant Desmond Hinton DFC, who lay buried in an unmarked grave outside the North Korean capital Pyongyang for more than 50 years, have been handed over to British diplomats.