Labour and the forces

The main event at the Labour conference this morning has been a long debate on Britain’s place in the world, featuring Douglas Alexander, Harriet Harman and Jim Murphy – shadow foreign secretary, shadow DfID secretary and shadow defence secretary respectively.

The debate touched on liberal intervention, soft power and human rights; there was even a video message from Aung San Suu Kyi. But Murphy’s extended homily on the military covenant was the centre piece of the discussion. Murphy revealed a plan to allow servicemen to join the Labour party for just £1 and he also pledged to defend the pensions of retired servicemen and their widows from cuts, saying that reducing payments was “simply wrong”. Evidently, Labour wishes to exploit the government’s perceived weakness on the military covenant – Murphy was withering in his contempt for the Lib Dems’ apparent indifference to the welfare of the armed forces.

Murphy has gravitas on a stage such as this and he was able to project moral arguments without sounding like he was moralising.