Welsh Affairs

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 7:03 pm on 28 February 1991.

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Photo of Mr Richard Livsey Mr Richard Livsey , Brecon and Radnor 7:03, 28 February 1991

I should like to add my tribute to what has been said about our brave soldiers in the Gulf and about the sad loss of life. The Welsh troops fought bravely and acquitted themselves with great honour.

Last Saturday night, I was in the company of the Powys cadets. We were celebrating St. David's day at a dinner because we had saved the cadets. They were to be disbanded about 12 months ago when the Ministry of Defence decided—or at least proposed—to centralise cadet forces in north and south Wales. We fought a long battle of attrition and eventually we won. It was rightly said that the recruiting of cadets for the army, in mid-Wales in particular, was associated with the districts and with the communities. There is great loyalty to those communities, and if it did not have its cadet force, Powys would not have cadets at all, because the young people could not afford to travel to the centres in the north or in the south.

On Saturday night, I and the members of the cadet force ate raw leeks, as has been the custom of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers for the past 300 years. The leeks duly repeated on us for the whole weekend.