Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Defence – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 July 2017.
Mark Lancaster
The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence
12:00,
10 July 2017
With the greatest respect to the hon. Gentleman, may I say that this seems to be a common theme when we come to the Dispatch Box: he is always terribly negative? I am determined to try to support our serving personnel and, as I have tried to explain, an awful lot of effort is going in at the moment. This really is the year of the Navy, with more than £3 billion invested in the Royal Navy. We are seeing two new carriers; the fourth Astute class was launched recently; and we are seeing the contract launch for three Type 26s. The future is bright for the Royal Navy and I wish he would stop talking it down.
If you've ever seen inside the Commons, you'll notice a large table in the middle - upon this table is a box, known as the dispatch box. When members of the Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet address the house, they speak from the dispatch box. There is a dispatch box for the government and for the opposition. Ministers and Shadow Ministers speak to the house from these boxes.
