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Armed Forces (Recruitment and Retention)

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that point, because it is the very one on which I shall finish. I do not think; I know what the barrier is. As an ex-serving airman myself, it saddens me to say this, but there is no doubt in my mind that the single largest barrier to recruitment within our armed forces is institutional racism. It has to be, because there is no other explanation. We are talking about a uniformed disciplined service, structured by authority. We should be able to break down any barriers that exist in the service. Why have the Americans achieved that and why have we failed? Quite simply, the Americans, back in the 1960s, took positive action. They said, ““It is unacceptable that we do not give the ethnic minority communities access to our armed forces.”” I am not saying that individuals in our armed forces are racists. I have no knowledge of that. I am saying that the armed forces are by definition, de facto, institutionally racist and it is about time that Parliament did something about that.