As the Russian bear threatens eastern Ukraine, talk of defence spending increases almost daily. The outgoing NATO deput supreme commander, General Sir Richard Shirreff, is the latest to add his siren voice to this debate, which I and several Conservative colleagues have been pushing ever since the Strategic Defence Spending Review was mooted shortly after the Coalition government was formed. At the time, I told Liam Fox, the then Defence Secretary, to his face that the plan was a disaster. No one has listened ever since and, while billions of pounds of well-intentioned money is given to unaccountable causes in the Third World, our armed forces continue to be slashed to nothing more than a gendarmerie. Sir Richard is rightly particularly concerned about the Royal Navy which, he claims, is so small it can no longer take part in NATO martime operations. With the world as unstable as it's ever been in my lifetime, we have a solemn responsibility to defend our island, our people, our dependents and naturally fulfil our responsibilities to organisations like NATO. As I have said in the Commons, we'd be stretched to the limit to keep the peace in Northern Ireland if, God forbid, the 'troubles' were to kick-off again, let alone take our place on the world stage where we have always been and should remain. As politicians, it is our primary responsibility and duty to protect our country.