Re the recent photograph of our elected representative to the House of Commons, Craig Williams, dressed in camouflage gear.

Readers may be interested to learn that the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme is a privately run programme to give MPs, Peers etc. experience of the armed forces. Its aim is to ‘improve the quality of debate on military issues’.

However, as it is sponsored by several Defence Companies including BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, I think we can well imagine the type of debate it would prefer.

Some years back the Conservative MP, Douglas Carswell, was banned from the AFPS after criticising the propriety of defence companies sponsoring it which prompted questions about the programme’s independence.

BAE is, of course, Britain’s leading arms manufacturer and sold £15bn worth of arms and services to the Saudi military during the last five years.

This is the period covered by Riyadh’s involvement in the deadly bombing campaign in the war in Yemen which has killed and dispersed so many civilians.

According to the AFPS website, the minimum commitment for a ‘student’ on the Scheme is a total of 15 days over the 12-month course duration and ‘formal recognition takes place in the form of a graduation dinner attended by senior military officers and defence ministers’.

(I hope that will give some comfort to those people forced to use Food Banks and to all those refugees forced from their homes by wars like the one in Yemen.)

Personally, I would prefer Mr. Williams to be using his time to listen to local farming unions who urged him to vote for the amendments to the Agriculture Bill recently voted on at Westminster.

The stakes could not be higher. Farmers are worried that post-Brexit Trade Deals with the US and other countries will allow the import of food and agricultural products currently banned under EU regulations.

These foods, which are produced to a lower standard than our own, will undercut British produce but, if we lower our standards, the export route to Europe, our biggest market, will be blocked.

Needless to say, both Mr. Williams and Ms. Jones (MP for Brecon and Radnorshire) did as they were told and voted against the amendments.

Sue Hayward

Clatter