The House of Commons recently compiled two substantial policy analyses of British defence policy since 1997 and background issues. They can be found at

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2008/rp08-057.pdf
http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2008/rp08-058.pdf

As Defence Viewpoints is seeking to give the main political parties in the UK a platform to explain their policies for their hoped-for next spell in government, these documents are a fundamental foundation for their jumping off points.

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The US House Armed Service Committee is holding hearings about the recent Supreme Court decision that Guantanamo Bay detainees cannot be stripped of the habeas corpus provisions.Chairman Ike Skelton, in his opening remarks, will have restored some of the faith in American democracy lost in recent years by the decisions of its Government. They carry faint echoes of the Gettysburg Address to this commentator's ear, and reinforce his opinion that Ike Skelton (whose forebears came from the north east of England) is one of nature's gentlemen that Congress throws up from time to time (see also Senator John Warner and the late Rep Henry Hyde).

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