REPATRIATION OF SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN

That this House notes that the Government has deliberately reduced the profile of repatriation ceremonies for the fallen in Afghanistan in order to make participation in future wars more palatable; is appalled at the cynical advice in a Ministry of Defence document, obtained by The Guardian, advising reduced attention to war deaths including changing the repatriation of the fallen from Royal Wootton Bassett to Carterton, and considers this was an attempt to reduce publicity of the visible grief of the loved ones of the fallen; would welcome the reading out of the full list of the names of the fallen in the House; believes the moves to end the Wednesday announcements of the recently fallen were further attempts to diminish public mourning; and further believes that news of the deaths and the repatriation of the fallen should not be diminished, but that their sacrifices should be fully commemorated so that the country is sensitive to the true cost of war.