A British MP has launched a stinging attack on the Bermuda Regiment in the House of Commons.

Anti-conscription campaigner Andrew MacKinlay ? a member of the ruling Labour Party ? said the Regiment was in a "parlous state".

Mr. MacKinlay is a supporter of Bermudians Against the Draft (B.A.D), a group of 13 conscripts preparing a Supreme Court bid to get the call-up outlawed. The group alleges that the ballot which chooses conscripts is gender-biased and a breach of human rights because only men are picked, not women. Members have also made allegations about abuse at Warwick Camp.

During his speech to the House of Commons, Mr. MacKinlay cited passages from the report on a Bermuda Regiment Fitness for Role Inspection conducted by the British Defence Staff, Washington, in November 2005.

The report ? published on the Government House website ? was critical of the Regiment's weapons handling, command structure, elderly equipment, and performance of its ceremonial role.

Mr. MacKinlay quoted a passage that said: "Junior officers and NCOs are generally weak as commanders, displaying a lack of military leadership skills."

And he pointed out how it was noted that at the 2005 Throne Speech, the Regiment turned up seven minutes late "largely thanks to poor time appreciation and a lack of urgency, both completely within its control.

"This fundamental professional error was avoidable and should not have occurred".

Mr. MacKinlay told the House of Commons: "We need to think more about the Bermuda Regiment.

"Its twin, the Royal Gibraltar Regiment comprising all volunteers, with pay and rations comparable to the rest of UK forces and very much integrated within them, is highly regarded, but the Bermuda Regiment is not." Referring to information given by Foreign Office Minister Geoff Hoon recently to a question of his in Parliament, Mr. MacKinlay continued: "The Minister of State...had to confirm that if the conscripts want to go to the lavatory after 11 o'clock at night, they have to be escorted by their non-commissioned officers.

"That is demeaning and it is indicative of the parlous state of that Regiment, over which the British Government are presiding."

Attacking the current policy, Mr. MacKinlay said: "There should not be conscription in a peacetime situation presided over and acquiesced in by Her Majesty's Government, who bear the ultimate responsibility for it."

He called on Mr. Hoon to address: "What is a hidden, unspoken scandal in respect of the Bermuda Regiment, where we are conscripting people highly selectively by a ballot that is demonstrably unfair to those who win or lost that raffle."

B.A.D suffered a setback on January 26 when Chief Justice Richard Ground refused members protection from arrest by the military Police while they wait for their Supreme Court case to be heard.

Referring to this, Mr. MacKinlay told the Commons: "I am asking the British Government to use their power to have a stay of that conscription in respect of those men and women until the Supreme Court has exhausted that issue.

"That does not seem to me unreasonable."