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Troop Deployment (Afghanistan)

First, I accept the right hon. Gentleman’s apology. I thank him for his kind words about trying to be open. As he knows, I believe that the defence of the realm should be well above party politics. That does not mean that it is above criticism. It is the job of everyone in the House critically to analyse what the Government are doing when life-and-death matters are concerned. In his own case he will be on a visit with the Select Committee. I can tell him that today members of the armed forces parliamentary scheme are visiting the preparations being made for a potential deployment. The more open one is with such information, the more chance there is of the sort of thing that we saw this morning in the media. On the multinational dimension, I welcome the fact that the Dutch Cabinet has unanimously recommended that the Dutch go into the south, along with the British. That is likely to be backed by the Dutch Parliament as well, although it does not have a formal mechanism for expressing such approval. The United States, Denmark, Australia and Canada, as well as the United Kingdom and perhaps others whom we continue to talk to may be part of that configuration in the southern area.