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Troop Deployment (Afghanistan)

I take the point that my right hon. Friend makes. I am sure he was not suggesting that there is no role for police intervention and the judicial process, or that when dealing with drug barons and warlords who are willing to commit violence to protect the trade, it may not be necessary to give protection to the police. That would be one of our roles, were we to go into the south of Afghanistan. But he is right. There is no straight military or police solution to the problem. We can tackle the drugs barons and the warlords—the mafias who make money off the drugs trade—but the Afghan farmers have nowhere else to go. If they are relieved of their income from an illicit trade, unless there is an alternative income we will create not stability there, but insurgency. My right hon. Friend makes a good point. Again I say that no decision has been made. I am trying to avoid getting involved in any discussions that should properly take place tomorrow, if such a statement is allowed.