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Ministry of Defence

That is very helpful. At least we have the support of the hon. Gentleman’s party for what we seek to do at present. The hon. Gentleman raised questions about reconstruction costs in Iraq and expenditure intentions for Afghanistan in matters relating to counter-narcotics. Some of that does not sit within the estimates, as I am sure that he will appreciate. I will deal with that in a moment. He mentioned the allied rapid recruitment force. Just for the record, it is the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps—that is the first lesson on defence. We all get our words mixed up sometimes, but it is important to get that corrected. Reconstruction in Iraq is continuing. It is not an easy territory or environment to achieve that in, because of the level of threat and the malign efforts of those who are trying to destroy not just what the coalition are seeking to do for the Iraqi people, but what the Iraqi people are trying to do for themselves. There is regular sabotage of both power lines and pipelines. A lot of effort is put in to deal with that. Hopefully, more progress will be made in the period ahead. There is a growing economy. It is not, in one sense, an economy in free fall. There are indications of growth in the economy, but it should be much more rapid given the oil wealth. Insurgents and those who are trying to destroy what we seek to do attack power lines because that stops the oil industry’s capacity to produce. They attack the oil industry itself for the same reason. There are measurable improvements in water and sanitation systems and schools and hospitals have been constructed. So, there are ways in which we can measure progress.