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Iraq

My Lords, I hope I have said enough to convince the House that I believe that support for the Armed Forces is shared on all sides. Today’s Question may well have been tabled by the Opposition, but I draw to your Lordships’ attention the fact that—aside from our frequent debates in this place, especially over the past 22 days—there have been 60 debates on Iraq since mid-2003 in the other place. It is scarcely short of debates on Iraq. Whether people regard the debates as satisfactory, or having the outcome they would have wished, is an entirely different matter from the frequency or seriousness with which the other place takes these discussions. The other place has recently decided that the time has not come for the kind of review or study that the noble Lord has just urged. That time may well come, but the House of Commons has decided that that moment is not this moment.