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Defence in the UK

That is a travesty of the facts, if I may say so. Yes, we are behind on our original desire in respect of the review's time scale. But I have never been in any doubt that it was better for it to be done correctly than quickly, so I have never put the people involved in the review under any pressure to meet those deadlines and we have allowed the review not to meet the original times. Yes, the reserves have increasingly augmented our activities on operations, and when I meet and talk to them, I see that they do not mind that at all. What the reserves want is for their increased involvement to be reflected in their training and support, so our strategic thinking needs to some extent to catch up with what they have been delivering. It has not been an abuse, but the good, efficient use of reserve forces. They have volunteered and are damn good at their job. We need to make sure that, as far as we can within our resources, we train and support them appropriately so that they can play the role in which they have been so effective and for which they have been prepared to volunteer.