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Reserves (Review)

May I read back to the Minister part of his statement? He said, "People wrongly say that this is about tackling stretch by using the reserve to plug gaps in the regular forces." Although we understand that he has to put a brave face on the decisions that he is having to take today, will he at least be realistic? Where would we be without the medics, the helicopter pilots and even the infantry reservists, and the professional Army had to try to manage current operations on its own? The reserves are filling gaps, and reducing reserve and TA forces further means that fewer gaps will be filled when we need to fill them.