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Counter-Insurgency (Iraq/Afghanistan)

First, on behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to give my condolences to the families of the three paratroopers. As hon. Members have said and as I am sure the Minister will repeat, all of our thoughts and prayers go to the families and friends of the three young men whose lives were cut short in such tragic circumstances while they were fighting on our behalf. We owe a big debt of gratitude to them and to the other 97 families who have been affected in similar ways by the fighting in Afghanistan. We also owe a debt of gratitude to those fighting in Iraq and those who have been injured and seen their lives change significantly. The hon. Member for Congleton (Ann Winterton) should be congratulated on initiating this debate and on providing an opportunity to speak up for those people. The families of many of those affected by the issue have made many criticisms about equipment and have complained to the Defence Committee in order to try to bring home to Parliament the need for equipment failures to be considered. I was going to interrupt the hon. Member for Newark (Patrick Mercer), but he spent so much time talking about bayonet power I was nervous to do so because I believe he was quite handy with a bayonet at one time. He was at full flow and I did not think he would take kindly to being interrupted by someone reminding him to get on with it and give us a chance to have our say. Bayonet power aside, I found the hon. Gentleman's contribution extremely interesting. He is right: the biggest failure is not having the manpower—men and women; the most precious of all commodities— available to deliver what we expect from our armed forces. His figures need to be verified and the MOD needs to answer the points he made about an on-paper 700 strong battalion only being able to deploy 500 people, many of whom are from other units. More importantly, it is worrying that so many of a returning battalion are unfit for service in a similar circumstance in the future. If, for example, a third of the battalion is unavailable for combat because of sustained injuries, such as deafness, what does that do to the morale and effectiveness of the unit? I have a great deal of time and affection for my colleague from the Defence Committee, the hon. Member for North Durham (Mr. Jones)—he smiles at that, but he knows that it is true. It is beyond me why he has never been looked at for further advancement, and I am sure many of his colleagues on the Defence Committee also share that view. He would make a useful contribution to dealing with this issue and would bring some straight thinking.