Clearly, the principle of the reason why we went into Afghanistan, why I supported our mission in Afghanistan, unlike the illegal invasion in Iraq, is to keep us safe. Not to parachute democracy into Afghanistan, it's because we believe that if you allow Afghanistan to be a haven of extremism and terrorism, there will be more terrorist attacks here in Britain. So, from that principle, if we need to do that again, we should. The problem, of course, is we have done it in a manner where I don't think we've pursued the right strategy, we haven't given the right equipment to our troops. We haven't had proper international co-ordination on the ground in Afghanistan, we haven't worked properly with other countries in the region to do so. I think if you put soldiers into harm's way, you either do the job properly or you don't do it at all. If we ever take that decision again, let's make sure we've got the right equipment, the right strategy, so they can come back having done the job we've asked them to do, with their heads held high, knowing they have done the job well.

I think everyone is agreed that if we were to do this again, which is Stuart's question, we need to make sure that we've got the right equipment, the right resources. That's why I think it is essential that after the next election, whoever wins, there is a full defence review, so we have a real good look at where we are spending money, whether we are spending it wisely and whether we are providing the troops on the frontline with the resources they need. I personally think that we're not spending money on some of the right things. I wouldn't carry on spending money on the Eurofighter Typhoon, the third tranche of that Eurofighter project, consuming billions of pounds. I don't think it's right to do what both David Cameron and Gordon Brown want, which is now to commit, before we need to make a decision, to spend up to £100 billion renewing, exactly in the same old way, the Cold War Trident nuclear missile system. If you take decisions like that, then maybe you can equip our troops so they don't get so terribly overstretched, as they were in fighting two wars on two fronts in Iraq and in Afghanistan.