As I shall shortly demonstrate, that seems to have been a golden era compared with the present position. Friend for giving way and apologise for interrupting him. Column 476 of my right hon. Of course telephone cards are important, and of course welfare issues are important, but what makes our troops so exceptionally brilliant and effective is the fact that they are highly trained and have superb confidence in their equipment and in their ability to undertake their task. What is so dangerous about the tour interval is that it means that the training is severely curtailed, thereby affecting the service men's confidence in their ability to do the job.
Friend is right.
As the training cycle tightens, it affects the quality of training and the opportunities for training. We agreed with the statement in the SDR that commitments should match planned resources, but we question whether resources are matching growing commitments. The Government recognise that overstretch remains a major problem, as the Minister confirmed today. Nevertheless, even before major deployments took place in the Balkans, MOD figures revealed that more than 36 per cent. As my hon.