My Lords, before I say a word on timings for today’s debate, it might be helpful if I inform the House that with 46 speakers down—that obviously causes some problems in accommodating them although we shall of course accommodate everyone—the usual channels have provisionally set aside another date for a foreign affairs debate. That Motion will be to take note of developments in the Middle East and Afghanistan. That is provisionally scheduled for 5 December. That means that there will be a further opportunity to raise a number of the issues that may well be raised today.

With that proviso in mind, I point out that if we do the arithmetic with 46 speakers, in order to rise by 10 o’clock, which is our scheduled concluding time, speeches would need to be of around seven minutes. Should we aim to rise by 11 o’clock, we could accommodate around eight-plus minutes per speaker. My usual arithmetical reminder is that eight minutes is around 1,500 words, which is really quite a lot of words.