Mondays are always busy as the weekend mail, phone calls and emails find their way through. I spent the morning in the office and then up to the Commons. After questions to Eric Pickles, there was an Urgent Question as to what boots were on the ground in Iraq. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon took the Despatch Box and explained the military situation to the House. British troops are on the ground but not in a fighting capacity. They are there to train and advise both the Iraqis and Kurds. Mr Fallon reminded the House that we were one of 40 countries helping out, which is an enormous number. We have 50 troops in Iraq and 10 training the Kurds. More are being considered, although future deployments remain to be decided. I asked Mr Fallon whether he had any confidence in the Iraqi army that they'd ever be able to mount a credible counter attack on ISIL, especially with all the support they are getting, both in the air and on the ground. He was confident, he replied. By mid afternoon when this session ended, I returned to my office to work through a mass of constituency business. We had been warned that the last vote might be at 0100, but we concluded just after 2200 as it happened.