I am very grateful for Nick Harvey for kindly and thoroughly answering my and all the other questions in the recent on-line debate. It is very easy to get lost in the minutiae of the four boat/three boat/Iran/Korea debate. At the end of the day, this level of detail is not required. The fundamentals are very basic indeed.
It is worth remembering the scale of the USSR.
It stretched from East Germany to the border with China. It had fifteen constituent republics. At its zenith in 1985, it had 45,000 nuclear warheads stockpiled.
At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union had 5.3 million people in its armed forces.
That is the scale of the enemy we were facing when we commissioned Trident. Up against that, Iran and Korea are fly-droppings.
Now, we do not need a new Trident.
Some seem to see new Trident as a virility symbol. It would be more a sign of this nation's maturity for us to eschew new Trident and be peacemakers. It would restore some of this nation's good name after the Iraq debacle.
There are many other more pressing calls on this nation's purse, without foolishly investing in an expensive comfort blanket.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Friday, March 2, 2007
I am a machine, apparently
I spend a lot of time earnestly searching for material to blog about. For hours, I hunch myself over my PC, lovingly crafting my prose, fine-polishing my wordsmithing, checking references, putting in links and photos, answering comments and checking my Statcounter.
And what do I get?
A robot in Blogger thought I might be a machine and shut down my ability to post for 36 hours until some person at Blogger checked my blog to verify that it is created by a human-being and isn't machine-created spam.
The alert message read: "Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog".
Ah! I see. My blog has "characteristics of a spam blog" does it?!
How very dare they!
And what do I get?
A robot in Blogger thought I might be a machine and shut down my ability to post for 36 hours until some person at Blogger checked my blog to verify that it is created by a human-being and isn't machine-created spam.
The alert message read: "Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog".
Ah! I see. My blog has "characteristics of a spam blog" does it?!
How very dare they!
"Political correctness gone mad" alert - Actors have to go outside to rehearse smoking
Stage actors will have to go outside to rehearse smoking, but they can actually smoke during performances.
Confessions of a Diary Secretary - Prescott emerges smelling of roses
I watched Confessions of a Diary Secretary on ITV this week with half an eye.
I suppose there were some people drooling with glee in anticipation - expecting to see our beloved Deputy Prime Minister being dragged through the mud.
The actor who played Prescott, John Henshaw, is a favourite actor of mine. He was in Born and Bred and does an excellent bluff northerner. As a result, I think Prescott came out of the drama very well.
I don't condone or welcome sexist remarks or adultery. However, at the end, I was left feeling rather pleased that there has been this down-to-earth northerner at the heart of our government for the last ten years.
On the subject of favourite actors, I was very pleased indeed to see Tony Slattery playing Gordon Brown very well. It was interesting that Brown and Blair were portrayed, even before the last election, squabbling about when Blair is going to stand down. It seems to have been an obsession with Brown which leads me to suspect that he needs to consider the old Chinese proverb:
Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.
I suppose there were some people drooling with glee in anticipation - expecting to see our beloved Deputy Prime Minister being dragged through the mud.
The actor who played Prescott, John Henshaw, is a favourite actor of mine. He was in Born and Bred and does an excellent bluff northerner. As a result, I think Prescott came out of the drama very well.
I don't condone or welcome sexist remarks or adultery. However, at the end, I was left feeling rather pleased that there has been this down-to-earth northerner at the heart of our government for the last ten years.
On the subject of favourite actors, I was very pleased indeed to see Tony Slattery playing Gordon Brown very well. It was interesting that Brown and Blair were portrayed, even before the last election, squabbling about when Blair is going to stand down. It seems to have been an obsession with Brown which leads me to suspect that he needs to consider the old Chinese proverb:
Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.
Photos of puddle in Bear Lane
My colleague Cllr Roger Hunneman has taken these pictures to pinpoint this puddle in Bear Lane to West Berkshire Council engineers. The puddle is causing a terrible annoyance and inconvenience to pedestrians on the adjacent walkway, who are being deluged when cars pass through the puddle.
The head of the Highways and Maintenance department at West Berks council has pledged to get this situation corrected as soon as possible.
Women's Hour look for a man for Comic Relief
As I half-watched Top Gear going up a mountain last night, I heard them advertise a vote for a man to present Women's Hour on Comic relief day. "Vote for Richard Hammond" to present the show, they said.
As well as the Hamster, the contenders are: Kelvin Mackenzie and Andy Hamilton. Of those, I would choose Kelvin Mackenzie, as he deserves a bit of ribbing.
But think of all the obvious celebs they have missed out from the ballot paper! Jeremy Clarkson. Bernard Manning. Boris Johnson. Mark Oaten. The list is endless.
As well as the Hamster, the contenders are: Kelvin Mackenzie and Andy Hamilton. Of those, I would choose Kelvin Mackenzie, as he deserves a bit of ribbing.
But think of all the obvious celebs they have missed out from the ballot paper! Jeremy Clarkson. Bernard Manning. Boris Johnson. Mark Oaten. The list is endless.
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