20 BILLION WHITE ELEPHANT

It’s that time of decade again when the folks in government have to choose whether to renew Britain’s aging old pile of junk submarines (a.k.a. jetsam) that currently carry other people’s nuclear warheads because we don’t make them anymore - a bit like motorbikes, cars and aeroplanes.

We’ve had them for ages, we’ve never fired one in defence and retaliating against a suicide bomber with a ‘Peace Keeper’ ICBM is a tad pointless.

Replacing Britain’s nuclear arsenal (the launch capability) will cost 20 billion quid and in this climate 20 billion quid’s a lot of money. If 20 billion pounds was spent on weapons our army would use, or hospitals or the railways or building fuel storage capacity or our roads we’d be a little less miserable and no less safe from a nuclear equipped enemy’s first strike.

Message to O B Laden: Britain does not currently operate nuclear submarines in Afghanistan so I’d sit tight if I were you.