There’s only ever been one atomic bomb fired ‘in anger’. It hit Hiroshima in 1945 and a couple months later the war ended. You may have heard of this event. It was big. Sorry, it was BIGGGG!!!!!! And horrendous. Awful. Three generations later, they still haven’t got over it completely. Nuclear matter doesn’t ‘die’, it lives for thousands/millions of years. As we now understand a little better than we did when Oppenheimer’s ‘deadly toy’ laid waste to thousands and thousands.

In a way Hiroshima was a good thing. Obviously not necessarily for the former inhabitants, but as ‘the precedent’. The warning. To provide the ultimate threat. A threat to put fear into the hearts of even National leaders. And the entire ‘cold war’ and the ultimate military structure of the world today is based upon that threat. If you fire at me it will destroy me, but before it does I’ll have launched one at you. Won’t make me any more ‘alive’ but it’ll make us all feel a lot better. Ish. Don’t get mad; get even.

So are nations that don’t possess ‘the nuclear deterrent’ at greater risk than those who do? I have no idea. Never want to have any idea. Happy in my ignorance.

And our nuclear weapon of choice, and necessity, is a trident missile. Launched from a submarine. And our subs are 25 years old, bit rusty, probably leak a bit, barnacles, who knows what 25 years underwater could do to a lump of metal. So we need to replace them. Replace the Trident System completely. Or not. So they’re voting today.

To replace it costs (approx) £35billion. Haven’t looked on ebay to see if I can get it cheaper yet but it does sound a lot. To replace something we’ve never used and will probably never need. But…

You kind’a have to have a deterrent. Otherwise those who are nuked up can nuke us without fear of reprisal. And reprisal is all. Or the threat of it. We can have movable sites to fire from, but they’re not very good, or we can have hidden silos. But for the latter, apparently, you’d need ‘an area the size of Wales’ to get an equivalent protection to the subs. Well, if it saves a few bob, let’s use Wales then. Now the football’s over its not like it serves any other purpose.

Decision today in Parliament. To nuke or not to nuke. That’s the real question. Do we want to maintain our presence as a nuclear force, or wimp out into Corbynland and remain unprotected to the Putins and other nutters, of whom there are sadly many.

Happy Monday; LET’S HOPE ITS NOT OUR LAST!!!!

A xxxx