I’m beginning to think our Brexiteer Government is not just misguided and incompetent but dangerously unhinged.  The proposals announced by Boris Johnson in Parliament today would see an increase in Britain’s nuclear capability of 40%.  How can this be ethical foreign policy?  

The Prime Minister hopes his overall strategy of redefining Britain’s place in the world as he looks to trade in the East will make the country stronger, safer and more prosperous.  But will this be the case?  Such a major reversal from previous commitments to reduce our nuclear arsenal seems certain to inflame nationalist sentiment in Scotland, which is very unhappy at the presence of nuclear submarines within its deepest lochs.  Already there is a head of steam north of the border for Scottish independence.  This will only ramp it up more, accelerating the break-up of the United Kingdom.

Here in Ripley, on some evenings we have wide boys who meet on the market place in their souped-up cars. They then take it in turns to hare down the hill to the A38 in the most devil-may-care fashion in a race to see who can get back quickest.  At times like today I feel like an unwilling passenger sitting in the backseat, about to be swept along on just such a reckless journey.  No-one ever voted for these proposals because they were never in the Tory Election Manifesto.  Now we have to rely on Conservative backbenchers to persuade the Government to apply the brakes and find a more sensible way forward.  Why don’t I feel reassured?

MICHAEL KIRKHAM