My Condolences Jon, a trying time for all concerned. I hope that he at least had some small comfort from your conversation before he passed. I don't know what your religious views are and I don't intend to shove mine down your neck, but just this once I will be praying for you all.

If you can't understand why you shouldn't have the vote when in prison then you really are trully delusional. Does the person you killed get the right to vote no, and neither should you, you horrible peice of vermin.

And a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you and yours Johnathon.

I agree that unilateral action is needed and needed now. I prefer the most heinous of protest, one that would get us kicked out, for good. Europe can keep Baroness Ashford, empire grabbing trull that she is!

I think that we are aware of what happened in Ireland and any secondary unplanned referrundum would be viewed with mistrust and a fair amount of protest. Irelands second was unlawful, it was shameful and it should be forever imprinted upon free minded pepole everywhere. Oops I forgot I was talking about politicians there, so maybe your right. However, should that stop a plebsicate from taking place? No it should not.

Yes it is time to revisit the European commitment decision. It was an ill concieved idea at the time of EC, as we didn't get to decide to join the EU we need to decide if we want to join a Federal Europe. I for one don't. However, as much as I don't like it. If we have a referendum and for some unknown reason we all vote Yes then we need to go in for the whole thing, Eurozone and complete handover of sovereignty. This is the only way the EU experiment will suceed. If we continue to go the way that we are at the moment then the EU will fail. We will have a huge power vacuum in Europe which could end up being manipulated by our friends from Russkyia or Beijijng. If you thought the cold war had finished think again. The main land grab will decisions will be based on oil, gas, water and food. Russia is already starting to make attempts in the Frozen north and Argentina is tring the same in the south. Lets not get caught last in line!

Quite right, when you don't need it don't claim it. However, rightly or wrongly, Child Benefit was a universal benefit, it has now been removed and placed onto the means tested benefits list. This is right and proper and promotes equality. These decisions have been made, it is time to move forward and get on with it. Am I concerned that the CSR is going to hit me hard, yes I am, the 20% VAT rate will hit my pocket harder than most as I have a smaler budget to work with. The cuts to benefits may or may not hit me, I am still waiting to hear exactly what IDS has planned for me and my disabled friends. The fact remains, the labour government got us into this mess, it is time to knuckle down, stop moaning and move forward, yes it will be tough but we should see some sunshine in a few years!

This is because the Typhoon, can't cope with the dust. I hope the JSF will be able to or we won't be going anywhere dusty once the Tornado is fleet has been retired!

I am appalled over the SDSR findings, There is no reason to stop British airpower from flying off the new carrier from the first day! If we retro fit some of the new Typhoons to Naval variant we have a credible airframe for Naval Air power. I suspect the gap in having a suitable airframe will be placed to a loss of skill in cat & trap flight along with the delay in JSF delivery. We have used Harrier in one form or another since its inception and have lost the skills. It may well mean that a huge training scheme is needed and that pilots and deck teams need to be training and visisting our allies to gain that experience now.

The Navy have sold themselves into oblivion over these two ships that are likely to have no relevent useage for a decade. I can only assume that the MOD/NSC didn't want to pay for non completion, fine, then at least keep them relevent to national stratergy. Two blooming big pieces of British Soveriegn interest floating without adequate support, not impressed.

MR4A shelving was a bad idea for defence but a good one for the economy, this airframe has been overdue it's retirement for some years. We should have gone for a new build airframe and offered the airframe for sale to other nations as well. Now we will have our SSBN's trailled and might as well shut down the Independant Nuclear Detterant CAS. As for the Army being rewarded for failing in Iraq and Afghanistan well that's a joke, that should never have been told.

I do believe we may have handed over control of the Falklands to the Argies! As for defending the UK what are we going to use? Pea shooters and big flags saying go home, please?

I'll be surprised if there isn't!