My Night with the First Sea Lord

Last night I got invited by my old pal Mick Smith to join him at a presentation by the First Sea Lord, Jonathan Band. We had a very pleasant cruise down the Thames to Greenwich where we boarded HMS Bulwark for a presentation and a tour. The tour, which was very interesting reminded me just how young the men and women we send out to fight our wars are.

Following the presentation I got to ask a question about Trident which was answered by a nuclear sub-mariner, who assured us that this didn't influence his view that Trident was a jolly good thing! As is always the way with these things, once you have asked your question you don't get to come back at the reply (I did try it once at a meeting with the Israeli ambassador at the NLC - Robert Woodthorpe-Brown was not amused!). But, another nuclear sub-mariner, who Mick informed me was responsible for Navy PR at the MOD - collared me afterwards to ask if my question had been answered. As you can imagine, we were not going to agree! At one point he asked me what I did, when I told him I worked for the FSA he said, well I wouldn't presume to tell you about financial services so I don't think you can presume to tell me about nuclear deterrents! Oh heck, that's me told then. That's the last time I mention the "T" word! Er............right.......