tornadoken wrote:
<<Or one about a PM deploying WE177 thermonuclear Bombs, Lance nuclear SSMs, SSBNs, and starting their MIRV enhancement, Chevaline - to cost £1Bn? Guess of whom I speak.>>
Not quite sure I understand your point? Are you saying Wilson did all these things or might have been ill and deployed them or what?
The WE177 pre-dated the first Wilson government and was lucky to survive the TSR2 cuts. The SSBN programme was also well advanced before Wilson first came to power.
Apart from the TSR2 we were all pretty amazed that our nuclear programmes continued unabated. Indeed they were enhanced as the C130, Buccaneer and Phantom programmes and the Jaguar strike ac were all Wilsonian decisions probably the Nimrod too. It was the Heath government that procured the Jaguar with part of the buy intended to act as an advance trainer rather than the Hawk.
Healey said he was the forces friend and certainly we had some very competent equipment programmes under the labour government.