I served during the 1960s at the height of the Cold War. I also know my history. The Americans - after British scientists during the War had handed over all their nuclear research and worked on the Manhattan Project - subsequently refused to share their atomic technology with us. British politicians of both parties agreed that we must develop our own atomic weapons and subsequently thermonuclear weapons. By this time the Americans agreed to supply us with some weapons the B2b, which we accepted, only to find that the design was defective and had to be replaced. This drove us to a policy of not relying on their technology.
Over the years, largely unknown now or forgotten there have been a number of such instances of unreliability in the Americans.
I'm sorry, but I am writing for our own people - not Americans - I don't care in the slightest what Americans here attempt to tell us - I have worked at sufficiently high a level in the past to know that I simply do not trust their word. We may indeed have a marvellous MOU agreement, but I'm afraid that I and some politicians I know doubt that its worth the paper. We have, in my view fallen yet again for something which we were taught the hard way decades ago not to fall for.
Ultimately we are the only people responsible for these islands. Way back at the beginning of the Cold War there was a paper issued by the Chiefs of Staff which pointed out that America's interests and ours were not always the same and that we must maintain absolute control. Does no one here remember the established procedures for supply of NATO allies from US nuclear weapons stocks held in US custody in Europe? Our British Army on the Rhine was supposed to have access to them. Well I knew the former British Commander of BAOR - Sir John Winthrop-Hackett and frankly that "access" was a joke from his point of view.
I am sure Americans here will loudly proclaim that I'm an old fogey harking back to the past. Well the past holds some very painful lessons about trusting the USA.