The end of week quote

"I fear the coverage and response to the "100th death" proves something I have suspected and said (loudly, needless to say) for some time.

Britain no longer has the stomach to be a great military power. There is no particular problem with that - after all it was not that for much of its history - but we need to recognize this fact and act on it. Ideally, of course, we would go back to being a great naval power but that does not seem to be what people want either. ''

Dr Helen Szamuely - Political Scientist, above right.

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18 months behind schedule and hugely over cost, that the first of the Type 45 Destroyers HMS Daring, above, was launched on the Clyde, last week to fanfares and applause, in front of an audience of 11,000.