The Trident White paper will be available shortly after this blog is published.  Widely trailed in all the papers today (and many of yesterday's) none of us will be shocked when we hear Tony Blair announce the start of a process to replace trident.

CentreForum are hosting a timely debate in the House of Commons on this subject this evening (details available from the CentreForum website).  The two speakers, Dr Dan Plesch and Dr Jeremy Stocker will present alternative sides of the replacement debate. Though they differ on the need of replacement, it will be interesting to see if consensus on timing issues can be reached:

The white paper will also reject arguments urging a delay on a decision to commission new submarines by at least five years, as the Lib Dem leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, and many independent analysts have proposed.

Given the long lead times before operational availability - 14 years between the Trident decision and the day it replaced Polaris - it would be too risky. Delay would also not be cost effective, mainly because the nuclear reactors that propel the present boats need replacing soon.

The Guardian 4th December 2005

The costs of Trident are huge - but delaying the decision for short term political respite would almost certainly end up being even more costly.

Also in today's news

• William Rees-Mogg in The Times appears to agree with our blog entry last week about the ongoing threat David Cameron presents to the Liberal Democrat vote.  For this we apologise.
• Marcel Berlins warns of the threats to justice of Impact Statements read out before sentencing - such as that last week by Adele Eastman.  Someone commenting on the article sums it up even more succinctly than the esteemed professor:

"A drunken homeless man who is, as in recent cases, severely beaten up or set on fire, needs the same protection under the law as the devoted daughter or caring teacher. Without this, the law institutionalises an underclass (or untermensch) and violence against the vulnerable and despised will rise still further."

Kazbe commenting on Marcel Berlins "Why Victim Impact Statements should be axed" in The Guardian.