There was a rare debate in the House of Commons on defence. I feel so strongly about our weakness in a dangerous world after abandoning for ten years our aircraft carriers that I got up at 5:00am and hurried back from Strasbourg. You always wonder if speaker after speaker warning of the dangers of a particular situation ever make any difference in the House of Commons, but it is all we can do. Before I sat down, I quoted Winston Churchill’s description of his sleepless night following the resignation of Eden which I quoted earlier. I am not sure if his doom-laden prophecy went down any better now than it did then.