Meacher and Clare Short have lost it over Brown learning to love the bomb. Paul Linford has a take on it, he thinks that by backing the bomb it makes the prospect of a left-wing leadership challenge more of a certainty. An Old Labour challenge would allow Gordon to position himself as the “heir to Blair”.

Except how would a left-wing challenger garner the 71 nominations?

Given that in 1984 Gordon said Trident was “unacceptably expensive, economically wasteful and militarily unsound” his new stance might just be a little Machiavellian. Guido too thinks Britain needs a truly independent nuclear deterrent which does not require the permission of the U.S. president to launch. Not long range, just able to reach Paris…