David Cameron visits our nuclear submarine base in Scotland; rumours that our armed forces are to be cut again post 2015 are confirmed; and the despotic leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, escalates the rhetoric on nuclear war. Wars, conflicts, hostilities - call them what you will - are hard to predict, but when they come you need to be prepared for them. We are not. Political expediency and lack of experience at the top of Government has seen defence expenditure slashed in order to meet other priorities, leaving this country woefully ill-equipped to deal with anything other than small scale operations. Personally, I suspect whether we'd even be able to support the police in Northern Ireland on a similar scale to that of the seventies, God forbid the Province was to erupt again. I have said repeatedly that events around the world, not least in North Korea, continually reinforce the necessity to keep our guard up. Yes, democracy is expensive to protect and maintain, and, yes, we must update our nuclear deterrent, which we can't afford not to have. We also cannot afford to go on relegating defence and treating it like other areas of government. That is irresponsible and a negation of our duties.