Documents dating from 1978 and now released under the thirty year rule shown that Britain’s defence forces were quite unable to respond to any serious conflict situation in that Cold War period.

Defence cuts a decade earlier had left the UK’s airbases with no more than one reload of surface-to-air missiles in stock and the RAF’s core fighter squadrons ony had enough ammunition for three days.

The Royal Navy had no more than enough mine-sweeping ships to keep the waters around Faslane in Argyll clear – a priority because this was and remains the base for the UK’s nuclear submarine fleet. Critically, the navy would then have been quite unable to keep clear the supply routes through the English Channel.

The Army would have taken a fortnight to reach full strength and much of the command  and control system was in ‘unhardened’ bunkers vulnerable to jamming and sabotage.

With funds in short supply as Britiain’s financial position spiralled downwards, all the Callaghan Government of the day could do to remedy the situation was to order more ammo for the RAF and buy some second hand missiles from Sweden.

For those still alive in thirty years time, it will be interesting to see what the documents then released will say about the current state of our defences – assuming that the state is giving any information on anything by then.