The Sunday Times yesterday explained why the Assad regime was using chemical weapons: the use is tactical - to clear urban battlegrounds where defenders are heavily dug-in. Once the gas disperses, government forces move in to take and hold the ground.
A second interesting fact: the RAF at its current technology and resource level is actually incapable of overcoming Syrian air defences. We'd be reduced to lobbing cruise missiles from a safe distance. I wondered to myself how many would get through - absent a US saturation attack including active defence suppression.
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We were at Burnham on Sea today for a bracing walk on the prom under grey clouds, the blustery cold wind tugging at rigging lines and my tee-shirt. Why do I ever believe those forecasts showing happy yellow sun-symbols all the day long?
The town was busy, crowded with old folk (can I say somewhat shabbily-dressed, often overweight and in some cases over-tattooed?). In any event there is no harm in Burnham and avoiding the crowded pubs we lunched on delicious fish 'n' chips out of cardboard boxes in a formica seafront café.
