My father William Lightbody served on HMS Aboukir in 1914 as a stoker but he had fortunately just returned from a family funeral in Belfast in time to see Aboukir ,Hogue and Cressy sail down the Thames to their fate. He never mentioned these ships to me until one day in the 1950's I mentioned my surprise at the claims of the captain of the U9 in a book I had just read called "Raiders of the deep", my father asked what had been claimed and when I told him about the rapid sinking of each of three very large warships, he said that he was not surprised at all because the ships had been returned to uk to be scrapped as their hulls were so rotten that even sailors on routine maintainance chipping rust off the inside of the ship could cause a leek allowing sea water to enter the hull. Thinking of our growing losses in Afganistan and the constant demands made on ill-equipped defenders of this country since my fathers experiences almost a hundred years ago, politicians continue to kill our young men and women without compunction or apology \*\*\* WHEN WILL WE LEARN TO STOP THE KILLING\*\*\* I recall the outcry when Anthony Wedgewood Benn said we should talk to the IRA, I thought at the time he was mad and should be removed from any position of influence, but as time proved he was right.