All pictures copyright Great North News Services

The BBC has reported that the Gray report on defence procurement report is being acted upon by Govenment despite them saying in the last few days that it is not ready yet. It seems that the Ministry of Defence is setting up a new unit to buy military equipment and implement Gray recommendations, despite Quentin Davies saying as late as yesterday that report was in draft form only yesterday. Lord Drayson will oversee the new unit.

Commissioned by then Secretary of State for Defence John Hutton last year, he had said it should be published in July. Downing Street wants it as part of wider defence review. The MoD was very keen to get it out in July because they knew it would be fairly critical, but it had good news story of this new unit under Drayson.

{qtube vid:=ln2DI71HRjU w:=280 h:=233 b:=0 ap:=0 rel:=0}

{qtube vid:=OLXz_LA6WRw w:=280 h:=233 b:=0 ap:=0 rel:=0}

We invite you to contribute your ideas to those we came up with at the
last editorial meeting.

Roads. The Roman legionnaires built a network across England which has
determined the routes of most major highways ever since.

Maps. The Ordnance Survey was founded in 1791 to chart the country
thoroughly, and its detailed maps were widely available almost immediately
thereafter.

GPS. The satellite base global positioning system to accurately target
missiles now sends commercial lorries into cul-de-sacs.

T'interweb. All power to Tim Berners-Lee, but it was hardened redundant
military communications networks that created the pathways along which the
electrons could buzz.

The jet engine. The military power pack that takes us on cheap holidays

Clocks. Without the winner of a Royal Navy competition for a ship's
chronometer where would we have got the travel alarm clock from?

Computers. Like this one. Bletchley Park code breakers started the
original "difference engine" on the path to every office and most homes in
the country.