Peter Rhodes on calories, boozers and the snags of rearming Europe
How hard would you diet to save two calories? I pose the question having happened upon a healthy-eating guide which suggests all sorts of choices you can make to fight the flab.
For example, if you replace the two slices of black pudding (138 calories) in your full English breakfast with half a tin of baked beans (136 calories), you save two calories. But what do you really gain, apart from a brief frisson of inner virtue and a flatulent morning as you digest your beans and yearn for the rich, delicious black pudding you turned down? No contest.
Re-arming Europe to defend itself without the Americans will be a long business. Depending on who you believe, it could take five to ten years to be battle-ready. Two points. Firstly, would the Russians, or any other enemy, simply sit back and wait until the new Yankless Nato was fully re-equipped and ready for war? Are they not more likely to strike while we are still unprepared?
