@faraway saint No, you were right about the Belfast rioters, they were mainly from the Unionist side altho there was some co-operation from Republicans.   ********************* On the X-Box warriors we seem to be training them young. Go Pikachu!    

Out of interest, what's the saving if you fork out for the early offer and if you wait for a wee while? 

It wasn't overly scientific so it's probably slightly more than a stab in the dark On the defence issue, when John Healey was on the telly I found his view, albeit, as you say, from a biased viewpoint, straightforward and pretty sensible. I'd imagine most of us see any war as a far away () scenario so it's not particularly worrying and we can all sit back and chomp on our cornflakes with little real concern. While the chances are probably slim we, the UK, would see any "action" on our shores I'd like to think, if required, we could handle ourselves, without totally relying on our allies.  Tech is becoming a bigger part of modern warfare but we're far away from X-box warriors being the only participants. Oh, I said a few years ago Russia would never invade Ukraine so I'm way down the league on predicting any wars.