Free via #kindleunlimited Cut and Run, By @AlecMarsh ‘A gripping thriller set in the backdrop of WW1… Well-researched and rewarding.’ amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CYQHFJVX/ @HistoriaHWA #crimefiction #ww1 #thrillerthursday

I had the privilege of serving as John Healey’s PPS in opposition back in 2015/16. He is a man of deep principle and has been an outstanding Defence Secretary. I’m saddened that he felt he had no choice but to leave government.

🚨 BREAKING: John Healey has resigned as Defence Secretary over Keir Starmer's lack of funding for defence

Defence Investment Plan (yet another DIP update): - discussions between Treasury, MOD and No10 still “live” as of last night despite earlier claims that a long-running disagreement over a proposed ~£13bn additional uplift in funding was largely resolved (this figure is much less than the military say they need and is regarded - to put it mildly - as “not enough”) - Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton has written to the Prime Minister amid concerns that the funding boost proposed by the Treasury is not enough. I don’t know what the content of the letter was. But clearly this highly unusual move is a signal of the seriousness of the moment and the challenge that Sir Keir Starmer faces to get a credible and affordable Defence Investment Plan over the line. It is worth adding that it’s perfectly legitimate for a CDS to write to a PM but not the kind of action he would take regularly - expectations valiantly hanging in there for an announcement of a vast new defence drone testing centre to happen in Swindon on Friday. Various start-ups were as of yesterday still making plans to go (me too - was there last week, could make this a regular commute). The talk last night had been about this drone testing moment being something that could take place to coincide with some words from the PM announcing top line figures of the funding for defence and some of the key programmes in the DIP. But this clearly can’t happen until there is a firm agreement on the settlement - DIP then unveiled in full on Monday before the PM heads off to the G7 (though again this presumably can’t happen unless the money is green lit) (It is worth saying that this extraordinary display of confusion and paralysis at the heart of government over what is meant to be a strategic priority – the defence of the nation – has left officials inside the MoD, the military and defence industry slack-jawed)

A summary of the script of "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" (1943) found its way to Prime Minister Winston Churchill before the movie began production. He wrote to Minister of Information Brenden Bracken, "Pray propose to me the measures necessary to stop this foolish production before it gets any further." Bracken was uncomfortable with Churchill's request, and responded that he had "no power to supress the film", stating that "in order to stop it the government would need to assume powers of a very far-reaching kind". Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger wanted Laurence Olivier to play the lead role of Clive Candy in the movie. But Olivier was prevented from being furloughed from the Navy by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Churchill didn't want to bolster the production with an actor and star of Olivier's caliber, as he felt the movie was critical of a type of British patriot. Olivier was allowed to take a leave from the Navy to make a film about William Shakespeare's patriotic King Henry V in Henry V (1944). Roger Livesey was cast instead. After the proposal to release Laurence Olivier was turned down by the War Office, Michael Powell asked the Minister Jack Beddington "Do you forbid us to make the film?" He replied, "Oh, my dear fellow, after all, we are a democracy, aren't we? You know we can't forbid you to do anything, but don't make it, because everyone will be really cross, and the Old Man [Winston Churchill] will be very cross and you'll never get a knighthood." Filming was made difficult by the wartime shortages and by Winston Churchill's objections leading to a ban on the production crew having access to any military personnel or equipment. But they still managed to "find" quite a few Army vehicles and plenty of uniforms. In his autobiography, Michael Powell wrote, "I have often been asked how we managed to obtain military vehicles, military uniforms, weapons and all the fixings after being refused help by the War Office and the Ministry of Information. The answer is quite simple: we stole them." ("The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp: The war film that Churchill tried to ban", Mark Allison, BBC, 2023, "A Life in Movies", Michael Powell, 1986 & IMDb) P.S: On this day, 83 years ago, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger's "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" (1943) premiered in London, UK.