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# Cabinets and the Bomb
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/cabinets-and-the-bomb/
- Published: 2007-11-08T20:11:04.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:38:10.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:31

**Andrew Blick (London,** [**Democratic Audit**](http://www.democraticaudit.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net)**):**I attended last night the launch of a new Peter Hennessy-edited volume, *Cabinets and the Bomb*. The event took place at the National Archive in Kew and was a gathering of the great and good from the intelligence and defence worlds. One clear theme emerged from the discussion that took place: the successive decisions made by UK cabinets to keep and then retain nuclear capability - sometimes more prime-ministerial than collective in the making - have always been based primarily on political considerations rather than military. There is a gut instinct that we have to, in Ernest Bevin's immortal words, have a "bloody union jack" on a bomb; this sense is then post-rationalised. And perhaps the biggest motivator of all has been the fear of France becoming the only European power with an independent deterrent.