[The current furore over the exposure of the…]

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The current furore over the exposure of the "Fourth Man" and speculation as to the identity of the fifth has provided a useful smokescreen for Tory guvernment decisions : to step up "defence" commitments and its cooperation with the anti-Soviet NATO alliance.

Not only has the Thatcher government readily agreed to accept the stationing of 160 lethal American Cruise Missiles in Britain-but Defence Minister Pym has been at the forefront of efforts to pressurise other NATO governments to accept them as well.

Reluctance

Altogether the US imperialists plan to deploy 572 of the missiles-targeted on Russian sites-in Europe: but so far the Dutch government is refusing to agree to the stationing of 48 Cruise missiles on its territory.

No doubt the Dutch reluctance to turn Holland into a prime target for Soviet retaliation in the event of the missiles being used was intensified by last weekend's "10 minute war" in which US planes were scrambled, bomber fleets lumbered on to runways and missiles were made ready following a computer error.

The prospect of US missiles being loosed off by US personnel from emplacements in Holland at a moment's noticeprobably without even the knowledge of the Dutch government-is indeed an alarming one, which the unstable Dutch coalition government does not feel keen to sell to the Dutch people.

But Thatcher's aggressive anti-Soviet stance means that an exactly similar sequence of events could take place here. The deployment of these new missiles amounts to an outright rejection by the NATO imperialist bloc of the offer by Soviet leader Brezhnev to reduce the numbers of Soviet SS20 missiles and forwardstationed Soviet troops in Europe in exchange for the scrapping of the plan.

And it goes hand in hand with further aggressive moves by the imperialists.

In the USA itself President Carter's extravagant plan to construct the new MX mobile missile system is pressing ahead, with Senate agreement to vote an initial $670 million for development work.

But even the Senate is shrinking from the colossal predicted cost of the entire scheme, which would incorpor ate a series of "race tracks" sunk into the desert areas of ANTH Utah, Nevada and Arizona.

The plan is for each of the 200 MX missiles to be mounted on a giant truck, and rotated between 23 different shelters on a system of circular roadways, in order to confuse Soviet target planners.

The estimated cost of the scheme is at least $37 billion.

GREAT! WHAT WITH ALL THE BREAKDOWNS, AND THEN THE FIRE, IT'S ABOUT TIME WE HAD A NEW SUBWAY!

Meanwhile in Britain, the Thatcher government, even while slashing spending on hospitals, social services and education, has announced a £200 , million contract with Marconi •to construct the new Stingray "super torpedo"-which has. already cost £90 million to develop. FORGET IT, BUDDY, THIS IS THE M-X MISSHE SYSTEM Perhaps this points to the way the Tories will eventually resolve the growing problem of sick people without hospitals, old people without homes and young people without jobs.

They could be floated out to sea and used by Marconi for _target practice.

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