Another scandal.

 Like London busses, two come along at the same time. This time it's the nightmare seneniro of the toxic fallout from the nuclear tests first in Australia and then Christmas Island, in the Pacific. Britain was seeking to develop a nuclear bomb as Russia and the US had it already. The race was now on and national prestige was at stake. We had helped the Americans to develop their bomb in 1945 - but we were now frozen out. When the bomb was dropped about 15 miles from Christmas Island, only very rudimentary protection was taken. The young men, some still teenagers in the Royal Air Force, were told to - turn their backs towards the blast - and to ware sunglass, cover their eyes and this was about it. As a direct consequence many years later they develop a variety of cancers.

However the Ministry of Defence in London - has always strongly rebuffed the suggestion of a - causal correlation. But as Mandy Rice-Davies famously said in 1963 "they would say that wouldn't they". So like the Post Office scandal, we have another department of state - malevolently and intentionally misleading people seeking redress. Men like Ken Richards, a veteran from Christmas Island - who died in 2006 aged 80. In 1954 they were given the disgusting sum of £100 compensation. Will the new Labour government do any better? Watch this space.