You heard it here first
Updated on 29 January 2008
If you recall, our trip to the Walham power station, which had almost been inundated the previous night, revealed that it was the main source of power to GCHQ and to Aldermaston. Indeed, this may have been the reason why the government's key national security committee COBRA had been forced into a late-night meeting just as Walham prepared to flood.
In fact, the waters subsided just in time, but now today we learn that GCHQ experienced "severe problems", though as one senior security source told us at the time, that may well have been a consequence of key staff not being able to get to work because of the floods.
Questions begged - are GCHQ, and Aldermaston for that matter, STILL vulnerable to losing their main source of power? Is GCHQ in the right place to remain resilient throughout the increasing floods predicted by climatologists? All that plus a call to review the D Notice committee which tries to ensure that sensitive security and intelligence information doesn't appear in the British media, and an admission from GCHQ that the volume of counter-terrorism work has stretched it to breaking point. All this on a day when it was revealed that some 960 new phones are tapped each day - could these issues be related?
MORTGAGES AT RISK
As to the rest of the day's news, the Financial Services Authority has just declared that a million mortgages are at risk because the people holding them may not, in the coming turbulent months, be able to afford them. That could have a severe impact on the housing market and contribute to a downturn in the British economy.
This, coming on the heels of an IMF warning today that its growth forecasts are having to be pulled back, seems to underline the very serious global downturn. The only joy seems to exist in India and China which, they say, should help cushion us from actual recession.
Tonight we are talking to the FSA and to the IMF, and we'll have a full analysis from our economics correspondent, Faisal Islam, about the latest state of financial play.
SLOW PROGRESS IN KENYA
Not only is the killing continuing in Kenya, but the political process designed to try to resolve it is moving very slowly. Kofi Annan, who is leading it, has pleaded with the parties to move harder and faster. And today a magisterial speech from Raila Odinga, the leader of the opposition, exhibiting cool and clear analysis of the current crisis. Matched, it has to be said, by a rather wooden and ponderous response from the man who won the disputed election, Mwai Kibaki. We have a revealing interview with the head of the Kenyan human rights association.
FLORIDA PRIMARIES
Sarah Smith is in Florida, where it's all to play for for the Republicans, and where the increasingly embattled and pilloried Giuliani may be humming his last hurrah. And where the Democrats have theoretically discounted the vote because the state decided to hold its primary earlier than the party wanted it. But that isn't stopping the candidates from attempting to win it.
TORIES IN THE FIRING LINE
The Tory MP Derek Conway seems to be in deeper trouble than ever, given new suspicions about whether his other son ever did the work for which money was claimed from the taxpayer. Mr Conway apologised to the House of Commons yesterday for the taxpayer-subsidised lifestyle of his younger son, Freddie. Now the older boy, Henry, is in the firing line. The sums are large - in Freddie's case, £40,000.
But now another Tory MP is in difficulties, this time on suspicion of assaulting two teenage children. The MP for Eastbourne. Nigel Waterson, is a frontbencher. We don't know what his fate is but we do know that David Cameron has changed his mind on Mr Conway and removed the Tory whip from him. Poor old politics. Not a good start to the year for Westminster's reputation.
VOLCANO FROM TONGA
We are profiling the man they call "The Volcano". He comes from Tonga, and the vagaries of rugby union rules mean that he's now eligible to play for England.
BLACKPOOL SELL-OFF
Finally, Keme Nzerem is buying up the Blackpool illuminations. He is at an auction of illuminations memorabilia, and is reporting the sale of everything from My Little Pony to Noddy - can't wait till seven. But I guess we'll have to.
Oh, and by the way, if you can't catch us at seven, why don't you check your Freeview menu and find Channel 4 Plus One, because we pitch up there at eight. And you could have the soggy Yorkshire pud and the overdone roast beef on your knee, watching it.
See you at seven, or eight, as ever. Jon Snow.
AND FROM MORE4 NEWS WITH KEME NZEREM
It was hailed as a brand new dawn in the short history of downloading. In a glitzy weekend ceremony at Cannes, a firm called Qtrax announced a new deal with five major companies to bring legal downloads to your computer.
But in the cold light of morning, it seems the wedding may have been organised before the bride was fully ready to say "I do". Ben Cohen has been sifting the truth from the hype.
And could the dreaming spires of Oxford soon be awoken from their slumber by Islamic calls to prayer? The neighbours around Oxford's Central Mosque would rather they weren't. That's at eight.
