How better to spend £80 billion: HS2 or a proper British space programme?

There is no humbler reminder of Britain’s diminished place in the Universe than the sight of hostile aliens from Mars choosing to commence their assault on Planet Earth in New York City – rather than at the strategically vital Surrey towns of Dorking or Woking, as H G Wells had originally conceived it in The War of the Worlds.

For another example, look no further than the exceptional 1996 B-movie, Independence Day, where there is but a fleeting British moment when the all-conquering megalithic flying saucers of the invading extra-terrestrials obliterate the Houses of Parliament. For the rest of the time it’s the yanks that feel the heat.

Welcome as that is in some respects, it is perhaps not surprising. After all, it’s now four decades since Britain turned its back on space in a meaningful way, when the far-sighted government of Edward Heath cancelled our successfully demonstrated orbital rocket launcher, Black Arrow.