At their recent conference, Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives were keen to promote the idea of a British Iron Dome – Britannia Shield – an air defence system akin to that employed in Israel.

In fact, a version of this idea has already been in development by Cambridge Aerospace, known as Skyhammer.

But what would a British Iron Dome look like?

In my imagination, I am picturing The Simpsons Movie – a solid glass dome, rather like a cake cover, encircling the entire country, but which a determined person could burrow beneath, in a similar fashion to the way my neighbourhood fox does beneath my back fence.

Or maybe an invisible forcefield like in Doctor Who and the Daemons, which frazzles up anything that comes in contact with it and which defeats the efforts of anything short of Sergeant Osgood and a UNIT taskforce to penetrate it.

Strangely, these absurd imaginations give me something close to hope and peace of mind.  Particularly, when I know the reality will be a lot less reassuring.

© Simon Turner-Tree

Simon Turner-Tree prefers fiction to fact.