The real threat to our way of existence is not war and weapons, it's communications and energy argues Robin McAlpine.

Let's leave the silly 'five per cent of GDP on defence' stuff to the boys and their toys. They've got their work cut out trying to come up with a way to stop a swarm of £500 drones using £100 million intercontinental missile, a £9 billion aircraft carrier and a £200 billion nuclear arsenal without losing or going bankrupt.

Because when it comes to national security, that's not what the grown-ups are talking about. They're talking about the fact that the vast, vast majority of the threats to our national security have nothing at all to do with guns and bombs. Let me demonstrate.

I live in the small town of Biggar. A couple of weeks ago we awoke to – nothing. No phones. No internet. No mobile signal. Nothing. For 48 hours we had no communication with the outside world. It turns out a utilities company cut through a cable.

There was no bank, no bank machine and no way to get money. Elderly ladies stood outside waving cheque books, saying 'but there's money in my account, how can I buy food?'.

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The answer was that local shops with regular customers either just closed or converted to a complex system of paper IOUs. The poor folks at the Coop had to try and invent an entirely new economic system on their own one Wednesday morning........

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