Dead hand

I'll leave the very bad news to the end as it's outside the industry's control. Yes, the dead hand of the Department for Transport (DfT) still rules!

Near-synonyms: doomsday weapon, doomsday device, doomsday bomb

Sometimes people glibly speak as if the Dead Hand were a thing of the past, but it is foolhardy to assume so.

The system may no longer be a central element of Russian strategy—US-based Russian arms expert Pavel Podvig calls it now "just another cog in the machine"—but Dead Hand is still armed.

The talk then turned darkly to the prospects for building a Dead Hand of their own.