It is rare in our history that such an obvious threat to us and our European allies has been met with such a reluctance to face that threat. Instead of growing to the task, our Government continues to shrink from it, and the missiles keep raining down in Kyiv.
So, yes, of course we need to be mindful of disinformation campaigns from Russia and other states, especially given the centrality of its role in modern conflict. But we also need to be mindful of the lies peddled by our own government and other European leaders.
There is more to do, and we need to move at pace. We need to work together, and we need to get it right. We need to stop being embarrassed to defend our security and safety of our people, regardless of background, gender and race.
We know the end of this miserable, sad story. There will be no return to pre-1967 borders. In the coming decades, Palestinian pockets of control will become smaller and smaller. The willingness of the Israeli victors to deal with the Palestinian leadership will wither. Palestinians will become a new diaspora.
Putin probably hopes his new missiles will be silver bullets. There will be no realistic peace until next Spring or Summer, and only if Russia is successful on the battlefield. Ukraine will be a winter, but it’s difficult to see it being broken. Putin is increasingly inclined to hit Western targets, but he’s not there, quite yet.
Ultimately, we should remember a simple lesson: in poker terms, we still have a one of the best hands of any nation, we just need to play it better.
The next election will be the first arguably since the 1980s where our security and engagement with the world will be a major mainstream election issue.
He’s led the SBS and Special Forces’ work is about small teams delivering strategic effect. It’s inherently political and led by people who see the bigger picture. In Parliament, he’s also been one of the few of the Labour Parliamentary intake who has stood out.
Britain First, Yes. Britain Isolated, No. It was the first global nation, even before the age of globalisation. Through language, trade and travel, to say nothing of military and other commitments, we remain a global nation now.
The Russian state is – probably – heading towards a reckoning. But it is a fool’s errant to predict when and where that might be, or what it may look like.
What began life as, at best, a noble objective and at worst, a piece of virtue signalling with little thought as to the eventual cost, has not only become a destroyer of jobs and industry, but it’s now also directly impacting on our foreign and defence policy
Soldiers are beginning to take a back seat and instead control the robots and the systems that do the fighting. In the Ukraine war, we are witnessing the rise of the machines – and machine learning. Ground warfare will not be the same.
Government waffle-eeze aside, the principle is a simple one. Coordinating our tools of power will deliver more power and more influence, drive strategic thinking to make the Foreign Office more effective and our undisputed intellectual driver of global engagement.
We currently live in a never-never land of promised defence spending that doesn’t then materialise. Our Government is talking the talk on defence and resilience. It is not walking the walk.
There’s a bigger picture here, beyond Trump hatred. The hard reality is that Britain, in the eyes of our Middle East allies, has appeared to be a fair-weather friend. Iran is the latest crisis to expose our Prime Minister’s inadequacies. I suspect it won’t be the last.