The former Conservative leader argues that “we need to make a greater commitment to the rise in defence spending – if only to give a greater lead to the Europeans to do the same.”
The West needs to learn again that appeasement does not work.
The recent dividing line we have seen over funding for Ukraine internationally must end. After the US Presidential Election in November, the winner must continue the firm commitment to Ukraine that the USA has provided so far.
This murder signals that Moscow no longer cares what the collective West thinks, and is set on a course of confrontation. There is a ruthlessness to it the consequences of which we have not yet grasped.
Estonia’s government has, in a White Paper that rightly calls for Russia’s defeat, estimated it could be done at a cost merely of 0.25 per cent of Western GDP over four years.
Now, through Orbán and Trump, the Kremlin is cashing in its chips. Unable to defeat Western-supported Ukraine on the battlefield, it’s playing Western politics to cut off its supply of money and weapons.
It looks like there is a deal to be done where the proposed $60 billion package is paired with major reform of America’s porous southern border.
Ukrainians fear that the horrors in Gaza and Israel are hogging the attention their Western backers. Some suspect that Vladimir Putin and his Iranian allies encouraged the Hamas atrocities precisely to open a second front against the democracies.
As Europe turns to the right and a Trump return looms over the White House, Britain bucks the trend by appearing to be heading for a Labour government.
The new Speaker of the House of Representatives must tread a tightrope – getting Democrats on side without alienating his divided Republican colleagues.
This way of thinking also contrasts with the naive counting of the civilian dead. In this tradition, war can be a necessary evil, but that judgement requires attention to its practical consequences.
Each demands an unequivocal response from the United Kingdom and other Western nations committed to defending both our values and our security.
For all the thunderous blow-back that is undoubtedly coming, Hamas has already got what it wanted, both domestically and strategically.
But every speaker at this ConHome/AECON fringe conveyed the conviction that Ukraine will emerge stronger from the war.
Since the inception of the Homes for Ukraine scheme, 202,000 individuals have sought refuge in the UK. The vast majority now have just 12 months left on their visas. As painful as it is to acknowledge, the war is unlikely to be over by then.