Momentum is giving way to scrutiny. Authority giving way to ridicule. Simplicity giving way to the hard realities of governing. The questions are multiplying, and each one makes the next harder to answer. It’s not the end of Reform UK but the moment its trajectory first began to bend.
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.
Britain needs a force capable of mobilising, replenishing, absorbing losses, protecting the homeland, operating with NATO in Europe, and sustaining advanced cyber, space and undersea operations. Anything less is another declaratory review.
It’s no secret that Ukraine’s future depends very much on the degree to which avowed allies are willing to help. So keeping track of opinions about the war helps recognise both positive and negative trends.
It would be naïve to dismiss Russia as a spent force. It would be equally foolish to put Ukraine’s victories on the battlefield down to advances in technology alone. Its success has been driven by its people. It is adaptability, determination and raw courage that have given Ukraine its edge.
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.
Lord Ashcroft sits down with one of Ukraine’s most prominent voices – its former foreign minister and now a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, Dmytro Kuleba – to discuss the trajectory of the war, the limits of diplomacy, and what lies ahead.
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.
I have seen how hard Ukraine has worked to preserve relations with the West. Yes, it has been slow, yes faltering at times but support flowed because Kyiv proved itself a serious partner that can be trusted.
Nobody sane likes war, and those that do seldom fight them. Badenoch isn’t itching to ‘do war’. She’s advocating defending British interests, and if you think Starmer hasn’t damaged those then you are living in an isolationist virtue bubble.
Starmer’s attacks on Brexit and its impact on the economy are as predictable as they are risible. If we want an honest conversation about growth, productivity, and our place in the world we must not let recycled myths be part of it
The EU seeks to avoid duplication, but there is already a cross-European defence forum that could address efficiency issues, such as armed forces’ inter-operability, it’s called NATO.
Victory must therefore mean more than military success. It must mean rebuilding Ukraine as a confident democracy, supporting justice through lawful international institutions, encouraging a more democratic future for Russia, strengthening Europe’s collective security, and ensuring that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.