Let’s have a no-holds-barred strategic review which asks how we can best defend our interests given the vertiginous acceleration of military technology.
The new Defence Secretary’s rawness may make him more likely to dig in against the Treasury than otherwise – precisely because he has a point to prove.
This is important not only because without arguments we are weak in the face of our adversaries, such as Corbyn, but also because we must keep checking that we’re right.
As time passes, a decreasing slice of the electorate has any experience at all of old-fashioned socialism. And the argument that it doesn’t work cuts little ice.