The Comprehensive Spending Review has to be seen as a way to reset the narrative. Government need to focus on reform as a positive – not expenditure.
What changed? When did we lose the global vocation that infused the Cabinet, Leavers and Remainers alike, two years ago?
It is rare to hear the defence establishment talking plainly about the need to protect Britain against external threats.
That means making overdue decisions, settling internal disputes, and no more campaigning by the Treasury to undermine Brexit policy.
We’re not only better than others at making choices about how to spend our own lives and money – it’s also extremely important for us to be able to do so.
Plus: Shame on the Conservative whips. And away with Julian Assange: most of us would happily pay his airfare.
Also: Three Plaid AMs call for leadership challenge against Wood; Foster breaks new ground at LGBT event; and Sargeant inquiry may not report until Jones steps down.
I hope that, one day, it is no longer just an autonomous region in Iraq, but gets the independence it deserves.
There is zero chance that the public are going to back any meaningful reform of the service any time soon.
It says it all, really, that an older male Tory MP should object to outlawing a sexual crime which makes use of twenty-first century technology.
If the establishment had really been as efficiently conspiratorial as it was supposed to be, there would have been no need for his amateurish plot.
Plus: Damian Collins and his useless Select Committee shot themselves in the foot this week. Let grandstanding committee chairmen be warned.
Also: Robinson calls for fixed-term border polls in Ulster; Wood sets departure date as leader of Plaid; and the architect of ‘The Vow’ comes out for Scottish independence.
Our columnist goes behind the scenes in the White House, as fly on the wall of the Oval Office.
We need to be tough – without a deal, they should get no money from us, reduced troop levels in Eastern Europe, less help on refugee issues in the Mediterranean.