War, What Is It Good For?

"We are already at war, in the grey and the dark. Our security is European or it is nothing."

“A wise Prime Minister would stop asking only what Britain can give Ukraine and start asking, urgently, what Ukraine can teach Britain.” - Naomi Smith

There is a version of this week’s defence announcement that treats spending as the whole story. More money, more kit, more factories, more jobs. All of it welcome, all of it long overdue, but none of it sufficient for the scale of the challenge facing Britain.

Andy Burnham walked into Number 10 with a defence investment plan already on the table and a hole in the middle of it. Money can be found and gaps can be closed, but if the new Prime Minister thinks the job is simply to write the cheque Starmer couldn’t, he will have missed the strategic shift happening around us. The question is not how much we spend but who we stand with, and whether we finally understand the war we are already in.