There is no doubt that the world has become a much more dangerous place over the last 12 years and that many of the established norms we had accepted since the end of the Cold War no longer apply.
This has to force countries like Britain to take some pretty tough decisions about how we prepare ourselves for the dangers that lie ahead.
The last few weeks with the Trump/Netanyahu reckless war with Iran is just the latest manifestation of this.
It really has brought into question how much Europe and the US can rely on each other in a time of crisis.
It is quite clear now that apart from a few sabre-rattlers at the top of Reform UK and the Tory Party hardly anyone in this country feels that Britain should have given unconditional support to Trump’s crazy actions.
Even those who did want Britain to fall in line behind the US and Israel in the first few days rowed back on that pretty quickly once the insanity of embarking on a war that had no clear objective and no appreciation of how the enemy might fight became apparent.
But as Lord Robertson pointed out Britain’s defences are in dire straits because of government cuts and “rationalisation” over the last 12 years.
I’m not sure that having a go at the current government, one that employed you to write a report for them, weeks before crucial elections is helpful.
After all the current government has been in power for less than two years, the problem has existed at least since 2014 and the report he wrote was only handed to ministers a few months ago.
One thing that is clear. Europe can no longer rely on the US to provide its defence against potential threats, especially the threat from an aggressive Russia.
The US may, generally, share similar democratic principles but the modern consensus that existed from Franklin Rooseveldt to Barak Obama can no longer be relied upon.
But Britain isn’t able to totally rely on itself. It has to be part of larger alliance and like it or not that means working much closer with European allies.
An independent nuclear deterrent is important, but rather than effectively buying an “off the peg” system from the US, why not work with France to develop a European system?
Of course there are those who hate the idea of any closer links with Europe but they have to be resisted if Britain is not to be risk being held to ransom by another madman in the White House.
This week the government very sensibly said it was looking at adopting EU standards for some products. Very sensible. Hopefully one day we’ll start talking about fully rejoining the EU.
I am sick and tired of being told any deals with Europe are a “Betrayal of Brexit”.
That vote was 10 years ago. Given that there are about 1m people in every annual age band in the UK, that means 10m voters have never had a say on EU membership.
What about their democratic right to have a say on the issue?
I found it particularly nauseating to hear Reform UK members moaning that cancelling local elections was “undemocratic” when they’ve been doing everything in their power to deny us any further votes on the EU – probably because they know many of the Brexiteers of 2016 were quite old and will no longer be with us.
But moving closer to the EU is just one element of where Britain has to go.
If we are to successfully defend Europe against threats from the east and without the guaranteed support of the US, we need a much better organised and co-ordinated European defence force.
NATO has to become a much stronger force in itself, administratively as well as politically.
And somehow all European countries will need to find more resources for defence.
It won’t be easy set against the demands for welfare (including pensions), health, education, infrastructure and everything else governments have to do.
But it will be necessary if the European way of life is to survive into the second half of the 21st century.
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