What we are now seeing in Ukraine is a result of delayed US military aid, lack of political will to mobilize enough manpower, and insufficient engineering (fortifications) in what was once rear areas. It's not just one and it's not just the other or the other. It's all three.

The overlooked part of devolution is that it is a massssive gamble. Might work, might not. Wrote about it here: Local British politics is a mix of the good, the bad and the mad
economist.com/britain/2024/0…
from The Economist

I agree with Robert. BUT, the same could have been said in 2005 when Michael Howard tried to unpick William Hague's rule changes. And still here we are.

China's enablement of Russia's defence industry is stark: economist.com/graphic-detail…

Helen Lewis UK politics may be awful, but it’s not this awful.

Helen Lewis Tim Bale How did she manage not to just vomit everywhere...?

I would find this harder to deal with than angry protesters

“Brest is a rainy industrial port…that is home to the French navy and its submarine nuclear deterrent. It has also witnessed a remarkable number of weddings in recent years between female Chinese students and the seamen who work at its naval bases” ft.com/content/6c115d…

In this week’s These Times Tom McTague and I give Rishi Sunak’s defence pledge some recent and long history, especially around the recurrent gap between British defence commitments and geopolitical events.

Day 13 since our expose of the GDI’s systematic and politicized methods of censorship.

Their response? Silence 🤐

As this Swiss magazine notes today, “the organization has not commented, despite the commitment to transparency on its website.”

schweizermonat.ch/wahrheitswaech…

🚨 New ep!

'Can Britain Afford More On Defence?'

Tom McTague and Helen Thompson POLIS explore the history of Britain's defence, and whether it will be able to align what it can spend on defence with a changing geopolitical world...

unherd.com/these-times-wi…

Loved chatting to Clare McDonnell on BBC Woman's Hour about boys.. thanks for having me!

Hard no.

Read Aris Roussinos on the complexities (and many ironies) of the new Anglo-Irish border dispute over migration unherd.com/newsroom/is-a-…

This is wonderful.

Remember all those debates about whether the Coalition’s plan for post-2010 fiscal consolidation to be 80% spending cuts 20% tax rises was wise?

'I want my children to grow up in a country where the streets are safe, the public space isn't filthy, where it isn't a hassle to get around, you can own your own home and where climate change and the environment aren't an afterthought.'
—Cameron leadership victory speech, 2005

A lot of what Macron is saying - supend some competition rules, much more industrial policy & nuclear, Buy European rules for defence - will be very hard to sell to many EU countries.
This is a very French wishlist speech, not a 'this is where the consensus might lie in Europe'.

This is, in essence, the same message every French president has ever delivered. Doesn't mean they're wrong, of course.

With regret, I have decided to leave London and never return.