Indeed, a London Times headline in the 1920s read, “Fog in Channel, Continent isolated!” Now, in the third decade of the 21st Century, it is the UK that is drifting, rudderless, and fog-bound – isolated from both Europe and the Western World. [...] The three British Prime Ministers of the last twelve months have each declared the importance of supporting Ukraine and have provided stocks of military hardware, proclaiming themselves to be the defenders of Western values. [...] How then do we recover the situation? How do we restart the engines of the ‘SS United Kingdom’ and ensure we steer away from the rocks and shoals of political mismanagement? To be able to do so, we need to repair the engine and grease the machinery. [...] The Ministry of Defence, for its part, failed to learn the expensive lessons of the past, particularly in the realm of defence procurement where poor oversight, lack of clear specification and poor project management led to huge cost overruns and poor governance. [...] If Ukraine is defeated, it will mark the end of Western values in the governance of the world and see the rise of bullying and cajoling as the primary means of foreign and strategic policy.
- Pages
- 4
- Published in
- Australia
