If you were to only listen to the BBC and read the Daily Telegraph, you might believe that Britain was facing an imminent invasion that only a full switch to a war economy could prevent.
We are apparently defenceless against attack by Vladimir Putin. Defence of the nation is the first job of government, the opinion makers say. The UK public is being psychologically prepared for war with Russia.
Outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer has always had the priorities of Nato and the military industrial lobby close to his heart. But that lobby’s mouthpieces in the media decided long ago that Starmer had failed to ramp up defence spending with enough hard cash. Because enough is never enough when it comes to the military.
"Putin will be laughing at Starmer’s pitiful defence plan," says a Telegraph opinion headline in response to Starmer’s latest plans for adding an extra £15bn ($20bn) to the Defence Investment Plan (DIP).
“We must hope that whoever leads the country in the coming years fully appreciates the scale of the threat our nation faces,” wrote Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a chemical weapons expert and former army officer, and now defence consultant.
