Coffee House The Spectator Blog
Cutting and running from Afghanistan
MPs on the Defence Select Committee made a similar warning this morning about the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan as Con Coughlin made in The Spectator last month. He wrote that… Continue reading
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Nuclear weapons, Scotland and the future of the United Kingdom
David Cameron – who, in case you’d forgotten, leads the Conservative and Unionist Party – made a rare visit to Scotland yesterday. He spoke about defence. His message was clear:… Continue reading
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Vince Cable tells Philip Hammond, cut Trident not welfare
On The Sunday Politics today, Vince Cable told Andrew Neil that he disliked ring fencing particular departments. But he accepted that the NHS and DFID budgets would remain protected for… Continue reading
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The Tory branch of the National Union of Ministers says cut welfare, not our budgets
Philip Hammond is a cautious and loyal politician. He is not a boat rocker. This is what makes his interviews in the Telegraph and The Sun today so noteworthy. He… Continue reading
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Govt confusion on defence shows how painful the next spending review will be
The government’s position on defence spending is, to put it politely, confused. After the completion of the SDSR and the defence spending settlement, there was an expectation that the military… Continue reading
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Cameron: defence spending is protected. Hammond: no it isn’t
After Cabinet tensions on the matter, David Cameron was trying to reassure those worried about further defence cuts while visiting Algeria. The Telegraph reports a senior government source saying the… Continue reading
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What today’s Trident announcement is really about
When Nick Harvey was sacked in September’s reshuffle, leaving the Ministry of Defence without a Liberal Democrat minister, anti-nuclear campaigners and the SNP claimed the move put the future of… Continue reading
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Whitehall’s mistake over BAE and EADS
There have been some sharp responses to the demise of the proposed BAE EADS merger. My personal favourite is John Redwood’s pithy: ‘Several of you wrote in expressing dismay at the… Continue reading
40 Comments Philip Hammond’s tarnished relations with military top brass fly into the open
Talking to diplomatic sources this evening, there’s a depressed recognition that the Taliban and its allies have scored a major victory in forcing Nato to scale back joint patrols with… Continue reading
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The battle to be the party of the armed forces
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has the unenviable task today of announcing a cull of army units as the force is cut from 102,000 to 82,000. The Army 2020 review, the… Continue reading
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Who is the enemy?
It is Armed Forces Day and army morale is low – according to the Telegraph at least. The prospect of a 20 per cent cut in personnel is provoking anger in… Continue reading
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Foxhound arrives in Afghanistan – five years too late
There was welcome news yesterday for our forces in Afghanistan, and for those who want to see them supplied with the best equipment, with pictures of the first ‘Foxhound’ patrol… Continue reading
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Debt as a threat to national security
Today’s papers carry news that British nuclear submarines are going to be replaced: a strong indication that the government will replace Trident with a like-for-like deterrent in 2016, contrary to… Continue reading
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Hammond speaks out
Generally speaking, Philip Hammond is one of the Cabinet’s quieter members; a sort of human calculator designed to run a department efficiently and with the minimum of fuss. Which is… Continue reading
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Fox fires a shot across the aid budget’s bows
As Pete says, Liam Fox’s piece this morning calling for more supply-side reform is broadly helpful to the Chancellor and has been written with his approval. Strikingly, the former defence… Continue reading
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McCain’s on the warpath (again)
Senator John McCain was on the radio again this morning, urging us to intervene on behalf of Syria’s rebels. ‘It’s not a fair fight,’ he said, as if that were… Continue reading
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What the Taliban want
How go those talks with the Taliban in Doha? Quietly, that’s how — although there’s a report in yesterday’s The Hindu that could reveal some of what’s being said, and… Continue reading
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Murphy launches Labour’s defence review
Remember when Jim Murphy spoke about defence cuts last month? It was not only a smart refinement of Labour’s fiscal position, but also a preview for the defence review that… Continue reading
14 CommentsL’entente nucléaire
There’s no wound that a press conference won’t heal, or at least that’s the impression that David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy created earlier. The pair played down the tensions and… Continue reading
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An Israeli strike on Iran?
Will they or won’t they? Most political parlour games involve a question of this kind and the one about whether Israel will strike Iran – played out regularly in Washington,… Continue reading
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