The crisis over Russian aggression in Ukraine is causing deep anxiety among those whose principal concern is the defence of Britain and the West.
Michael Fallon, the defence secretary, has warned that Russia now threatens the Baltic states. Nato’s deputy supreme commander in Europe, General Sir Adrian Bradshaw, has said Russia poses an existential danger to humankind.
Meanwhile, Downing Street has banned General Sir Nicholas Houghton, the chief of the defence staff, from making a speech this week - apparently for fear he will criticise cuts to the armed forces at this time of acute international peril.
His point is nevertheless obvious. When Russian jets buzzed the Cornish coast last week, RAF jets had to be scrambled from Lincolnshire while the prime minister shrugged off