I was among those hoping to see an increase, but on reflection maybe now isn't quite the right time. Bearing in mind that much of the last £4bn a year uplift was swallowed up by servicing the black hole and "stabilising" the existing programme (or rather stabilising the remaining elements that weren't cut) then you can see why simply saying now "Here is £x bn more for defence because we need to spend more on defence, go away and think what you're going to do with it" may not be the best approach.
Also, there was a strategy set out in the last review that needs to be implemented but also potentially reassessed in the light of current events. Implementing the existing approach is already a delicate balancing act, so tweaking it in the light of Ukraine needs to be done thoughtfully and properly, not with a knee-jerk. And in any case the war is still happening and any lessons from it are presumably still being assessed. I suspect most of us would be happy to offer an initial prescription right now, but a proper assessment with any further spend hardwired to the outcome of that assessment sounds a better way to go. Hopefully that's what we'll see, but who knows...
Last edited by Frostchamber; 24th Mar 2022 at 22:55.